IN THE SPOTLIGHT: POSTBANK LICENSING PROCESS UPDATE

IN THE SPOTLIGHT: POSTBANK LICENSING PROCESS UPDATE

• 31 March 2026
• In the Spotlight
• SA Legal Academy

In the context of the Postbank’s recently announced registration with the Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA), SA Legal Academy provides an update on the process of licensing the entity as a fully-fledged commercial bank. According to a Department of Communications & Digital Technologies media statement welcoming the FSCA registration, it reflects ‘important progress in rebuilding Postbank into a sustainable and well-governed state-owned retail bank’. Unfortunately, no further details were provided.

While the National Assembly’s Communications & Digital Technologies Committee has raised the issue from time to time, the most insightful information on the processes entailed is officially recorded in written replies from Minister Solly Malatsi to questions posed by Democratic Alliance MP Tsholofelo Bodlani. Published in June and September 2025, among other things these documents have revealed that the commercial banking licence application filed with the South African Reserve Bank (SARB) in June 2017 is now outdated and is being ‘reviewed’.

According to the Minister’s June 2025 response, the entity has nevertheless managed to fulfil ‘most’ other SARB requirements. These include:

• incorporating and registering Postbank as a state-owned company (April 2017)
• transferring formerly South African Post Office banking business to the newly registered entity (completed in April 2019), and
• initiating the process of registering a ‘bank controlling company’, with national government as the main shareholder.

In September 2025, the Minister informed Bodlani that – ‘to acquire a full commercial banking licence’ – the Postbank requires capitalisation to the tune of ‘approximately R2.3bn’ to meet ‘the SARB’s capital adequacy ratio threshold’ and for ‘further’ infrastructure investment.

Another SARB requirement relates to the replacement of South African Social Security Agency grant beneficiary gold cards with Postbank black cards. This is noting that, in August 2025, the SARB issued a fourth variation notice on the Postbank’s designation as a clearing system participant in terms of the 1998 National Payment System Act. As SA Legal Academy reported at the time, among other things the variation notice allowed the Postbank an additional 15 months to complete the process – the status of which was unknown at the time of writing.

• departmental media statement
• June 2025 reply
• September 2025 reply
• the SARB’s fourth variation notice
• SA Legal Academy report

Published by SA Legal Academy Policy Watch

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