Dr Philip Tromp has been appointed to act as lead facilitator in a project to review the use of interchange and to determine a model for the determination of payment interchange fees, in the South African banking system. As project champion and facilitator he played a leading role in the modernisation of the South African National Payment from 1994 to 1999, and has been active in the international payment system domain for the past 12 years. In this project experts in various aspects of the South African payment system landscape will provide assistance where and when required.

All payment streams officially recognised and registered within the South African National Payment System will be examined and addressed. Interchange, as applicable to payment systems, refers to the process whereby banks, through their devices, systems and procedures, facilitate the acceptance, collection, exchange, clearance and settlement of payment instruments, utilised by their customers, within a National Payment System.

Interchange fees will be reviewed in terms of whether they are feasible and/or justifiable in each payment stream and whether they are set at realistic and appropriate levels based on acceptable parameters. The project aims to establish a sustainable process whereby interchange rates can be reviewed from time to time as required by changing market conditions and requirements.

Payment instruments covered include credit cards, debit cards, credit transfers, direct debits, petrol / fleet cards, ATM and POS cash withdrawals as well as cheques. In addition, South African payment instruments developed specifically for the microfinance industry, referred to as authenticated and non-authenticated early debit orders (AEDO and NAEDO) will also be scrutinised.

The initial phase of the project comprises a study of the issues, stakeholder views and the body of knowledge available on the subject.

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