Spot Money Launches SA’s First Open Banking Offering
Spot Money has launched the country’s first Open Banking offering.
The move follows the 2020 acquisition of the Virgin Money South Africa business by a leading South African private equity firm, in partnership with the local executive management team.
Central to the rebrand of the company is the launch of the latest version of the Spot app.
Andre Hugo, who continues at the helm of the Spot Money business as CEO, says the app was a significantly revised offering which would introduce Spot’s entry into Open Banking, and heralds the beginning of a fundamentally different business strategy as the company drives fintech forward in South Africa.
“There is more to the future of financial services than making current products and services digital. Spot Money will introduce South Africans to a true Open Banking marketplace.”
“An Open Banking marketplace gives consumers more choice when it comes to managing their money. It’s a marketplace where highly personalised financial services such as loans and insurance are coupled with lifestyle services, rewards, and a wide range of value-added services.
The new Spot app has been developed using Mastercard’s technology, allowing Spot to issue physical and virtual Mastercard prepaid debit cards. Users can then transact at any retail location that accepts Mastercard.
The Spot app provides an intuitive mobile transactional account with no monthly account fees. The app will also enable direct contactless mobile phone payments using Mastercard’s tokenisation technology, aligned with the world’s growing adoption of contactless transactions. Customers will be able to order, within the app, a physical Spot prepaid debit card which is tap-to-pay enabled for contactless payments.
Spot also features Mastercard’s Scan to Pay functionality, which enables users to scan any Masterpass-enabled QR code in South Africa for the purchasing of goods and services.
Spot is the only app that gives customers the ability to Scan to Pay all of the major QR code payment types – Masterpass, SnapScan, wiCode and Zapper.
Spot Money’s app is now live on all major app stores: Apple, Huawei and Google Play Store.
