Case Study

Absa bank brings mobile banking to the masses

At the end of each month, hundreds of thousands of South Africans withdraw large amounts of cash from their bank accounts to distribute it to family members and workers. Absa, South Africa’s largest bank, noticed this trend and engaged ACI to find a secure, convenient way to help the 37% of South Africans without banking relationships transfer money without incurring the dangers inherent to moving large amounts of cash. 

Now, with CashSend in place, anyone in Absa clients can use their mobile phones to send money safely to others, even when those recipients don’t have a bank account.


“Unbanked South Africans are using CashSend to create 120,000 transactions per month with a total value of R 1B and a 12–15% growth rate.“

The challenge

  • Customers withdrawing large amounts of cash for distribution to workers and family members
  • Wanted to enable customers to send money to unbanked recipients and promote services to potential new customers

The solution

  • Developed CashSend with ACI Worldwide, a person-to-person payments solution
  • Enables senders to initiate payments from their mobile phone, online or from an ATM
  • Allows recipients to withdraw cash from any Absa ATM using their mobile phone

The results

  • Created a safe way to transmit funds across South Africa
  • Provided a greater level of convenience for Absa customers
  • Expanded Absa’s customer reach