Financial services firm FNB has launched the latest version of its payments platform that provides businesses with real-time insight into their cash flow and stock levels across different sales channels and payment rails, said FNB Business CEO Ghana Msibi.

The upgraded SpeedPoint platform also integrates a range of payment options, including digital payment options such as electronic wallets, the PayShap instant transfer service, quantity-recognition-based payment services and instant electronic fund transfer payment services.

These software services could also be used on any Android device, said FNB commercial and merchant services CEO John Mlangeni on March 3 in Marlboro Gardens, Gauteng.

“Our aim is to move beyond payments,” said Msibi.

Payment options for consumers were broad and growing. Helping merchants accept more ways for their customers to pay benefits their businesses, he said.

However, it was the benefit that instant and accessible business information brought to small businesses and the ability to easily adopt new payments methods as customers demand them that were most important to businesses' health, he said.

“With this launch, we reaffirm our commitment to being a partner to businesses beyond payments.”

Many small businesses in South Africa still rely on cash, with about 47% of the revenue of microenterprises coming from card payments and the rest from cash.

The new SpeedPoint platform is aimed at enabling small businesses to adopt new payment methods, which will also drive digital and financial inclusion of small businesses, he said.

There were areas in South Africa where connectivity was spotty. Adoption of digital payments happened where the infrastructure was present, and the solution was affordable and trusted, said FNB personal and core banking product head Ebert Strydom.

For example, e-wallets had been available as an alternative payment method for about 20 years. FNB was concerned about what the e-wallet should become and where payments were moving, said Msibi.

Additionally, new payment methods are quickly becoming integral parts of the payment capabilities of businesses, hence the bank's focus on ensuring that these payment methods can be accepted by businesses using its platform.

“If an e-wallet payment is made to someone in an area without connectivity or where vendors do not accept digital payments, that person has to withdraw the money as cash from a vendor or ATM and he or she moves out of the digital journey back to cash.

“The pressure on us is to close this loop so that digital payments can be made when needed and are efficient and cost-effective,” Msibi said.

Meanwhile, payments services multinational Visa sub-Saharan Africa merchant sales and acquiring senior director Lenny Kunga said payments had moved beyond card payments and point of sales devices.

People are paying by using their mobile phones and wearable devices, which are supported by many different payment services.

This meant that consumers had many choices to pay and merchants wanted to accept as many payment methods as possible. There was a convergence of payment methods taking place worldwide, he added.

He compared South Africa to fellow emerging markets Brazil and India, which were also seeing significant adoption of digital payment methods among small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

Established businesses were increasingly accepting digital payments, but there was significant adoption of digital payment methods by SMEs for various reasons, Kunga said.

Further, India is pushing for real-time payments for many reasons. Real-time payments help with cashflows in businesses and immediate settlement for businesses also accelerate the business and payment cycles.

A significant barrier for merchants is the cost of hardware and software is leading in terms of acceptance currently.

“SpeedPoint has lots of applications on the devices that can solve many of the business needs of merchants. Merchants can sell airtime, electricity and manage their inventory on this platform. Catering to these needs of businesses is what we are trying to drive with our partners,” Kunga said.

Small and microenterprises were often more vulnerable than an established retailer. FNB, therefore, focused on how it could fortify these small enterprises to ensure they could participate in the economy with confidence and were enabled to do better business, said Msibi.

“We need to move beyond payments and are empowering single traders and mom and pop stores by ensuring we introduce capabilities that can be brought into an established operation and be up and running quickly.

“We are bringing in partners to facilitate economic activity in the client base that we have. As a large bank selling these services to small businesses, we can negotiate at scale and reduce costs of these services, and the SpeedPoint devices we offer, for them,” he said.

Further, providing credit to small businesses at the correct price point is important for these businesses, and advances can be made against proven revenue, or immediate access to funds from sales that have not yet cleared from other banks can be provided when a merchant needs to make payments.

Additionally, Msibi said the bank was challenging itself to move to faster settlements and aiming to move from next-day settlements to intra-day settlements.

“The launch of the upgraded SpeedPoint platform is one step of many that we will be taking over the next year to ensure we reposition ourselves as a partner for businesses,” he said.