Bob unveils PayShap real-time payment capability for Bob Pay

Bob, a prominent South African e-commerce and financial technology (fintech) entity, has rolled out a Real-Time Payments (RTP) functionality for its Bob Pay offering. This cutting-edge capability, achieved through a direct hook-up with PayShap, permits merchants to process requests for and promptly take in payments from shoppers. It thus establishes a secure, budget-friendly new avenue for completing digital transactions. From a cost perspective, the transaction fee levied on merchants for utilising PayShap is a competitive percentage with a strict maximum cap. This structure means it's substantially more economical for merchants dealing with high-value sales compared to traditional percentage-based card fees.

A leap forward for South African payments

The introduction of this feature establishes Bob Pay as one of the inaugural payment providers in the country to implement this integration. Furthermore, it marks a significant contribution to South Africa’s concerted drive to modernise its national payments infrastructure.

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The PayShap RTP functionality empowers customers to initiate payments directly from their bank accounts, using only their mobile number or account details–a pre-registered ShapID or a dedicated application isn't required. PayShap is a local real-time payment system initiated by the South African Reserve Bank (SARB) and BankservAfrica (now operating as Payinc). Its purpose is to facilitate instant, low-value digital transactions through the use of a mobile number instead of conventional bank account information. By connecting with PayShap, Bob is offering a fluid and effortless user experience that removes the necessity of physical cards or banking passwords during the checkout process.

Benefits for merchants and customers

The Bob Pay PayShap RTP feature presents clear advantages for both vendors and clientele. Merchants enjoy immediate payment receipt and real-time status tracking, which substantially improves their cash flow and accelerates the provision of goods or services. Customers benefit from an exceedingly convenient way to make purchases using just a mobile number or account details.

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Andy Higgins, Bob’s Managing Director, provided perspective on the importance of this release: “The payment ecosystem in South Africa is undergoing a period of dynamic transformation, and our PayShap integration cements our role as a key player. We’ve successfully made our payments service available to third-party merchants, including support plugins for popular platforms like Shopify and WooCommerce, bringing our total supported payment methods to nine. We are confident this presents a compelling fintech growth avenue, and we intend to commit considerable resources to this area to stimulate further innovation for our merchant base.”