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Introduction

Overview:
PayShap is a real-time payment service launched by BankservAfrica as part of South Africa’s Rapid Payments Programme (RPP). It enables instant, secure, and low-cost account-to-account payments, ideal for high-volume, low-value transactions. PayShap ensures that a person-to-merchant (P2M) payment moves seamlessly with instant notifications. Key Features:
  • Real-Time Transactions: Instant confirmation and fund transfer.
  • Account-to-Account Transfers: No middleman, just direct payments.
  • Broad Bank Integration: Supported by all major South African banks. (except Capitec and Tyme)

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Business Use Cases

E-commerce
Merchants can offer PayShap as a payment option on their online stores, ensuring customers enjoy a seamless checkout experience for everyday purchases. Subscriptions & Recurring Billing
Great for services requiring recurring low-value payments, such as media, education, and SaaS platforms. In-Store Payments
Retailers canoffer PayShap as a mode of payment to consumer as in-store payment option.

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Payment Flow

Here is a step-by-step view of a typical PayShap payment from a user’s perspective:
  1. Payment Selection: Customer selects PayShap on their bank app.
  2. Enter ShapId: The user enters the recipient’s (business or merchant) ShapId (e.g., merchant-xyz@bank).
  3. Payment Authorization: The user approves the payment within their banking app.
  4. Instant Notification: Confirmation is delivered to both payer and merchant in real-time.

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Payment Lifecycle

  1. Proxy Resolution
    The payer’s bank resolves the ShapId to determine the recipient’s bank account and identity.
  2. Payment Authorization
    User authorizes the payment.
    Optionally, merchants can configure business logic via Moment or APIs to approve/reject transactions.
  3. Completion
    Funds are instantly transferred and both parties receive confirmation. The transaction status updates to either “Closed” (success) or “Rejected” (failure).

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Key Components of a PayShap Payment

  • ShapId
    A unique proxy ID (e.g., phone number, business ID) linked to a bank account.
  • Proxy & Domain
    Structured as proxy@domain (e.g., dstv-9818009123@nedbank) for easy routing.

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How to Enable PayShap on Your Platform

Merchants can enable PayShap through any of the following integration modes:
  1. API adapter Integration
    Through Moment’s API adapter, ideal for systems ready to integrate our endpoints with pre-defined request and response body structures that would be shared by Moment.
  2. Offline File Sharing
    For lower-tech environments, Moment can accept batch files to process payments offline.

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Conclusion

PayShap is a transformative payment method for South African merchants and consumers. With real-time processing, mobile-first usability, and cost-effective infrastructure, it unlocks frictionless digital commerce. Whether you’re a startup, a retailer, or a billing platform, PayShap is a future-proof way to accept fast, safe payments across South Africa. For more technical details, contact our support team to get started.