BankservAfrica selects TCS BaNCS to drive South Africa’s RPP

By Edil Corneille

Mumbai-based Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), announced that TCS BaNCS™ for Market Infrastructure has been selected by South African Bankers Services Company Proprietary Limited (BankservAfrica) to drive the Rapid Payments Program (RPP), a national initiative to introduce a real-time retail payments system for the payments ecosystem in South Africa.

RPP aims to introduce instant payments, usage of proxy resolution for easier addressability, and the ability to initiate payments using a request-to-pay. South Africans will be able to easily make payments instantly with the mentioned capabilities along with the expansion of the payments ecosystem to banking and non-banking players. BankservAfrica selected the TCS BaNCS for Market Infrastructure solution to create a modern, open central payments infrastructure.

With its unique High Performance Transaction Manager (HpTM) deployed as microservices, the TCS BaNCS for Market Infrastructure solution will provide Bankserv with an ultra-high performance, low latency and scalable solution to meet the needs of RPP. The solution’s unified clearing approach will consolidate multiple payment rails into a single solution while offering the flexibility and configurability to cater to a differentiated payments infrastructure. Complete ISO 20022 support will enable standardisation and the solution’s APIs will allow for easy integration with ecosystems and overlays, expanding the reach of payments in the country.

Additionally, by leveraging TCS’ innovative Quartz™ Smart Ledgers for proxy resolution, built on a de-centralised/ distributed architecture, BankservAfrica’s customers will benefit from a secure, real-time and scalable solution for account information. The Quartz KYC/ AML solution will provide real-time fraud management capabilities to facilitate transaction screening and monitoring.

“Following our rigorous selection process, TCS BaNCS emerged as the natural fit, matching our key criteria for fit-for-purpose and ability to deliver. In addition to having the best technology stack, they have had major success for innovating in India’s payments ecosystem and will no doubt support us in bringing some of this experience to South Africa. This comes at a time where economic recovery is critical and the industry needs to catch up to the digital changes in the economy,” said Jan Pilbauer, CEO, BankservAfrica. “With TCS’ technology, we are well-positioned to expedite the launch of a modern, easy-to-use and efficient payments platform that caters to lower value transactions at an affordable cost for the benefit of all South Africans.”

“TCS BaNCS has seen wide adoption and success in the South African financial services industry, with the country’s top 8 financial institutions and the South African Depository running on our solutions,” said R Vivekanand, Co-Head, TCS Financial Solutions. “As BankservAfrica looks to set new standards for real-time payments and financial inclusion in South Africa, TCS BaNCS for Market Infrastructure will help create a modern, high-performance, open central payments infrastructure. We are happy to be a partner in this exciting purpose-led transformation and are committed to delivering innovative solutions leveraging TCS BaNCS and Quartz in the country.”

TCS BaNCS for Market Infrastructure supports clearing and settlement for exchanges, CSDs, CCPs and central banks. It brings in the unique ability to support multiple markets, currencies, and asset classes on the same platform. The solution’s continuous focus on regulatory needs and messaging standards helps customers stay ahead of market changes and drive efficiencies in their businesses.