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South Africa Cards and Payments: Opportunities and Risks to 2029

Publisher GlobalData
Published Jun 30, 2025
Length 91 Pages
SKU # GBDT20204547

Description

South Africa Cards and Payments: Opportunities and Risks to 2029

Summary

GlobalData’s ‘South Africa Cards and Payments: Opportunities and Risks to 2029' report provides detailed analysis of market trends in the South African cards and payments industry. It provides values and volumes for a number of key performance indicators in the industry, including cash, card, credit transfer, and direct debits during the review-period (2020-24e).

The report also analyzes various payment card markets operating in the industry and provides detailed information on the number of cards in circulation, transaction values and volumes during the review-period and over the forecast-period (2025f-29f). It also offers information on the country's competitive landscape, including market shares of issuers and schemes.

The report brings together GlobalData’s research, modeling, and analysis expertise to allow banks and card issuers to identify segment dynamics and competitive advantages. The report also covers detailed regulatory policies and recent changes in regulatory structure.

GlobalData’s ‘South Africa Cards and Payments: Opportunities and Risks to 2029' report provides top-level market analysis, information and insights into the South African cards and payments industry, including -
  • Current and forecast values for each market in the South African cards and payments industry, including debit, credit and charge cards.
  • Detailed insights into payment instruments including cash, card and cheques. It also, includes an overview of the country's key alternative payment instruments.
  • Ecommerce market analysis.
  • Analysis of various market drivers and regulations governing the South African cards and payments industry.
  • Detailed analysis of strategies adopted by banks and other institutions to market debit, credit and charge credit cards.
  • Comprehensive analysis of consumer attitudes and buying preferences for cards.
  • The competitive landscape of the South African cards and payments industry.
Key Highlights
  • Contactless payments are gaining traction in the country, especially in transport services. To capitalize, South African National Roads Agency Limited (SANRAL) is implementing the nationwide rollout of contactless payment systems at toll plazas. Effective from December 1, 2024, magstripe card payments began to be phased out at certain toll gates, with a complete transition to contactless payments expected by May 31, 2025. This initiative is backed up by financial institutions, along with payment scheme providers such as Visa and Mastercard. Motorists will be encouraged to make payments via contactless cards, NFC tap to payments via mobile wallets, or wearable devices, Trac tags, or cash.
  • The SARB’s Vision 2025 strategy serves as a catalyst for the transition to electronic payments, outlining key initiatives to modernize the payments landscape. Aligned with this vision, Mastercard launched real-time settlement for card transactions in South Africa, in October 2024. This advancement enables nearly instant processing, ensuring that merchants accepting Mastercard payments receive faster payouts. Through infrastructure upgrades and collaboration with financial partners, Mastercard will roll out new standards and solutions, which will accelerate the processing speed for card transactions. It is also enhancing its network, and enabling transactions to be processed locally, to offer real-time card payments.
  • To promote electronic payments and displace cash usage in South Africa, Visa launched its “Tap to Add Card” service in South Africa, Ukraine and Georgia in February 2025. This feature allows users to add contactless Visa cards to mobile wallets, by simply tapping their cards against their smartphones, bypassing the manual entry of card details. By generating a unique, one-time code, validated by Visa's Chip Authenticate, the service simplifies the card addition process and enhances the security of digital payments.
Scope
  • Card market size in terms of number of cards, value and volume of transactions in South Africa along with detailed card segmentation of debit, credit and charge cards available in the country.
  • Market sizing and analysis of major payment instruments including cash, card, credit transfer, and direct debits.
  • Payment market trends and growth for both historical and forecast period
  • Competitor analysis with detailed insights into leading card issuers and schemes.
  • Comprehensive analysis of consumer attitudes and buying preferences for cards.
  • A detailed snapshot of country's key alternative payment brands.
Reasons to Buy
  • Make strategic business decisions, using top-level historic and forecast market data, related to the South African cards and payments industry and each market within it.
  • Understand the key market trends and growth opportunities in the South African cards and payments industry.
  • Assess the competitive dynamics in the South African cards and payments industry.
  • Gain insights into marketing strategies used for various card types in South Africa.
  • Gain insights into key regulations governing the South African cards and payments industry.

Table of Contents

91 Pages
  • Executive Summary
    • South Africa: Key facts, 2024e
    • South Africa: Benchmarking of payment cards, 2024e
    • Instant Payments
    • Payment Cards: Market Sizing and Forecasting
    • Payment Cards: Market by Product and Service Type
    • Debit Cards: Market Sizing and Forecasting
    • Debit Cards: Schemes
    • Debit Cards: Issuers
    • Credit and Charge Cards: Market Sizing and Forecasting
    • Credit and Charge Cards: Schemes
    • Credit and Charge Cards: Issuers
    • Credit Card Debt
    • Contactless Cards: Card Holding
    • Retail: Market Sizing and Forecasting
    • Ecommerce: Market Sizing and Forecasting
    • Ecommerce: Market by Products and Services
    • Ecommerce: Market by Payment Tool
    • In-Store Payments: Market by Payment Tools
    • In-Store Payments: Market by Products and Services
    • Buy Now Pay Later: Online Purchasing
    • Mobile Proximity Payments
  • P2P Payments
  • Bill Payments
    • Alternative Payments: Payment Solutions
  • Payment Innovations
  • Job Analysis
    • POS Terminals and ATMs
    • Regulatory Environment
    • South Africa: payment instrument transaction values (ZAR trillions), 2020-29f
    • South Africa: payment instrument transaction values ($ billions), 2020-29f
    • South Africa: payment instrument transaction volumes (billions), 2020-29f
    • South Africa: payment cards in circulation by type (millions), 2020-29f
    • South Africa: volume of payment card transactions (billions), 2020-29f
    • South Africa: value of payment card transactions (ZAR billions), 2020-29f
    • South Africa: value of payment card transactions ($ billions), 2020-29f
    • South Africa: debit cards in circulation (millions), 2020-29f
    • South Africa: debit card transaction volumes, 2020-29f
    • South Africa: debit card transaction values (ZAR), 2020-29f
    • South Africa: debit card transaction values ($), 2020-29f
    • South Africa: debit cards in circulation by scheme (millions), 2020-24e
    • South Africa: debit card transaction values by scheme (ZAR billions), 2020-24e
    • South Africa: debit card transaction values by scheme ($ billions), 2020-24e
    • South Africa: debit cards in circulation by issuer (millions), 2020-24e
    • South Africa: debit cards transaction value by issuer (ZAR billions), 2020-24e
    • South Africa: debit cards transaction value by issuer ($ billions), 2020-24e
    • South Africa: credit and charge cards in circulation (millions), 2020-29f
    • South Africa: credit and charge card transaction volumes, 2020-29f
    • South Africa: credit and charge card transaction values (ZAR), 2020-29f
    • South Africa: credit and charge card transaction values ($), 2020-29f
    • South Africa: credit and charge cards in circulation by scheme (000s), 2020-24e
    • South Africa: credit and charge card transaction values by scheme (ZAR billions), 2020-24e
    • South Africa: credit and charge card transaction values by scheme ($ billions), 2020-24e
    • South Africa: credit and charge cards in circulation by issuer (millions), 2020-24e
    • South Africa: credit and charge cards transaction value by issuer (ZAR billions), 2020-24e
    • South Africa: credit and charge cards transaction value by issuer ($ billions), 2020-24e
    • South Africa: credit cards in circulation (millions), 2020-29f
    • South Africa: credit card transaction volumes, 2020-29f
    • South Africa: credit card transaction values (ZAR), 2020-29f
    • South Africa: credit card transaction values ($), 2020-29f
    • South Africa: credit cards in circulation by scheme (millions), 2020-24e
    • South Africa: credit card transaction values by scheme (ZAR billions), 2020-24e
    • South Africa: credit card transaction values by scheme ($ billions), 2020-24e
    • South Africa: charge cards in circulation (millions), 2020-29f
    • South Africa: charge card transaction volumes, 2020-29f
    • South Africa: charge card transaction values (ZAR), 2020-29f
    • South Africa: charge card transaction values ($), 2020-29f
    • South Africa: charge cards in circulation by scheme (000’s), 2020-24e
    • South Africa: charge card transaction values by scheme (ZAR billions), 2020-24e
    • South Africa: charge card transaction values by scheme ($ millions), 2020-24e
    • South Africa: merchant acquiring transaction volumes (billions), 2020-29f
    • South Africa: merchant acquiring transaction values (ZAR billions), 2020-29f
    • South Africa: merchant acquiring transaction values ($ billions), 2020-29f
    • South Africa: acquirers’ transaction volumes (millions), 2020-24e
    • South Africa: : acquirers’ transaction values (ZAR billions), 2020-24e
    • South Africa: : acquirers’ transaction values ($ billions), 2020-24e
    • South Africa: retail outlets and card-accepting merchants (millions), 2020-29f
    • South Africa: debit card average interchange fees (%), 2020-24e
    • South Africa: credit and charge card average interchange fees (%), 2020-24e
    • South Africa: debit card merchant service charge and interchange fee (%), 2020-29f
    • South Africa: credit and charge card merchant service charge and interchange fee (%), 2020-29f
    • South Africa: retail market by product categories (ZAR billions), 2020-29f
    • South Africa: retail market by product categories ($ billions), 2020-29f
    • South Africa: retail market by service categories (ZAR billions), 2020-24
    • South Africa: retail market by service categories ($ billions), 2020-24
    • Survey sample across countries

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