Discovery Bank clients can pay anyone, anywhere, anytime from as little as R1

Johannesburg, 17 July 2023 – Following its rollout of PayShap, Discovery Bank today announced that it has integrated the payment rails of the digital payments service into its existing payment infrastructure, to offer clients a single, easy way to make instant payments with a consistent fee structure.

“While other banks use separate payment rails for PayShap, Discovery Bank has fully integrated it with our powerful real-time payment infrastructure to offer more convenient payment solutions. To make the payment journey seamless, Discovery Bank uses a single client journey and does not differentiate between costs for different real-time payment infrastructures. This means that, across the board, Discovery Bank clients pay as little as R1 for immediate payments regardless of the network, be it PayShap or any of our other real-time clearance payment infrastructures,” says Discovery Bank CEO, Hylton Kallner.

A payment rail is a virtual network that connects financial institutions allowing money to be moved between payers and payees. Payments have come a long way in the past few decades. Looking at the history of payments, electronic funds transfers (EFTs) made it easier to pay others, but they are processed in “batches” and therefore aren't as immediate as cash and require entering account details. Real-time clearance of these payments is now more common, but the fees have typically been prohibitive, particularly for lower value payments. However, volumes have gone up by 45% in the past year as banks have reduced fees – indicating pent-up demand for affordable instant payments.

Since its launch in March, PayShap has processed over 800 000 transactions. PayShap addresses the issues of real-time payments and the need for account information by offering consumers a more affordable and simpler way to instantly pay someone. Banks in South Africa have introduced PayShap as an alternative payment option with a different payment process and fees compared to real-time payments. Since its launch in March, PayShap now accounts for 0.4% of all RTC (Real-Time Clearing) payments in South Africa.

By making it simple and seamless for clients to access the lowest cost real-time payment option, Discovery Bank is the biggest user of PayShap rails within its first week of launch - more than the rest of the local banking industry combined, reflecting its strategy to embrace technology with the aim of bringing down the cost of all instant payments to benefit clients. On launching PayShap last week, Discovery Bank processed around 52% of outgoing PayShap transactions across the industry.

Discovery Bank’s instant payment fees are consistently lower than the market average for small and large payments. Additionally, Discovery Bank Black Transaction Account (bundled fees option), Black Suite, and Purple Suite clients receive 30 free real-time payments per month.

Discovery Bank has offered competitive real-time clearance fees since its inception and the Bank has seen its own volumes of payment options that require real-time clearance more than double between 2022 and 2023.

Other payment options available in the Discovery Bank app include the ability to pay other Discovery Bank clients in seconds using just a cellphone number. The Bank’s Real-Time Forex Accounts open convenient and affordable payments in more than 60 foreign currencies and with Discovery Pay, it’s possible to settle medical co-payments instantly from the Discovery Bank app. Digital online and in-store payments are also easy with tap-and-go virtual cards, and linked digital wallets like Apple Pay, Fitbit Pay, Garmin Pay, Google Pay, Samsung Pay and SwatchPAY!

“There is a convenient and cost-effective payment option available in the Discovery Bank app for any type of payment. With our ability to respond to market changes with banking systems that are easily adaptable. Our client-first approach means our clients benefit from sophisticated technology in the background yet experience the most cost-efficient and an elegant user journey for all immediate payments,” says Kallner.

ENDS