Standard Bank moved R164 trillion. FNB's New CEO.

Morning. Picture Harry Kellan stepping down from FNB after two years - roughly the time it takes most banks to approve a new product. Meanwhile, Standard Bank moved R164 trillion through its systems in 2025, which equals R300 million very. Single. Minute. To put that in perspective: the entire global mobile money ecosystem processed $2 trillion last year.

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Golden nuggets

🏦 FNB appointed Lytania Johnson as CEO after Harry Kellan's two-year tenure - she'll run both FNB and the new retail and business banking segment serving entry-level to middle-income customers and SMEs.

💳 Standard Bank processed R164 trillion in payments in 2025 - equivalent to R300 million flowing through its infrastructure every minute, four times larger than the entire global mobile money ecosystem.

📢 Standard Bank CEO Sim Tshabalala called for urgent regulatory reform, saying outdated frameworks constrain growth and create opportunities for corruption through incompetent contractor appointments.

📱 Mobile money hit $2 trillion globally in 2025, doubling from $1 trillion in just four years - but 75% of the 2.3 billion registered accounts remain inactive monthly due to fraud concerns and transaction taxes.

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CORE BANKING

Standard Bank moved R164 trillion, CEO wants regulatory reform

What's happening? Standard Bank processed R164 trillion in payments across 2.3 billion transactions in 2025 - a 9% increase driven by expansion of electronic channels, merchant acquiring growth, and adoption of instant and embedded payments across its African markets. That R164 trillion equates to roughly $9 trillion in payment flows at current exchange rates, more than four times the value of the entire global mobile money ecosystem. Cross-border payment flows grew 12%, with Standard Bank holding 31% market share in South Africa and 17% across its broader African footprint.

Zoom in: The bank became the first African institution to connect clients directly to the Africa-Asia payment corridor via CIPS - China's cross-border interbank payment system - processing R9.5 billion since the service launched late last year. Its Aroko blockchain-enabled cross-border settlement rail has processed more than R1 trillion in flows. Standard Bank also partnered to support Zaru, a rand-denominated stablecoin, as part of its push into digital asset infrastructure. In South Africa, immediate payments grew 37% year on year, while merchant acquiring platform SimplyBlu posted a 19% increase in new merchant sales. In Uganda, mobile money platform FlexiPay processed R7 billion in transaction value in 2025, up 99% year on year.

So what: The scale matters for competitive positioning. Standard Bank's payment infrastructure underpins liquidity, commerce, and trade across multiple African markets, creating network effects that make it harder for competitors to replicate. Moving R164 trillion annually requires resilience and constant innovation - any system failure or fraud vulnerability at this scale creates systemic risk. For fintech competitors, Standard Bank processes more value in a single day than most digital banks handle in a quarter. Catching up requires either building comparable infrastructure or finding ways to partner with incumbents rather than compete head-on.

FINTECH

Mobile money doubled to $2 trillion but three-quarters of accounts stay dormant

What's happening: The GSMA's State of the Industry Report found mobile money reached 2.3 billion registered accounts in 2025, with $2 trillion flowing through wallets globally - doubling from $1 trillion in just four years. It took 20 years for mobile money to reach $1 trillion in annual transaction value, but only four more years to double that figure. Talk about exponential. Active monthly users grew 15% to 593 million, with Sub-Saharan Africa driving most new accounts and activity. Merchant payments grew by almost half to $155 billion in 2025, making it the fastest-growing mobile money use case by far.

The challenge: Nearly three-quarters of registered accounts remain inactive monthly. Fraud risks and transaction taxes in some markets discourage regular use and push users back to cash. The number of mobile money providers offering insurance increased by one-third in 2025, while credit remained the most widely offered adjacent financial service, closely followed by savings products. That mix suggests providers are trying to deepen customer relationships beyond transfers and payments.

Africa vs The Rest of The World: Regulation played a key role in mobile money's development. More than 60% of mobile money providers said interoperability, know-your-customer, and consumer protection rules supported their operations. At the same time, cross-border data transfer rules were cited as a barrier by 24% of providers surveyed. Countries like Brazil and India regulate pricing to keep costs low and encourage adoption - person-to-person transactions are free on Brazil's Pix and India's UPI, while merchant fees are regulated by central banks. In contrast, many African markets leave pricing to operators, creating fragmented fee structures that can discourage usage.

So what does this all mean: The industry is shifting from a growth-at-all-costs phase to a financial health phase. Simply adding more registered accounts doesn't translate to meaningful financial inclusion if those accounts stay dormant. Providers need to solve the inactivity problem - which means addressing fraud concerns, reducing transaction costs in high-tax markets, and ensuring digital financial literacy keeps pace with account growth.

PayShap's problem isn't technology - it's that banks profit from not using it

What's happening: Three years after launch, PayShap's adoption remains slow because banks that own the instant payment system earn premium margins from the expensive services PayShap was designed to replace. The conflict of interest is structural: traditional electronic funds transfers clear in days, cost banks less to process, and generate higher fees than PayShap's low-cost, instant settlement model.

The Full Picture: Some banks have set PayShap fees higher than alternatives or failed to promote it aggressively, protecting existing revenue streams while technically participating in the system. The Reserve Bank's investment in PayShap through PayInc last year triggered a course correction. Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana confirmed in his 2026 budget speech that PayInc would provide open, shared digital payments infrastructure, repositioning PayShap as a utility rather than a product with variable pricing and limits across different banks.

So what: The structural tension won't resolve through voluntary bank participation alone. Banks maximise short-term profits by maintaining high fees on legacy payment rails. PayShap threatens those margins. The Reserve Bank's increased ownership stake creates leverage to force standardised pricing and mandatory participation, but execution determines whether that leverage gets used effectively. The policy question is simple: will the Reserve Bank use its 50% stake to mandate the low-cost, instant payments South Africa needs, or will commercial bank interests continue dictating the pace of change?

FNB restructures while its CEO exits after two years

Catch-Up: FirstRand restructured its banking operations and appointed Lytania Johnson as FNB's new CEO, effective 1 April. Johnson, who has spent 25 years at FNB and led the personal banking segment for three years, will also head the newly created retail and business banking segment - a dual mandate signalling the degree of confidence FirstRand's leadership has in her.

Look back: Harry Kellan, who took over as FNB CEO in April 2024 after a decade as FirstRand group CFO, will retire at year-end. Under his tenure, FNB crossed R1 trillion in customer deposits and surpassed 10 million customers while lifting return on equity to 41%. The bank delivered 10% growth in pre-tax profits, positioning FNB as one of the highest-returning retail banks in South Africa.

What’s Next: Johnson faces a highly competitive environment. FNB competes directly with Standard Bank, Absa, and Nedbank for the mass retail and SME banking market - a segment increasingly contested by digital challengers including TymeBank and Discovery Bank. Her dual mandate running both FNB and the new retail and business banking segment simultaneously is unusually expansive for a new CEO, particularly one inheriting a bank mid-restructure. The restructuring reflects a broader trend across global banking where institutions simplify structures to respond faster to digital disruption, regulatory pressure, and changing customer expectations.

So what: FirstRand is betting Johnson can execute the simplification strategy Kellan designed without losing momentum. If she delivers, FNB maintains its market-leading position and ~41% return on equity. For mid-market CFOs and SME owners watching this space: FNB's restructure signals renewed focus on your segment. The bank is consolidating retail and business banking under one leader to remove friction in serving entrepreneurs, small businesses, and households that need solutions covering both personal and business needs. That should translate to better service and more integrated products. As usual, whether it actually does all depends on execution over the next 12-18 months.

Rapid Fire

🇿🇦 South Africa

SARB holds rates at 6.75%. The South African Reserve Bank's Monetary Policy Committee kept the repo rate unchanged at 6.75% on 27 March, meeting market expectations as inflation remains within the target band. The repo rate - the interest rate at which commercial banks borrow from SARB - stayed steady despite Middle East tensions pushing oil prices higher.

MTN reshapes board with five new directors. MTN Group appointed five independent non-executive directors as part of comprehensive succession planning. Herman Bosman, Adv Ouma Rasethaba, Stéphane Richard, Ignatius Sehoole, and Saf Yeboah-Amankwah joined the board effective 31 March.

Diesel shortage triggers queues and rationing. South Africa faced local diesel shortages and rationing after global oil prices surged following Middle East tensions. Filling stations in Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal implemented purchase limits, with some capping diesel sales at 50 litres per vehicle.

Cape Town chases India's outsourcing model. The Western Cape government is pursuing high-end outsourcing opportunities similar to India's business process sector, targeting financial services, technology support, and analytics work.

Startup spotlight

4G Capital

Kenya/Uganda • Founded 2013 • $2M from GIF Growth

East African fintech 4G Capital secured $2 million from GIF Growth, the Global Innovation Fund's growth-stage vehicle, to expand financial inclusion across the region. Founded by Wayne Hennessy-Barrett, the company provides credit and training to micro and small enterprises, which account for over 80% of employment in East Africa but remain largely excluded from formal finance.

4G Capital has disbursed over $800 million through 6.8 million loans to more than 755,000 clients in Kenya and Uganda, nearing $1 billion in total lending. The new funding will scale its "touch-tech" model, combining digital lending with in-person support, while strengthening infrastructure and partnerships.

What to watch

On this day in banking history

1 April 1998: The European Central Bank was established in Frankfurt, setting monetary policy for the euro zone ahead of the currency's physical introduction in 2002. The ECB became responsible for maintaining price stability across member states, conducting foreign exchange operations, and managing official foreign reserves.