BankservAfrica

BankservAfrica is an automated clearing house located in Johannesburg, South Africa and operates both nationally and within Africa.[1][2]

Not to be confused with BankServ Inc.

Annually processing billions of transactions valued at trillions of South African rand; BankservAfrica's clients include banks, corporates, government and the retail sector. By volume of transactions alone, it is rated as AfricaŹ¼s largest automated payments clearing house.[3]

History

Prior to the establishment of BankservAfrica, the South African banking industry owned several companies that provided shared services to the industry in a number of different payment channels. As these companies operated in silos, a need was identified for a single structure and an interbank task group was appointed to investigate the feasibility. BankservAfrica was founded in 1972 as the Automated Clearing Bureau (Pty) Limited [4] to service the banking industry by providing interoperability between the banks. In December 1993 the name changed to Bankserv and in 2010 the group rebranded as BankservAfrica.[5]

Shareholders

Wholly owned by South Africa's commercial banks, shareholders include: [6]

Activities

The company ensures that interbank transactions occur in a properly regulated system, compliant with international banking best practice and standards, while reducing risk and complexity in the industry. This has led to BankservAfrica being the trusted partner of the South African financial services industry and integral to the country's national payments system.

BankservAfrica is licensed by the Payments Association of South Africa and regulated by the South African Reserve Bank and the central banks within the African countries where it provides services.

BankservAfrica's SASWITCH brand was a world first in the 1980s: SASWITCH allows remote ATM access via any institution's clients with any other institution's ATM, regardless of network protocol.

Services

Services comprise:

  • Payment collection
  • Payment switching, clearing and settlement
  • Payment consulting
  • Hosting and operating mission-critical systems
  • Business process outsourcing
  • SWIFT bureau and payment solutions
  • Disaster recovery and business continuity

Dual processing is provided through a production site and a disaster recovery site; to ensure core processing continues uninterrupted should a disaster occur at the production facility.

References
  1. http://www.pasa.org.za/national-payment-system/key-role-players Payments Association of South Africa (PASA) Key Role Players
  2. http://www.banking.org.za/about-us/associations-and-financial-institutions
  3. http://www.strate.co.za/blog/2012/10/bankservafrica-forges-relationship-with-strate%CA%BCs-swift-services/ South AfricaŹ¼s Central Securities Depository (STRATE) relationship with BankservAfrica
  4. https://www.resbank.co.za/RegulationAndSupervision/NationalPaymentSystem(NPS)/Documents/Overview/Overview.pdf SA Reserve Bank's Overview of the South African national payment system
  5. https://www.brandsouthafrica.com/investments-immigration/africa-gateway/bankserv-140610 Brand South Africa's talks about Bankserv's rebranding
  6. https://bankservafricair2016.co.za/group-overview/business-overview/ BankservAfrica Business Report 2016
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