South Africa’s Competition Commission has recommended that the Competition Tribunal approve Capitec’s proposed R400 million acquisition of fintech provider Walletdoc in full, subject to specific behavioural conditions. Capitec, the country’s largest bank by customer base, first announced its intention to acquire the Johannesburg-based company in December 2025.
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Walletdoc operates as a third-party payment provider and system operator, offering merchant payment gateway solutions across e-commerce, in-app transactions, point-of-sale (POS) card processing, payment links, and digital wallets. It also processes transactions across major South African payment rails, including Capitec Pay and PayShap.
To prevent the acquisition from stifling competition in the digital payments sector, the Commission established three key conditions, all of which Capitec has formally accepted:
- Open Access to Capitec Pay: Capitec and Walletdoc must make the Capitec Pay instant EFT platform available to all third-party payment service providers (PSPs) that possess the technical and commercial capability to integrate with it.
- Protection of Competitor Data: Capitec is strictly prohibited from misusing commercially sensitive or confidential business data gathered from competing PSPs that access the Capitec Pay system.
- Equitable Treatment of Alternative Rails: Capitec must treat competing payment networks, specifically PayShap Request and the overall Rapid Payments Program Rail, no less favourably than its proprietary Capitec Pay product. Differing treatment is permitted only when driven by objectively verifiable and proportionate factors, such as scheme design rules or risk-management controls.
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The Commission concluded that the proposed transaction presents no significant public interest concerns. The deal now moves to the Competition Tribunal for final legal authorization.
If approved, the acquisition will advance Capitec’s strategy to lower merchant processing fees and widen access to digital financial services. Capitec maintains that integrating Walletdoc’s infrastructure is a key milestone in its efforts to build a more inclusive, competitive payment ecosystem for South African consumers and businesses.
