Standard Bank processes R164-trillion in payments across Africa in 2025 as digital rails scale
Standard Bank has reported a major expansion of its payments footprint, saying it processed more than R164-trillion in total payment flows during 2025. The figure, released in a statement on Monday, positions the lender as the continent’s biggest transactional banking franchise and highlights how quickly Africa’s payment rails are being modernised.
The bank said it handled 2.3 billion individual transactions in the year, representing a 9% increase compared with 2024. Standard Bank credited the rise to the continued build-out of electronic channels, growth in merchant acquiring, and growing uptake of faster payment methods such as instant and embedded payments across its markets.
Cross-border activity also gained momentum. Standard Bank reported that cross-border payment flows grew 12%, and it maintained a 31% market share in South Africa. For a bank that sits at the centre of corporate and institutional finance, these trends point to both trade recovery dynamics and deeper integration with regional and global payment corridors.
Standard Bank payments in 2025 hit R164-trillion with instant and cross-border expansion
One of Standard Bank’s headline moves was its role in expanding access to the Africa-Asia payment corridor. The bank said it became the first African institution to connect clients directly through CIPS, China’s cross-border interbank payment system, after the service launched late last year. Standard Bank reported it processed R9.5-billion through this route since go-live.
This is significant because CIPS connectivity can reduce friction in international settlement, particularly when businesses need predictable processing times and better visibility in cross-border transfers. In practical terms, Standard Bank’s integration aims to give clients a more direct pathway for certain Africa-to-Asia payment activity, without relying as heavily on indirect routes.
Standard Bank also described progress on its blockchain-enabled settlement infrastructure. Its Aroko rail, operated under the corporate and investment banking division, has already processed more than R1-trillion in payment flows. While blockchain can be a polarising topic in financial services, Standard Bank’s messaging focuses on the real-world outcome: settlement at scale using modern distributed ledger concepts.
Alongside Aroko, the bank said it partnered to support Zaru, a rand-denominated stablecoin. The initiative forms part of Standard Bank’s broader approach to digital asset infrastructure, including tokenised deposits and blockchain-based settlement. The emphasis is clearly on practical use cases rather than hype—helping payment ecosystems move faster while keeping currency stability in view.
Within South Africa, Standard Bank pointed to strong momentum in immediate payments. It reported that immediate payments grew 37% year on year, signalling that more customers and businesses are using real-time rails for everyday settlement, including merchant and service payments.
Merchant acquiring was another standout area. Standard Bank’s SimplyBlu platform recorded a 19% increase in new merchant sales, reflecting continued onboarding of businesses onto electronic acceptance channels. This matters because merchant acquiring growth often correlates with higher transaction volumes, improved customer conversion, and broader commercial liquidity.
Outside South Africa, Standard Bank highlighted its presence in Uganda through mobile money services. It said FlexiPay processed R7-billion in transaction value in 2025, up 99% year on year. Such growth suggests that mobile money demand continues to deepen, even as bank-led payments expand in parallel.
To appreciate the scale, Standard Bank’s R164-trillion in flows translates to roughly $9-trillion at current exchange rates. The bank said this is more than four times the value of the entire global mobile money ecosystem, underscoring how institutional banking volumes can dwarf retail-focused payment markets.
The contrast is also a reminder that Africa’s payments landscape is not one single ecosystem—it’s multiple layers interacting in different ways.
How bank-led payments differ from retail mobile money
Comparisons with mobile money are useful, but they also show a structural difference in what each ecosystem is built to do. Standard Bank’s figures reflect transaction volumes from corporate, institutional, and cross-border payments—flows typically tied to trade settlement, liquidity management, treasury operations, and large-scale financial logistics.
Retail mobile payments, by contrast, are designed to serve broad populations at the “everyday” end of the economy. The GSMA’s latest State of the Industry Report on Mobile Money cited by the bank indicates that global mobile money transactions surpassed $2-trillion in 2025, a milestone that doubled within just four years and has been widely celebrated for extending financial inclusion across sub-Saharan Africa.
While mobile money is dominated by sub-Saharan markets, it typically moves smaller-value payments more frequently. That’s not a weakness—it’s a feature of how consumer payments work at scale. Platforms such as MTN’s MoMo process very large transaction volumes, with the bank noting MoMo processed more than $500-billion in transactions in 2025.
Banks like Standard Bank, however, are positioned to move the “capital side” of payments—helping to finance and settle economic activity behind the scenes. In other words, mobile money expands access at the base of the financial pyramid, while bank rails handle a different class of flows that supports trade, liquidity, and economic growth.
In many cases, these ecosystems are complementary rather than competing. Mobile money can broaden participation and reduce cash dependence for individuals, while banks connect the dots for businesses that need settlement at scale and cross-border reach.
In 2025, Standard Bank’s reported results suggest that the bank is strengthening both the volume side—through electronic and immediate payments—and the infrastructure side, by investing in corridor connectivity, modern settlement rails, and digital asset experiments.
The bank’s latest numbers reinforce a clear message: Africa’s payments future is being built simultaneously on fast consumer rails and on more robust institutional infrastructure—so money can move smoothly from local markets to global corridors.