South African banks report surge in digital wallet transactions
Recent financial results from major South African banks, including Capitec, Nedbank, and Discovery, show that consumers are increasingly turning to digital wallets and virtual cards while using physical bank cards less frequently.
According to Stitch’s “State of Consumer Payments in South Africa 2025” report, 90% of respondents have tried or used payment methods beyond cash and cards, while less than 30% said they had not used digital wallets for payments in the past year.
Currently, all major South African banks except TymeBank support digital wallets. The most popular include Apple Wallet, Garmin Pay, Google Wallet, Samsung Wallet, and SwatchPay, enabling users to link physical or virtual bank cards for in-person payments via smartphones and smartwatches with NFC technology.
Technology takes over
Initially, adoption was limited, as NFC chips were mostly available in premium devices. But support has since expanded to budget smartphones, and with Google Wallet’s launch in South Africa in 2022, far more devices gained compatibility.
That same year, Capitec — the country’s largest bank by clients — launched wallet support, and by 2025 the bank recorded a 159% increase in wallet transactions to 167 million. The value stored in wallets rose 161% from R13.1 billion to R34.2 billion, while wallet users at Capitec grew 103% to about 1 million.
Other banks — including Absa, Discovery Bank, FNB, Nedbank, and Standard Bank — adopted digital wallets earlier, but still report strong growth. FNB recently announced a 45% increase in wallet transactions in FY2025 and a 68% rise in virtual card payments, now representing 11.5% of all card spend.
Nedbank reported a 61% increase in digital contactless payments, including wallets, in H1 2025. Discovery Bank also revealed that over 60% of its clients prefer wallets over physical cards.
One factor driving adoption is security. While small card payments up to R500 often don’t require a PIN and are vulnerable to fraud, digital wallets add biometric or password authentication. This makes them not only safer for clients but also attractive for banks, which actively promote the shift.
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