The shift in the South African payments landscape is being driven by evolving consumer demand for instant transactions, proactive regulatory initiatives, and rapid technological advancements.
A significant opportunity exists for South Africa's leading banks to modernise their systems and become future-ready, now. Next-generation payments solutions built on cloud-native architectures will set financial institutions up to manage exploding transaction volumes. This will unlock new levels of resilience, real-time capabilities, and stand-out consumer experience. Additionally, leveraging the transformative power of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and automation brings real-time data capabilities that foster agile learning and experimentation opportunities.
The paradox comes in with the understanding that we have built a faster payments system that processes more transactions, but in doing so, we have set an end-user expectation of always-on, real-time value.
When every transaction is expected to be instantaneous, the consequence of any failure of that transaction is also instantaneous. Consumer trust can be eroded quickly as their real-time payment fails, causes inconvenience, or negatively impacts their own business.
We are scaling volume at an incredible rate, but the value in terms of trust, simplicity, and reliability is not keeping pace.
Today's consumer is not comparing their banking app to their friend’s banking app. They are comparing it to the last, most seamless digital interaction they experienced. The technology giants have built stand-out customer platforms, and in doing so, have set the new digital standard for speed, simplicity, and personalisation.
A Deloitte study shows that 84% of customers use online banking, yet do consumers actually believe that their mobile banking app cannot solve a customer support issue quickly, if at all? The FinScope Consumer South Africa 2024 study found that despite high levels of financial inclusion, a ‘mismatch between financial needs and available services’ exists. This leads to shallow usage of the app.
This disconnect is more than a technical problem; it is an emotional one. When a customer cannot get help from the self-service tool designed to provide convenience, it leads to frustration and distrust. This failure to meet the emotional expectations of the modern consumer erodes brand loyalty and creates the opportunity for modern, technology-first, AI-ready competitors.
The banks that will win in the future are the ones that are being bold today in modernising their legacy systems - taking deliberate, strategic steps to become future-fit and AI-ready, embedding AI at the core of their payment operations.
We would love to continue the conversation around modernising your systems and building future-ready payments solutions. Reach out to us today.
