The impact of Standard Bank’s direct connection to CIPS on global payments

ON DECEMBER 9 2025, Standard Bank of South Africa became the first African bank to connect directly into China's Cross-Border Interbank Payment System (CIPS).

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The ceremony photos and flags made for a compelling headline, but the real significance lies in the plumbing behind Africa's largest trade relationship. The cameras captured the moment. The spreadsheets will capture the impact.

This is not ideology. It is arithmetic

China has been Africa's biggest bilateral trading partner for 15 consecutive years. In 2024, two-way trade approached $300 billion. South Africa alone traded more than $54 billion’ worth of goods with China in 2023 to 2024, yet roughly 60% of that was settled in US dollars through correspondent banks in London or New York.

Every one of those dollar legs carried an implicit cost of 1 to 3% plus settlement delays of one to three days. Across South Africa’s trade with China, this translates into $650 to $950 million a year in avoidable friction. The inefficiency was not a flaw in the system. It was the system.

For decades, African corporates have worked within this architecture because there was no alternative. A South African importer would convert rand into dollars, route those dollars through offshore correspondent banks, and then have the receiving bank convert the dollars into renminbi. Every step added cost, delay and uncertainty. The complexity was tolerated as a cost of doing business.

Standard Bank's direct participation in CIPS changes that reality. A payment that previously passed through several intermediaries can now move directly between Johannesburg and Shanghai through a single RMB settlement rail. The bank has already indicated that RMB settlements can be 30 to 70% cheaper than legacy routes and significantly faster. For a continent constrained by slow logistics and tight working-capital cycles, hours matter. Even a single day saved transforms competitiveness.

But the shift is not only operational. The deeper consequences emerge quietly, shaping the market before they reshape policy.