Peach Payments enables real-time clearance payouts

Digital payments provider Peach Payments has launched real-time clearance (RTC) payouts for merchants in South Africa. The new offering lets merchants top up their float and disburse payments.

“Peach Payments’ revamped payout capability offers a seamless, automated solution to disburse funds in SA,” says Rahul Jain, CEO and co-founder of Peach.

“With real-time payouts, automated processes, and batch payment handling, it reduces manual intervention and enhances efficiency. This is a key enabler for Peach Payments as we look to scale our offering locally and further afield.”

Merchants can top up their float using their settlement funds or via EFT, which aims to simplify float management. Real-time clearance means recipients can typically access their funds within 90 seconds.

Jain says Peach has launched the offering at roughly half the usual merchant transaction fee.

Reprocessing

Peach’s RTC Payouts offers automated reconciliation, CSV uploads, float top-ups, and batch payments, which are not delayed if the merchant’s bank’s systems are down.

The Peach API handles automated bulk payments, keeps payouts moving to other banks, and highlights any failed payments for reprocessing, with no guesswork or manual reconciliation. A user interface on the Peach dashboard manages payments for merchants who prefer not to use the API, or want to make a single payment.

Peach says the offering is useful for companies that need to rapidly distribute refunds and commissions to customers, pay gig workers with varying payout schedules, and manage salary disbursements, bonuses, and expense reimbursements. It can facilitate loan disbursements and repayments, and insurance claim settlements to policyholders.

Settlements

Fred Gyekye Ofosu, product operations manager of payroll provider Cadana Pay, says: “Switching to Peach Payments RTC Payouts has resulted in a 50% reduction in costs. The pricing model is transparent, and we no longer incur hidden fees or deal with costly intermediaries. For a global payroll provider like us, that directly improves margins and allows us to reinvest in growth.

“Previously, it took up to four days for funds to reach recipients, but now with Peach Payments RTC Payouts, we’ve cut the process to just hours. We’ve achieved a 75% time saving on settlement and payout operations, drastically improving both internal workflows and the user experience.”

Activation

Merchants with the in-house technical abilities to use the API can integrate and go live within a day or two. Merchants who prefer not to use the API can access Payouts on their existing Peach dashboard.

The offering is available in SA and will be made available in other countries in due course, contingent on their regulatory requirements.

Peach plans to integrate Payouts with other payment methods. This will allow for features like refunds for EFT payments. It will facilitate partnerships for expanding into new markets and reaching different customer segments, such as through e-wallet, and voucher payouts.