Our History

Although PASA was formally established on 26 September 1996, it was subsequently recognised, in June 1999, by the SARB as a payment system management body in terms of the NPS Act which was promulgated only during October 1998. At the time of inception during 1996, PASA had 19 members. A permanent executive office Mike Lear was also established during this time headed up by Mr Mike Lear as the first Chief Executive Officer. Our offices were located at 17 Harrison Street in downtown Johannesburg. The first PASA Constitution was adopted during 1998.

The first PCH agreements were finalised and signed off during 2001. These included the ATM, Cheques/Code Line Clearing, EFT debits, EFT credits, Paper credits, Immediate Settlement and ZAPS PCH agreements.

In the same year Mr Lear retired and in his place Mr Hendrik Pelser was appointed as Chief Operating Officer. At that stage PASA’s primary focus was on operational and regulatory matters. In parallel the SA Payments Association was established, headed up by Mr Anton Roux, to focus on payment strategy. This organisation was later incorporated into the Banking Association as the payments strategy division (PayStrat) and headed up by Mr Brad Gillis. Visa and MasterCard were authorised as PCH System Operators (PSOs) for the first time during March 2004, restricted to debit and credit card transactions. At this stage both BankservAfrica and Strate had already been authorised as PSOs for some years.

On 30 April 2004 the PASA offices relocated to its current premises in the Sunnyside Office Park complex in Parktown, Johannesburg.

Also during 2004, the NuPay PCH agreement was established which made provision for card based authenticated debit orders.

During 2005, as a result of regulatory intervention following on representations from the micro-lending industry, as well as consequential legislative changes to the NPS Act following on the promulgation of the National Credit Act, the new Early Debit Order (EDO) PCH Participant Group was established which was responsible for managing the new Authenticated Early Debit Order (AEDO) and Non-Authenticated Early Debit Order (NAEDO) PCHs. EDO replaced the NuPay PCH. BankservAfrica was appointed as the PCH System Operator.

As a result of Financial Sector Charter commitments, the Mzansi Money Transfer (MMT) PCH was established and initially included four members.

During February 2007 the COO, Mr Pelser resigned and Mr Johnny Pienaar was appointed as acting COO. During August of the same year, an important review of PASA’s positioning, strategy and structure took place. As one of the consequences it was decided to incorporate the PayStrat Division of the Banking Association into PASA.

The Real Time Clearing (RTC) PCH agreement was signed during 2007 and the first interbank RTC transaction was processed during September 2007. This was the first time that real time interbank transactions were possible other than via SAMOS. The service levels required account to account posting within sixty seconds.

During March 2008, Mr Walter Volker was appointed as the new CEO of PASA. During this time PASA underwent a major restructuring and the payments strategy function was established during June 2008, which included the establishment of the Card Strategy Forum (formally the Association of Bank Card Issuers or ABCI), the Card Payment Stakeholder Forum and the Electronic, Paper and Cash Strategy Forum. Also during 2008 the name of the ATM and related (SASWITCH) PCH agreement was changed to the ATM and SSD PCH agreement to incorporate specific provisions for Self Service Devices. During 2009 the Cash Settlement PCH agreement was finalised and signed.

After an enquiry lasting almost 18 months the executive overview of the Report to the Competition Commissioner by the Enquiry Panel was released to the public during June 2008. This overview contained 29 specific recommendations of which 19 had a direct relevance to payment systems.

During March 2010 the new PASA Constitution was formally adopted which, amongst others, resulted in a change in the composition of PASA Council as well as ensuring independent fiduciary responsibilities from Councillors.

During 2010, PASA’s first public website was launched, providing consumers and other stakeholders with valuable insight into the role of PASA and payments, in general. The website received a well-deserved revamp during 2015.

The need for increased stakeholder engagement in the electronic payments space necessitated the establishment of the Electronic, Paper and Cash (EPC) Stakeholder Forum during 2011.

After months of focus and hard work by the industry, the first of its kind PASA Certificate in Foundational Payments (PCFP) course was launched during May 2012. In 2014, the course was also offered in Cape Town for the first time, a change from the years before where only Johannesburg sessions were made available. During the same year, the course was facilitated in Namibia and during 2015 also in Lesotho.

With increased focus on industry Capacity Building, 2012 also saw the first PASA/Strate/Gibs Conference, now an annual event on the payments and financial markets calendar.

During 2012 the Derivatives Margins PCH agreement was finalised and signed.

One of the highlights of 2013 was the PASA International Payments Conference – the first PASA Conference hosted in the history of PASA. The 2-day Conference attracted just under 500 delegates and 35 highly sought after speakers, nearly half of which were international.

During 2013 a review of the Card related transactions were established and a decision was made by the Card Strategy Forum that all Card related transactions should be managed under one PG. Harmonisation of the Card environment was initiated and approved on 31 August 2015.

Key highlights in 2014 include the improved effectiveness of the compliance function, the introduction of the PASA Project Management Framework & Methodology and the establishment of the Risk Management function.

A new interchange rate for ATM and Card transactions were implemented in 2014 and 2015.

March 2015 saw the appointment of the first Independent PASA Council Chairperson, Dr. Alewyn Burger.

At the time of inception during 1996, PASA had 19 members. A permanent executive office Mike Lear was also established during this time headed up by Mr Mike Lear as the first Chief Executive Officer. Our offices were located at 17 Harrison Street in downtown Johannesburg. The first PASA Constitution was adopted during 1998.