BankservAfrica
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BankservAfrica is an automated clearing house located in Johannesburg (South Africa) and operates both nationally and within Africa.
Annually processing billions of transactions valued at trillions of South African Rands; BankservAfrica’s clients include banks, corporates, government and the retail sector.
History
Prior to the establishment of BankservAfrica, the South African banking industry owned several companies that provided shared services to the industry in a number of different payment channels. As these companies operated in silos, a need was identified for a single structure and an interbank task group was appointed to investigate the feasibility. Bankserv was founded in December 1993 to service the banking industry by providing interoperability between the banks.
Shareholders
Wholly owned by South Africa’s commercial banks, shareholders include:
- Absa Bank Limited - 23.125%
- FirstRand Limited- 23.125%
- Nedbank Limited- 23.125%
- Standard Bank of South Africa Limited- 23.125%
- Dandyshelf Group* -7.5%
*The following shareholders form part of the Dandyshelf Group, holding 7.5% as a Group: 1.The South African Bank of Athens Limited 2.Bidvest Bank Limited 3.Capitec Bank Limited 4.CitiBank 5.Investec Bank Limited 6.Mercantile Bank Limited 7.ubank
In 2010 the group rebranded as BankservAfrica.
Activities
The company ensures that interbank transactions occur in a properly regulated system, compliant with international banking best practice and standards, while reducing risk and complexity in the industry. This has led to BankservAfrica being the trusted partner of the South African financial services industry and integral to the country’s national payments system.
BankservAfrica is licensed by the Payments Association of South Africa and regulated by the South African Reserve Bank and the central banks within the African countries where it provides services.
BankservAfrica’s SASWITCH brand was a world first in the 1980s: SASWITCH allows remote ATM access via any institution’s clients with any other institution’s ATM, regardless of network protocol.
Services
Services comprise:
- Payment collection
- Payment switching, clearing and settlement
- Payment consulting
- Hosting and operating mission-critical systems
- Business process outsourcing
- SWIFT bureau and payment solutions
- Disaster recovery and business continuity
Dual processing is provided through a production site and a disaster recovery site; to ensure core processing continues uninterrupted should a disaster occur at the production facility.