rashad cassim : south african reserve bank's payments study report launch speaking notes by mr rashad cassim, deputy governor of the south african reserve bank, at the south african reserve bank's payments study report launch, sandton, johannesburg, 5 september 2024. * * * good afternoon, all. thank you for joining us today as we launch the south african reserve bank's ( sarb ) inaugural payments study report. this study is one of our initiatives to better understand the payment system landscape in south africa. it supports our current strategy, vision 2025, which identified a need for the sarb to collect more payments information. in pursuing that goal, we knew we already had extensive information about the supply side of payments. we get this from operating samos, 1 the core interbank payment, real - time gross settlement system. we also receive data from other payment service providers. the payments study report we are launching today, by contrast, is about the demand side of the payment system – the users thereof and their choice of payment methods, including their preferences, level of awareness, usage, reasons for adoption and barriers to entry. the study has two parts. one is a survey of about 45 minutes that just over 3 000 people completed. we call this the survey of consumer payment choice ( scpc ). in the second part of the study, about 4 600 respondents tracked their payment behaviour and payment method usage over a three - month period, using actual payments in a set period of days. this we call the diary of consumer payment choice ( dcpc ). here people documented, among other things, their preferred payment methods, the amounts paid and what the payments were for. the two surveys were conducted nationwide between april and december last year. they were designed to complement each other. indeed, this two - survey approach has also been adopted by other central banks, for instance in australia, poland, sweden and the united states ( us ). 2 and the results make for interesting reading. i do not want to steal the thunder of our next presenter, who will be walking us through the high - level results, but i was struck by several points. for instance, even though the usage of cash is not growing any more, it remains the most popular payment method. debit card usage is second and credit cards a distant third. 1 / 3 bis - central bankers'speeches furthermore, while credit cards are mostly used by richer households, which you would expect, there

contemporary south africa : “ … it becomes abundantly clear that the two british imperial banks … have practically a monopolistic hold on the commercial banking of the country and control over 82 per cent of its banking assets. the imperial hold on the banking and currency structure of the country was made practically complete in 1920 with the establishment of the south african reserve bank …. ” and, he continued : “ if south africa today has a hopeless inferiority complex with regard to her capacity to run her own banking and currency system along national lines, the country cannot be blamed … ( preface ) bruwer ’ s preferred outcome was stated thus : “ what is needed in south africa more than a central bank ( although there is no harm in retaining a bank with independent central banking powers in south africa ) is a powerful extra unit in the field of commercial banking – a unit that will be able within a minimum of time to enter the remotest hamlet in the country in competition with the two all - powerful imperial banks ( p. 192 ). i have quoted bruwer at length for two reasons ; first to indicate the fact that we must expect criticism to be directed at our financial systems from time to time, more so during periods of economic stress. central banks, in particular may be deemed to be purveyors of all sorts of undesired policies and actions, some being more fantastic than others. my second reason is to remind this heterogeneous group of eminent persons with direct interest in the financial system that it is important to take into account local concerns when imagining and implementing the architecture of our financial infrastructure, subject always to the need to ensure probity, efficiency and stability in the system as a whole. what works well in one country during a particular period of time may not best be suited to another country and may be less suited to local conditions as time elapses. stated differently, in the absence of uniform conditions, local improvisations and adjustments are, of course, to be resorted to depending upon factors such as the particular stage of development of a country, the makeup of its banking and credit structure generally, and the degree of organisation of its money market, inter alia. at present, let it be stressed, south africa has no inferiority complex with regard to her capacity to run her own banking and currency system and the authorities are alive to the need to do better. let it be said also that the banking system continues to facilitate intermediation between surplus and deficit financial