South Africa: FinTech

Recent litigation between the South African Reserve Bank and fintech company Kastelo has brought exchange control compliance and crypto arbitrage under intense regulatory scrutiny. The case raises critical questions about how fintech business models involving cross-border transactions, foreign exchange, and digital assets must navigate South Africa's evolving regulatory framework, particularly regarding the use of individual foreign investment allowances for commercial purposes.

The South African Reserve Bank's dispute with fintech Kastelo has evolved from an account freeze into a pivotal test case for how exchange control regulations apply to crypto arbitrage platforms. As the litigation moves beyond procedural questions to substantive regulatory compliance, businesses operating cross-border digital asset models face critical uncertainty about when client foreign exchange allowances can legitimately support platform-based crypto transactions. The unresolved merits may fundamentall

Africa's mobile money market is entering a new phase of regional integration, with payment rails becoming increasingly central to commerce and platform growth. Major developments include Vodacom Tanzania's partnership with Thunes for real-time international payments, MTN Rwanda's strong mobile money earnings, and Tunisia's launch of TUNPAY to unify mobile payment systems nationwide. These shifts mark a transition from domestic mobile wallet adoption to a more interoperable regional payment architecture that

On 29 April 2026, the Minister of Finance, Enoch Godongwana, published amendments to the Regulations relating to Mutual Banks in Government Gazette Notice No. 7414 (Government Gazette No. 54593).

Prediction markets expose an awkward gap in South Africa’s current crypto-regulatory framework. The difficulty is not simply that they involve digital assets.

The National Treasury published the Draft Capital Flow Management Regulations, 2026 for public comment on Friday, 17 April 2026. The draft regulations represent a fundamental overhaul of South Africa's exchange...

South Africa has taken a significant step toward strengthening transparency in crypto asset transfers with the introduction of the "Travel Rule", now mandated under Directive 9...

The recently delivered judgment in Standard Bank v South African Reserve Bank, which concluded that cryptocurrencies do not constitute "capital" for purposes of Regulation...

The recent judgment in Standard Bank v South African Reserve Bank addresses a long-standing debate in South African law: namely, whether cryptocurrencies constitute "capital" for purposes of Regulation 10(1)(c)...