South Africa: Reserve Bank released position paper on retail central bank digital currency

On 27 November 2025, the South African Reserve Bank released its position paper on the necessity of a retail central bank digital currency in South Africa, together with a background note. The bank explained that a retail CBDC is technically feasible and could function as a digital complement to cash, although the publications found no immediate need to introduce one. The bank indicated that its current priorities are the modernisation of the national payment ecosystem, including the Payment Ecosystem Modernisation Programme and the expansion of non-bank participation in the national payment system. It also noted that it will continue to monitor developments in the payment system and will direct its next phase of CBDC work toward wholesale CBDC. The background note sets out an analysis of cash usage, digital-payment frictions, infrastructure constraints, demographic payment behaviour, and technical experimentation, which together form the empirical basis for the bank’s stated policy position.