Customer Snapshot
Industry: Financial Services / Payments Infrastructure
Region: South Africa
Platform: CRAFT (Central Resource Allowing Focused Transparency)
Engagement Model:
- Scrums.com Plan: Enterprise
- Long-term Product Partnership
- Dedicated Development Teams
- Platform Evolution & Maintenance
The Challenge
Operating at the core of South Africa’s national payments system, BankservAfrica and PayInc required a platform that could enforce compliance, reduce systemic risk, and scale across multiple payment streams - without compromising stability or regulatory trust.
Key challenges included:
Operating at national infrastructure scale
- Millions of transactions processed daily
- Strict regulatory oversight (SARB and industry bodies)
- Zero tolerance for instability, data errors, or downtime
- Complex coordination across banks, fintechs, and payment streams
CRAFT needed to act as a single source of truth across:
- Pre-onboarding and verification
- Central user and entity registration
- Ongoing monitoring and risk management
- Controlled exits when fraud or risk is detected
All while scaling across payment clusters such as EFT, PayShap, cards, and low-value debits.
Delivery model & procurement constraints
- Misalignment between capacity-based delivery and deliverable-driven procurement
- Tight banking change windows and monthly code freezes
- Increasing pressure to justify long-term contracts internally
- Growing expectations around transparency, reporting, and risk mitigation
The Goal
- Maintain stability and trust at national payments infrastructure level
- Scale CRAFT across multiple payment clusters and banks
- Improve delivery predictability under strict governance
- Reduce operational and compliance risk
- Prepare the platform for future commercialisation and innovation
Scrums.com Solution
Scrums.com partnered with BankservAfrica and PayInc as a long-term platform and delivery partner, combining product thinking, dedicated teams, and disciplined governance.
Key components included:
CRAFT as a lifecycle compliance platform
Designed CRAFT to support four critical stages:
- Pre-onboarding – vetting and verification
- Onboarding – central registration of user and entity profiles
- Monitoring – ongoing compliance, risk, and activity oversight
- Exit – controlled termination of payment relationships
This lifecycle model enables banks to retain sponsorship decisions while relying on BankservAfrica for verification, transparency, and risk intelligence.
Structured delivery with dedicated teams
- Dedicated Development Team aligned to CRAFT and API initiatives
- Embedded product and delivery management
- Multi-year maintenance agreement ensuring continuity and platform stability
This reduced onboarding churn, preserved institutional knowledge, and enabled predictable delivery in a regulated environment.
Proactive risk & governance frameworks
- Formal risk registers with ownership and mitigation plans
- Impact assessments for API and platform changes
- Executive-ready reporting to support internal approvals
Delivery shifted from reactive firefighting to controlled, auditable execution.
Scaling through APIs & multi-bank enablement
API initiatives enabling integration with major banks
- Standard Bank signed
- ABSA and Capitec showing intent
Shared onboarding and verification logic across institutions
Reduced duplication and faster time-to-market for new payment services
CRAFT evolved from a compliance tool into a strategic, ecosystem-wide enablement layer.
Preparing for the next phase (AI & SEOP)
- AI workshops focused on compliance, validation, and automation
- QA-as-a-Service (QAaaS) to strengthen testing capacity
- Introduction of SEOP for multi-team visibility, delivery analytics, and AI agents
Results
- Stable, secure operation of a nationally critical compliance platform
- Improved delivery predictability despite procurement and regulatory constraints
- Reduced operational risk through structured governance and risk management
- CRAFT adopted across multiple payment clusters and streams
- Strengthened BankservAfrica’s role as both regulator and ecosystem enabler
- Supported PayInc’s shift toward a more commercial, API-driven operating model
- NPS consistently 9–10 with strong long-term relationship trust
CRAFT now operates as a core digital backbone protecting South Africa’s payments ecosystem.
Why This Matters
For financial infrastructure providers, stability and trust are non-negotiable.
BankservAfrica and PayInc achieved:
- Long-term continuity in a highly regulated environment
- Scalable compliance without sacrificing control
- Clear delivery governance aligned to executive and regulatory needs
- A platform foundation ready for commercial expansion and innovation
This case demonstrates how national-scale platforms can modernise safely - without destabilising the systems they protect.
Scrums.com helps financial institutions modernise critical infrastructure, reduce risk, and scale innovation.
