Expert payments, fintech and banking advice since 2012

"New entrants and opportunities"...I am looking forward to the discussion, and think this is an inflection point for the cross-border payments industry

I’m looking forward to speaking at the AML Conference 2026 this week, where I’ll be joining a panel discussion on “Key AML challenges in the payments landscape.” I’ll be joining fellow panellists from FirstRand Bank, TreasuryONE (Pty) Ltd, RelyComply and Chainalysis to discuss some of these challenges and what they mean for the future of payments. At Minit Money, we work in this space every day, so I’m particularly looking forward to sharing some of the lessons we’ve learned from building cross-border payment solutions in a complex and fast-changing regulatory environment. Looking forward to the discussion and to connecting with others working at the intersection of payments, fintech and financial crime prevention. #AML #Fintech #Payments #CrossBorderPayments #FinancialCrime #FinancialInclusion #RegTech #MinitMoney

I’m looking forward to joining the MTN Group Fintech Summit 2026 in Johannesburg tomorrow! This year’s theme, “Maximum Velocity”, is particularly relevant to the work happening across Africa right now. The opportunity is no longer simply to digitise financial services, but to build systems that are faster, more inclusive and capable of working seamlessly across borders. I’ll be taking part in a fireside chat on “Next Wave of Growth: Stablecoins, CBDCs & the New Cross-Border Stack.” We’ll be exploring what the next generation of cross-border payments could look like, from stablecoins and CBDCs to digital assets and new settlement rails, as well as the regulatory and operational questions that still need to be solved. At Minit Money, these are very practical conversations. Cross-border payments remain too expensive, too slow and too complicated for far too many people across Africa. New technology gives us an opportunity to change that, but real progress will depend on building solutions that combine innovation with trust, compliance and genuine utility. I’m looking forward to sharing some of our experience, hearing different perspectives, and connecting with the regulators, policymakers and fintech leaders helping shape the future of digital finance in Africa. See you at the Summit. #MTNFintechSummit #Fintech #CrossBorderPayments #Stablecoins #DigitalAssets #Payments #FinancialInclusion #AfricaFintech #MinitMoney

I attended the SAIFM Regulatory Summit today in Sandton. A great keynote from the passionate Maya Fisher-French who continues to hold the torch for consumers. And that torch may be warming the feet of some of the banks defending their behaviour around supporting their customers who are the victims of scams. As a founder of a CASP, the session that held me was the crypto-exchange panel — Eugene Booysen of the Cape Town Stock Exchange moderating, with Sean Emery of RainFin, Johan Hetzel of Luno, and Christopher Malan of the FIC. A point made by the CASP’s was how much sits inside the CASP definition: token / stablecoin issuance, trading, brokerage, investment advice, custody, payment instruments, and DeFi at the frontier. One license, many activities — and not all the same risk. The regulators were candid about it. The FIC made the fair point that it was first to give the sector real credibility; but there was an honest admission that the initial, conduct-focused regulations left out much of what a product manufacturer needs — capital requirements, technology standards, insurance. Conduct was addressed; prudential substance is still catching up. Eugene Booysen put the liquidity question memorably: a market is like a cinema, easy to get into, until someone shouts “fire.” What impressed me most was the work Luno described doing to keep scammers from using the platform as a conduit, and to protect vulnerable customers in the process. Maya Fisher-French was pointedly supportive, setting it against the effort the banks put in relative to their size and responsibility — a direct echo of her keynote. An uncomfortable comparison, and a fair one. Christopher Malan's emphasis was the simplest: be a good corporate citizen. A personal word, too, for my colleague Ghita Erling in the audience, as she guides PASA's functions to their new homes in the NPSD at the SARB; and to PayInc. The end of three decades of payments self-regulation, handled with characteristic grace. My thanks to SAIFM and the panellists for a genuinely useful day.

Over the last few years at Minit Money, we've learned that the hardest part of a cross-border payment often isn't the money, it's the person waiting to receive it. So we've been working on something to fix that: a receiver who onboards themselves once, creates a permanent code, and shares it - the way you'd share a phone number - to be paid again and again. No app to download, no branch to visit; the whole experience lives inside WhatsApp, which for most of our customers is the internet. Underneath that simplicity, value moves cross-border on regulated stablecoin settlement rails - faster and more auditable than the correspondent-banking plumbing it stands in for. The customer never needs to know that, they simply see money arrive. It's early, and deliberately so. We're testing quietly with a small group before we say more. But I believe self-onboarding receivers, and value that can move and settle in dollars end to end, is where remittance across Africa is heading. It's a big step forward for us, and I'm very proud of the small team building it. More soon.

Stablecoin rails work. Consumer adoption is a different problem. Stablecoins have quietly become one of the strongest real-world use cases blockchain has produced. In Sub-Saharan Africa, on-chain value passed $205 billion in the year to June 2025, up 52% year on year. Nigeria received about $59 billion in crypto-asset inflows between July 2023 and June 2024. This isn't speculative trading. It's people and businesses using dollar-denominated tokens to solve a real problem: currency depreciation, foreign-exchange scarcity, and remittance costs that still average 8.78% across the region. So the technology has done its job. It's fast, it's cheap to move, and it gives people access to a stable store of value in economies where the local currency often can't offer that. I don't think that part is in question anymore. What I think is still underestimated is everything required to turn that into something a person actually uses without thinking about it. A recipient doesn't want a crypto wallet address, a seed phrase or an exchange rate they have to calculate themselves. They want their grandmother to receive cedis in their mobile money account, reliably, at a fair rate, without knowing or caring that a stablecoin did the settling in between. That gap, between "the rail works" and "my grandmother can use this," is where most of the real engineering happens. It's compliance and CASP licences. It's banking and mobile money operator relationships. It's local currency liquidity on both ends. It's an interface simple enough that someone sends money the same way they'd use any other app. This is where we've put our energy at Minit Money. Not questioning whether stablecoins work, they clearly do, but building the regulated, user-facing layer that makes them usable by people who've never heard the word. #MinitMoney #CrossBorderPayments #Remittances #Stablecoins #Fintech #PaymentsInnovation #FinancialInclusion #AfricaFintech

One of the more interesting shifts in the payments industry right now is the repositioning of compliance. For years, compliance was treated as a drag on margins; a necessary cost of doing business. That framing is now outdated. At the recent Africa Payments & RegTech Conference, it became clear that leading firms are using compliance data to enhance their business. Why? Because the firms that invest in better onboarding, better risk‑scoring, and better operational controls are seeing measurable commercial benefits: • lower refund and fraud losses • faster customer activation • materially better UX than incumbents • reduced operational friction The risk‑based approach under FICA demands enormous amounts of data. That data, once captured, becomes a strategic asset. It enables product personalisation, dynamic pricing, and more accurate risk segmentation; all of which improve unit economics. The industry has spent a decade optimising for speed. The next decade will reward those who optimise for precision. Compliance is no longer the cost of playing the game. It’s becoming the way to win it.

Last week’s Africa Payments & RegTech Conference offered one of the more balanced rooms I’ve seen in a while — CASPs, PSPs, banks, vendors, and even representation from the FIC. Under Chatham House rules, the discussions were unusually candid, and the common thread was clear: the payments industry is still trying to reconcile innovation with compliance, but the centre of gravity is shifting. A few themes stood out. Compliance is quietly moving from a cost‑centre to a profit‑centre. Better processes, better UX, and lower refund/fraud costs are becoming competitive advantages rather than regulatory burdens. The firms that treat compliance as a product capability, not an obligation — will win. The risk‑based approach under FICA is also forcing the industry to harvest far more data than before. That data is now being repurposed for product personalisation. In other words, regulation is inadvertently accelerating innovation. Open banking (evolving from the original screen‑scraping technology) may even be overtaken before it matures. Agentic AI could emerge as a more powerful mechanism for permissioned access to financial data, and the benefits of PSD2‑style open APIs for banks remain unclear. I moderated a panel exploring stablecoin regulation and closed with a simple question: what will stablecoin “adoption” look like in 12 months? The answers varied, but the consensus was that clarity on licensing requirements will result in usage in payments. We also touched on digital dollarisation. The US dollar has effectively already solved the interoperability problem across Africa, but access to ‘digital’ dollars remains limited for ordinary people and small merchants. That gap is where Rand‑based stablecoins will either prove their value quickly in SADC, or fail to scale. The next year will be defined by whether the industry can turn compliance, data, and AI into genuine competitive advantages; not just regulatory obligations.

I’ll be joining the African Payments & RegTech Forum on 25 June hosted by QUBE Events. What I find most valuable about gatherings like this is the opportunity to challenge the comfortable narratives in our sector. We talk a lot about “innovation”, yet many of the constraints in payments and compliance are self-imposed; inherited from banking models that assume delays, intermediaries and unnecessary complexity. I’m looking forward to conversations that move beyond incremental improvements and toward infrastructure that reflects the speed and scale of modern value movement.

This article examines the signals coming out of LIDAC, particularly the regulatory posture from Treasury and the emerging role of ZARU as a programmable rand stablecoin. It argues that the real disruption will not come from volatility reduction, but from how yield‑driven incentives could reshape the cost structure of domestic payments and online commerce.

When Fiserv announced FIUSD on Solana last July, many called it a ‘watershed moment’ for stablecoins. While the headlines paint a picture of seamless convergence between traditional finance and blockchain, I find myself asking: are we truly seeing a fundamental shift, or simply an extension of existing payment rails under a new guise? On the surface, this move signals a powerful embrace of blockchain technology by established financial players. Fiserv, with its expansive network of financial institutions and merchants, and PayPal, a titan in digital payments, certainly bring the scale that the stablecoin ecosystem has long craved. The idea that this will "accelerate mainstream adoption" is, of course, the grand promise. If successful, it could genuinely streamline cross-border transactions, reduce costs, and accelerate settlement times – all persistent pain points in the legacy financial system. However, we must look beyond the press releases. The "future of payments" may indeed be digital, but the crucial question remains: whose digital future? While this partnership certainly validates stablecoins as a viable payment mechanism, it also begs a deeper interrogation into the underlying business models. Are these new stablecoins truly decentralised and permissionless, or are they effectively digitised versions of existing fiat currencies, tightly controlled by the same entities that currently dominate the financial landscape? The long-term implications for banks, for instance, are still somewhat ambiguous. While they may find opportunities to streamline internal processes, the shift from traditional deposit-based revenue to a stablecoin-centric model could present new challenges, particularly regarding the inherent fixed costs of maintaining complex IT infrastructure and managing liquidity. Just as the rise of mobile banking led to a decline in in-branch transactions, widespread stablecoin adoption, especially by major players, could subtly redefine the very role of traditional financial intermediaries. The market is undoubtedly evolving at a rapid pace, and the collaboration of such heavyweights cannot be ignored. But as with any significant technological shift, the true "watershed moment" isn't merely the launch of a new product, but how it fundamentally alters the economic landscape and the competitive dynamics within it. My thoughts? It's a significant step, yes, but the real test will be whether this convergence truly empowers users and disrupts the costly inefficiencies that have long plagued global payments, or simply reinforces existing power structures.

We’ve all celebrated neo‑banks for their sleek UX and rapid adoption, but the market has reached a point where growth alone is no longer impressive. This piece breaks down the real pressure points: regulatory scrutiny, rising acquisition costs, and the need to turn thin margins into actual profit. In my view, the winners won’t be the loudest disruptors, but the ones who can turn compliance, automation and product depth into strategic advantages. #FinTech #DigitalBanking #NeoBanking #FinancialServices #BankingInnovation #FutureOfFinance #PaymentsIndustry

One judgment. One joint statement. Two completely different answers to the same question. In South Africa today, the answer to "are crypto assets money?" depends entirely on who you ask - and apparently, on what they're trying to achieve. This morning, Justice Wilson in the Gauteng High Court held that Bitcoin is both "money" and "capital" under the Exchange Control Regulations. It's not the final word - it directly contradicts last year's finding in Standard Bank v SARB, and the SCA will ultimately have to resolve the conflict. But it's a considered High Court judgment and it carries real weight. Last week, the FSCA and SARB's National Payment System Department issued a Joint Communication stating, with equal clarity, that crypto assets are neither money under the NPS Act nor funds, and therefore not legal tender. A judge says yes. The regulators say no. Same week. This isn't academic. It has real consequences for every licensed CASP, every payment operator, and every business trying to build a compliant model on top of digital assets in this country. If crypto is money for exchange control purposes but not money for payment system purposes, what exactly are we regulated as? The irony is that this definitional chaos is precisely what Satoshi's 2008 white paper set out to solve - a peer-to-peer electronic cash system that didn't need a central authority to decide what it was, or wasn't. Sixteen years later, a High Court judge and two South African regulators can't agree on the answer in the same week. At Minit Money we operate as a FAIS-regulated digital remittance business. We welcome regulatory clarity. But clarity requires consistency. You cannot build a durable compliance framework on a foundation that shifts depending on which Act you're standing under. The comment period on the Draft Capital Flow Management Regulations closes 30 June. If you're in this industry, this is the moment to engage. #CryptoAssets #Fintech #Regulation #SouthAfrica #Bitcoin #Stablecoins #CASP #NationalPaymentSystem #ExchangeControl #DigitalRemittances

Although this was a post I did for last Saturday's Human Rights Day remembrance , this week has been one with lots of regulatory and compliance topics. Tomorrow I'll be attending the FIC's roadshow and I will keep advocating for AML compliance to not leave behind foreigners...

Yesterday offered a meaningful reminder of what financial technology is ultimately designed to achieve. We welcomed our #FamilyFutureBoost winner, Mitchelle Pasipamire, to the Minit Money office in Johannesburg to receive her R10,000 prize. In the photo, we’re standing with Mitchelle and our marketing specialist, Emilene Harriss, who led this campaign with clarity, intention, and strong execution. Mitchelle’s plans for the prize is to provide reusable sanitary pads to young girls who lack access to basic menstrual products; and to support children with special needs. This altruistic gesture really highlight an essential truth: when payment systems reduce friction and increase accessibility, individuals are empowered to create impact far beyond the transaction itself. In fintech, it’s easy to focus on infrastructure, compliance, and the mechanics of cross-border payments. These are critical components, but they are not the purpose. The real measure of progress lies in how effectively we enable people to support their families, strengthen their communities, and build futures that would otherwise be out of reach border payments. These are critical components, but they are not the destination. The real measure of progress lies in how effectively we enable people to support their families, strengthen their communities, and build futures that would otherwise be out of reach. This campaign demonstrated that principle clearly. We measure success not just in engagement metrics, but in the way it surfaced the human outcomes behind remittances. Outcomes that are often invisible, yet deeply significant. Mitchelle’s interview will be released soon. It’s a powerful reflection of why simplicity, reliability, and user-centred design matter in financial services.

The promise of open finance is constantly hitting a wall: identity. The current model gives banks and credit bureaux a stranglehold on verified credentials. Until the DHA allows easy technical access, FICA requirements will continue to limit open access to 'stores of value'. We need to treat identity as a utility for the entire nation, not a monopoly for the few. #DigitalID #FICA #KYC #FinancialInclusion #Policy

The SARB's vision for the NPU extends into SADC, a crucial next step for African finance. However, technology is the easy part. Overcoming political and sovereignty concerns between central banks is the real battle. We need regional leaders to align on a shared vision of financial interoperability. How can we bridge this gap? #SADC #CrossBorderPayments #FintechPolicy #Africa #NPU

As 2025 draws to a close, I'm taking a moment to reflect on what a seismic year it's been for fintech from the SARB's NPU progress in the PEM to the massive steps toward an activity-based licensing model. None of this progress would be possible without ourvisionary partners and dedicated team at Minit Money. Thank you all for the incredible work. Wishing you and your families a restful holiday season and a prosperous New Year! 🎄 What was your biggest professional takeaway from this year? #MerryChristmas #HappyHolidays #Fintech #Leadership #Gratitude #MinitMoney

Shaping the Future of South Africa’s Payments Ecosystem Last week the SARB’s National Payments System Department (NPSD) convened the final Payment Ecosystem Modernisation (PEM) Industry Dialogue of the year. This was a good opportunity over two days to reflect on progress made in 2025, and what’s on the roadmap for 2026 towards the “red dot”. What stood out to me was the collective commitment to reimagine how payments serve society. The Red Dot Vision   The shared commitment to “the red dot” — a faster, simpler, cheaper, and more secure digital payment experience for retail customers — is more than a slogan. It requires a fundamental shift in how banks, FinTechs, and payment providers collaborate, even as competitors, to deliver public good. QR+ and Open Rails   The release of the QR+ standard (in a ‘friends and family’ POC’) signals the beginning of a new unified retail mobile payments experience. Over time, this will replace fragmented QR codes and enable payments from diverse stores of value — from bank accounts to mobile money and e-wallets. Digital Financial Identity (DFID)   The SARB’s demo of DFID was a glimpse into the future: a root identity infrastructure cornerstoned in DHA credentials. This will be the backbone of frictionless authentication between NPS ecosystem participants, reducing fraud and unlocking innovation across the ecosystem. PayInc’s New Mandate   With SARB’s 50% shareholding approved in November, the (newly branded) PayInc will evolve into a National Payments Utility. This is not just a change in ownership, but a significant redefinition of mandate — expanding its role to serve the broader public interest. Balancing Regulation and Innovation   As the pendulum swings away from self-regulation towards the regulator, the industry must guard against unintended consequences. Fraud risks like “muling” and barriers created by POPIA highlight the need for agile, collaborative responses. FinTech voices will be critical in ensuring that innovation and inclusion are not stifled by well-intentioned strategy. The consultation process with the SARB’s PEM team so far has been encouraging that they are explicitly aware of this risk. The Bigger Picture   Modernising payments is not about technology. It’s about a new structural model, enabling regulation, improving digital financial literacy, reducing reliance on cash, and building trust in systems that are secure, interoperable, and accessible. The PEM Forum underscored a truth: South Africa’s payments ecosystem is at an inflection point. The choices made now — by regulators, banks, FinTechs, and utilities — will define whether we achieve the red dot vision of inclusive, affordable, and future-ready payments.

Teamwork in action! Our PE leaders James and Oluwatosin welcomed National Sales & Marketing Manager Elreo Hatton-Jones to Port Elizabeth — building momentum and celebrating local leadership.