Who Are the Participants in a Payment?
A payment that takes a customer two seconds to approve passes through the hands of several organisations, each with a defined role. Knowing who does what helps you understand where fees come from, who to contact when something goes wrong, and why some problems (like a payer's bank declining a debit order) are outside your provider's control.
The participants differ slightly between card payments and bank-based payments such as EFT, DebiCheck and PayShap, but the roles map closely onto each other.
Who is involved in every payment?
- Payer — the person or business whose account or card is debited. In debit order terminology, the payer is also called the debtor or account holder.
- Payee or merchant — the business receiving the money. In collections terminology, the payee is the creditor or user.
- Payer's bank — the bank that holds the payer's account and decides whether to approve each debit. For card payments this is the issuing bank (the bank that issued the card).
- Payee's bank — the bank that receives and credits the funds. For card payments this role is played by the acquiring bank, which contracts with the merchant to accept cards. In debit order collections, the equivalent role is the sponsoring bank, which sponsors the collections into the clearing system.
- Payment service provider (PSP) — a company such as Kwik that connects businesses to the payment rails, handling submission, mandates, statuses, reporting and settlement so the business does not need a direct bank integration. Related roles such as gateways, processors and switches are unpacked in Gateway, processor, switch and acquirer explained.
Who operates the infrastructure between the banks?
- BankservAfrica — South Africa's automated clearing house. It clears interbank EFT, debit order, DebiCheck, real-time clearing and PayShap transactions, exchanging instructions between banks and calculating settlement obligations.
- South African Reserve Bank (SARB) — the central bank. It oversees the national payment system under the National Payment System Act and operates SAMOS, the settlement system in which banks settle their obligations to each other.
- Payments Association of South Africa (PASA) — the payment system management body recognised by the SARB. It sets the rules its member banks and system operators follow in each payment stream, including debit order and DebiCheck rules.
- Card schemes — networks such as Visa and Mastercard, which set the rules for card payments and route authorisations between acquirers and issuers.
How do the roles line up across payment types?
| Role | Card payment | Debit order / DebiCheck | EFT / PayShap credit |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pays | Cardholder | Debtor (account holder) | Sender |
| Gets paid | Merchant | Creditor (business collecting) | Beneficiary |
| Payer's bank | Issuing bank | Debtor's bank | Sender's bank |
| Bank on the business side | Acquiring bank | Sponsoring bank | Beneficiary's bank |
| Interbank network | Card scheme | BankservAfrica | BankservAfrica |
Why does it matter who does what?
- Declines and unpaids originate at the payer's bank. If a debit order is returned for insufficient funds or a card is declined, the decision was made by the payer's bank, not by Kwik or your own bank. See Card declines and response codes and Unpaids, returns and resubmissions.
- Rules come from PASA, the schemes and the SARB. Requirements such as valid mandates, DebiCheck authentication and dispute timelines are industry rules, not provider preferences.
- Each participant adds a step and often a fee. The chain of participants explains the cost structure described in Payment Fees and Interchange Explained.
Related topics
Payment Stages
Understand the four core stages of a payment, what happens at each stage, and why a successful authorisation does not always mean you have been paid.
Methods, Rails and Channels
Learn the difference between a payment method, the rail it runs on and the channel it is accepted through, with South African examples for each.