Major changes coming to Standard Bank branches across South Africa

Standard Bank is accelerating its rollout of cashless branches across South Africa as customer demand for cash declines, and it shifts cash-handling to its ATMs. 

The bank first revealed these efforts in August 2025, with CFO Arno Daehnke outlining the financial benefit this rollout has for the bank. 

Daehnke explained that the rollout of cashless branches helps the bank control its operating expenses, reduce the physical handling of cash, and make its physical infrastructure more efficient. 

Making its physical infrastructure more efficient has not come at the expense of its points of presence, with it increasing client touchpoints over the past few years. 

However, it has had to adjust its physical infrastructure amid changing customer behaviour. Nearly 90% of the bank’s cash deposits are received via non-branch channels, with 97% of withdrawals being made outside its branch network.

As a result, the bank has repurposed some of its traditional branches as part of a deliberate shift towards a more efficient model. 

This transition includes the removal of in-branch Teller Cash Services in selected locations, with cash services consolidated into strategically located centralised branches where processing capabilities have been enhanced.

“Our customers are telling us very clearly how they want to engage with us. In many areas, cash usage has declined significantly, while demand for advisory-led, digitally enabled banking and complex servicing has grown,” Standard Bank’s Kabelo Makeke said. 

“Our cashless branch strategy ensures we are investing where it matters most – in convenience, expertise, and better service, in locations closer to our customers.” 

Customers who still require teller-based cash services will be supported by nearby branches that retain these facilities, the bank said. 

Standard Bank currently has 62 cashless branches in operation out of a network of 635 branches in South Africa. This is up from only five branches in 2020. 

The bank also has 110 modular branches, which are cashless.

Simultaneously, the bank has shrunk the floorspace of its branches by over 30% since 2020 as cash transactions are now conducted elsewhere. 

The shift has resulted in Standard Bank being able to change its staff mix at branches and employ more multi-service consultants and fewer cash consultants.

Say goodbye to ATMs

Standard Bank’s shift towards cashless branches and its efforts to move cash-based transactions to ATMs come amid plans from the Reserve Bank to fundamentally overhaul South Africa’s cash system.

The Reserve Bank aims to create a cash-management utility and to tighten oversight of how money circulates in the South African economy. 

The bank’s Payment Ecosystem Modernisation Programme is expected to reduce cash usage by around 30% to 40% in the coming years.

Payments Ecosystem Modernisation Programme executive director Pradeep Maharaj said that the Reserve Bank’s cash-management utility will make it easier and cheaper for consumers to access cash and deposit it. 

In particular, this utility will aim to ensure that poorer South Africans, and those in rural areas, will not be left behind by the increasing digitisation of the economy. 

In some cases, it is not profitable for commercial banks to operate ATMs or branches in areas with small populations, particularly if multiple banks are already operating in the area.

A key part of this trategy is the rollout of white-label ATMs in South Africa, which will allow customers from any bank to withdraw money at minimal or no cost. 

“As far as ATMs are concerned, we are looking to roll out white-label ATMs, which means that all the infrastructure in the country will be taken over by the utility,” Maharaj said. 

“This means that all ATMs will offer their services at the same price, in contrast to how it is currently, with only your bank offering you a better price.” 

Maharaj did not give an exact number for the price of withdrawing or depositing cash at these white-label ATMs, but said it would be close to zero for the end user. 

“We are proposing that all of the ATMs in the country go into a utility, so a cash-management utility will be set up, and all the ATM infrastructure will be brought into it,” Maharaj said. 

Alongside ATM infrastructure, all the cash centres in South Africa will be brought under the management of this utility. 

“All of this, we believe, should go into a utility and be shared infrastructure. This means we can rationalise infrastructure, spread the infrastructure to areas where cash is still in demand and thus minimise the movement of cash,” Maharaj said. 

This will ultimately result in the cost of managing, transporting, and securing cash coming down over time, enabling the Reserve Bank to offer services more cheaply.

“We believe that we make a compelling argument for banks to bring their infrastructure into our utility. We will consider allowing private ATMs, but for any customer using that, it will be the same cost as using a white-label ATM,” he said. 

This means that there will be very little incentive for commercial banks to operate their own ATM infrastructure, as they will be unable to charge elevated fees to recoup their costs.