Retail Assist
Retail Assist holds a direct SARB designation to acquire and clear card payment transactions directly in the National Payment System. That gives merchants a real alternative to traditional banking infrastructure, right here from Cape Town.
Explore what we doDirect Scheme Connections
Not through a bank
Direct card scheme access
Most payment service providers in South Africa route through an acquiring bank. Retail Assist holds its own direct connections to the card schemes, so merchants get the same network access that until now only acquiring banks have had.
UnionPay · Diners Club · American Express
Depending on your bank, your transaction proceeds are settled to your account the next business day.* No waiting around, and no guessing when the money will arrive.
Our direct acquiring model removes intermediaries, which means better rates passed on to you. Transparent pricing with no hidden fees or surprise charges.
Our dedicated risk and compliance team monitors transactions to protect your business and keep you fully aligned with South African regulatory requirements.
Every merchant starts with one of these. What you choose decides how much of the payment chain we hold, and how much of it stays where it is today.
Keep your bank
Stay with the acquiring arrangement you already have. Our switch sits between your point-of-sale and your bank, and everything downstream of it carries on exactly as it does today.
Replace your bank
Retail Assist holds its own SARB designation and direct scheme connections to Mastercard, Visa and PayInc, so your transaction never leaves our infrastructure.
Issue your own cards
Branded gift and store of value cards redeemable only inside your own merchant network, on our EMV PIN chip-based platform. Runs on its own, or alongside our other services.
Not sure which one fits? Tell us how you take payments today and we'll walk you through the options.
Get in TouchPlenty of merchants would rather keep the banking relationship they already have. Your transaction runs through our switch, with our terminals, routing and reconciliation, and your existing bank holds the acquiring leg.
Or we can take the bank out of the path altogether. Most payment service providers hand your transaction to a bank the moment it leaves the terminal, but Retail Assist is SARB-designated to acquire and clear in its own right, so we can take it the whole way: our switch, our scheme connections, our clearing leg.
Your own closed loop cards take a shorter path again, never leaving your network and never touching a scheme. Switch between the three and watch the path redraw.
We are your acquirer and talk directly with the card schemes.
We are your switch with your bank as the acquiring leg in the middle.
We are your closed loop card issuer for gift cards or other stores of value.
Terminal capture
The card is read at the terminal, and the PIN entered on the PED is encrypted and validated against the master keys held in our own PCI PIN-compliant HSMs.
Retail Assist switch
The authorisation request lands on our switch. Velocity and risk rules are applied here.
The authorisation request lands on our switch. Velocity and risk rules are applied here, then the request is routed on to your acquiring bank.
Our switch recognises the card as one of yours and routes it to your own programme rather than out to a scheme.
Your acquiring bank
The bank holding your merchant agreement takes the request onto its own host and presents it to the scheme.
Scheme routing
Routed straight to the card scheme over our own certified connection.
Onto the card scheme over your acquiring bank's connection.
Issuer decision
The cardholder's bank approves or declines and returns a response code.
Your card programme
The balance is checked and debited against the store of value. We can hold that ourselves, or connect through to your treasury and leave the value with you.
Clearing & settlement
Batched into the national clearing cycle overnight, and depending on your bank the proceeds reach your account the next business day.
Your bank clears and settles on the cycle you already have with them. We reconcile the batch and hand it over.
Balance & reporting
The new balance goes back to the terminal, and the movement lands in the same reconciliation as the rest of your estate.
Getting your devices live shouldn't be the hard part. We manage the full terminal lifecycle from EMV certification and estate deployment through to ongoing remote management.
Established in 2015, Retail Assist is the first non-bank entity in South Africa authorised to directly acquire and clear payment transactions. We're here to give merchants a real choice: modern payment infrastructure that isn't controlled by the banks.
Based at 186 Loop Street in Cape Town, our team has 100+ years of combined retail and payment experience across payments, technology, risk and compliance. That depth is what lets us design the right solution for your needs, and what makes things work smoothly for our customers, every day.
SARB Designated Acquirer
Direct designation from the South African Reserve Bank, overseen by its National Payment System Department (NPSD), effective 1 June 2020. Government Gazette No. 43358
PCI DSS Certified
Certified against the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard for how cardholder data is handled.
PCI PIN Certified
Certified for PIN processing and the cryptographic key management behind it.
EMV Compliant
Chip and PIN card transactions handled to the global EMV specification.
Retail Assist prides itself in effortlessly facilitating payment transactions on behalf of our customers. As market disruptors, we remain relentlessly focused on delivering value.
A team of specialists in payments, technology, risk, compliance, and operations who work together to make your transactions effortless.
Chief Executive Officer
Chief Operating Officer
Head of Payments
Chief Technology Officer
Chief Risk & Compliance Officer
Banking Applications Engineer
Payments Engineer
Payments Analyst
Payments Engineer
Financial Operations Manager
Developer
Financial Accountant
Payments Quality Assurance
Developer
Risk & Compliance Specialist
Payments Engineer
Head of Product Delivery
Developer
Operations Delivery Engineer
Risk & Compliance Specialist
In-house Counsel
Developer
Developer
Head of Infrastructure
Our team knows the South African market and is available to help you with your payment requirements. From onboarding to ongoing support, we're here for you.
Getting started is quick and simple. We walk you through KYC, integration planning and everything in between, and we stay with you all the way to go-live.
Talk to our team about what Retail Assist can do for your payment setup. Tell us what you need and we'll be in touch.
Thanks! Your message is with our team.
Office
4th Floor, Elkay House
186 Loop Street
Cape Town, 8001
Phone
086 187 2339
+27 21 023 1629 -
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