South Africa Weighs Faster Payments as Banks Resist Agentic AI

What changed

South Africa’s payments industry is moving toward faster account-to-account transfers, while banks remain wary of AI that can act on a customer’s behalf. At a BPC industry gathering, Standard Bank’s Avin Ruthipaul said issuing businesses are not ready for “agentic AI”; BPC’s Geoffrey Tunbridge warned that instant payments are final, so fraud must be stopped before money moves.

BPC’s SmartVista technology helps connect the bank sending a payment with the bank receiving it. The Swiss company operates in roughly 150 countries and describes South Africa as its fastest-growing region.

Why it matters

Speed changes the margin for error. A card payment can trigger checks along the way. With an account-to-account transfer, money moves directly rather than through a card network. Once it is gone, stopping the transaction becomes much harder.

AI sharpens both sides of that problem. Banks can use AI-driven profiling to identify suspicious activity, but bots can also make scams more convincing and more capable. A system that can arrange travel, choose a rewards card and pay on instruction is convenient; it also makes the line between a customer’s action and an automated one less clear.

The bigger challenge is access. About 55% of South Africans earning a monthly salary of R1,250 use cash only, while another 24% mostly use cash, according to the South African Reserve Bank. That means a faster digital system is not automatically a more inclusive one. It may improve payments for people already inside the banking system while leaving others dependent on cash.

The outlook is therefore conditional: digital payments will become more useful only if fraud controls keep pace and trust grows alongside convenience. The industry is still deciding how much autonomy to give machines, and the report provides no adoption timetable or regulatory decision for AI-driven payments.