Gift Cards In South Africa: Will SARB Oversight Bring Big Changes?

For more than a decade, South African gift cards have existed largely within the consumer-protection space. Section 63 of the Consumer Protection Act 68 of 2008 ("CPA") treats a gift card as a "pre-paid certificate, card, credit, voucher or similar device" issued by a supplier that undertakes to provide goods or services up to the stored value. The CPA guarantees, among other things, a minimum three-year validity period and prohibits the early expiry of the residual balance. Crucially, however, the CPA's remit is limited: it was drafted on the assumption that the same party that issues the voucher is also the merchant that ultimately redeems it. That assumption is increasingly out of step with modern payment architectures, and the South African Reserve Bank ("theSARB") has now signalled a decisive shift.