SARB Governor Kganyago Signals Same-Activity-Same-Regulation Principle for Fintechs
South African Reserve Bank Governor Lesetja Kganyago has publicly indicated that fintechs performing the same activities as regulated banks should face equivalent regulatory treatment, a stance that could materially reshape South Africa's payments and fintech stack. The signal is being read as a potential precursor to structural regulatory changes.
SARB's Activity Test: the bank-partnership workaround just got an expiry date
Right now, every South African fintech that wants to move money must partner with a licensed bank to do it legally. There is no standalone mobile money licence — so the bank sits in the middle, taking its cut and setting the terms.
Kganyago's signal is that this structure is the thing changing. The shift from regulating what you are to regulating what you do means a fintech that processes payments would need to meet the same governance, anti-money-laundering and customer-protection standards as a bank doing the same thing — but could, in principle, do it without a bank parent.
That's genuinely opening. But the price of admission Kganyago named is real: governance, fund safety, AML controls, ongoing supervision. Meeting those standards is expensive, and the PASA restructuring already underway means the plumbing is being rebuilt at the same time the rules are changing.
For South Africa's roughly 400 fintechs, the question is whether the new framework is a door or just a more expensive version of the same wall.
1 source
- If it quacks like a duck: Kganyago on regulating fintechs · techcentral.co.za · T2