Currency and Exchanges Manuals

For compliance teams, this is a meaningful development in South Africa’s cross-border payments landscape: it signals continued regulatory openness to non-bank payment providers handling limited foreign exchange transactions. Firms that partner with Wise, or that compete in remittances and cross-border payments, should review their exchange control policies, counterparty due diligence, and customer disclosures to reflect Wise’s new status. Banks and fintechs should verify the precise scope of Wise’s ADLA permissions, including transaction types and limits, by consulting the updated manual.

There is no immediate compliance deadline, but teams should update authorised dealer lists, third-party risk assessments, and AML/CFT monitoring to account for the appointment. Payment providers considering similar authorisation should note the ADLA pathway as a potential route to expand FX services. Overall, the appointment is informational but strategically relevant: it may intensify competition in retail and business cross-border payments, and it creates opportunities for compliant partnerships.

SARB remains focused on exchange control integrity, so firms must ensure that any flows through Wise remain within approved parameters and are correctly reported.