"South Africa will open its payments system to non-bank operators, including telecoms firms, fintechs and retailers, from mid-2027, a central bank official said on Friday, as part of a major overhaul of the system. The change would ​end banks' longstanding dominance of South Africa's payments processing market, allowing non-bank firms to ​connect directly to the national payments infrastructure, which clears and settles payments nationwide, ⁠rather than relying on banks as intermediaries."