(Billions of rand settled per month)

Payments settled in rand across Southern Africa (SADC-RTGS). 1 series: Value settled. Latest, Sep 2026: Value settled 279.5.

The region's own cross-border settlement system, run by the South African Reserve Bank, settles in rand rather than dollars. Values are in nominal rand. April to September 2022 are missing. The number of transactions roughly tripled in September 2024, almost all between South Africa, Namibia, Eswatini and Lesotho, while values barely moved, so the count before and after is not comparable; the SARB's sheets do not say why.

See also: Laurence Wilse-Samson, "The South African Economy", chapter 7, Services, Finance and the Digital Economy

Classroom exerciseCompare the average value settled per month in the first six months of data with the last six. Then work out the average payment (value divided by transactions) in August and in September 2024. What does the change suggest about which payments moved onto the system, and why would a region route small cross-border payments through a rand system rather than through dollar correspondent banks? Teach page