Case Study: Absa Bank expands secure mobile payments nationwide with ACI Worldwide's CashSend

Absa Bank Brings Mobile Banking to the Masses

ABSA Bank, one of South Africa’s largest retail banks with roughly 11.5 million customers, faced a recurring problem of customers withdrawing large amounts of cash to distribute to unbanked family members and workers—an unsafe, costly and inefficient practice that created month-end branch congestion. To reach the estimated 37% of the population without bank accounts and provide a safer, more convenient channel, ABSA partnered with ACI Worldwide and its BASE24-eps payments platform to develop a mobile person-to-person solution called CashSend.

Using ACI Worldwide’s BASE24-eps as the payments backbone, CashSend lets senders initiate transfers via mobile phone, online or ATM and enables recipients (no bank account required) to withdraw cash at any ABSA ATM using SMS codes. The service processes about 120,000 transactions per month (around 1 billion rand), growing 12–15% monthly, has reduced branch traffic for low-value payments, improved safety and convenience, and materially expanded ABSA’s reach into the unbanked market—demonstrating ACI Worldwide’s critical role in the rollout.

ABSA Bank

Rafick Cassim

Business Manager Self Service