Shoprite wants Reserve Bank to solve Bankserv problems
Nov 10 2009
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All PIN-based electronic transactions, including ATM transactions, were again affected by Bankserv system failures, reaching a peak on Tuesday 3 November 2009. The Shoprite Group expressed its dismay on 6 November at the apparent indifference demonstrated by commercial banks in South Africa to address intermittent system failures in the country's national electronic payment system successfully, causing consumers endless frustration and leaving them disenchanted with retailers.

Shoprite Group deputy managing director Carel Goosen said that through the supermarket group's membership of the South African Retailers Payment Issues Forum (SARPIF) it has played a leading role in highlighting Bankserv systems issues over the past four years. There has been no noticeable improvement and Shoprite is now lobbying at Reserve Bank level in an effort to force banks to resolve the problems.

“Bankserv is an automated clearing house owned by the banks and provides interbank electronic transaction switching and settlement services to the South African banking sector,” explains Goosen. “When an authorisation request is sent from the vendors to the banks via Bankserv, the bank sends an approval to the vendor and puts an authorisation against a shopper's account after which the money is withdrawn by the banks from the account and placed in a holding account.

However, an intermittent malfunction in the system causes the value never to be sent to the vendor, which results in an uncompleted sale and therefore the transaction is declined. In the mean time many customers, while still at the checkout, receive a mobile phone text message from their bank that the transaction has been completed, but the information on the cashier's terminal advises that the transaction has been declined.

“This past Tuesday at 11am, the interbank switch developed processing problems, which affected all debit card transactions and some credit card transactions. Two hours later Bankserv was still investigating a solution and retailers continued to experience random declines and timeouts throughout the week.

Adapted from Source: www.bizcommunity.com, 10 November 2009