How funds are handled
Dhira Pay decides when money may move. It will not hold your money without the legal right to.
Today there are no funds at all: the product runs in a sandbox, with a provider that moves nothing. This page explains why, what has to be settled before that changes, and what will stay true afterwards.
The separation
Agreement on one side. Financial execution on the other.
The commercial logic lives in Dhira Pay: what was agreed, which conditions govern release, whether they are satisfied, and who has authority to approve.
The movement of money is delegated to regulated financial infrastructure behind a single interface. No payment provider is written into the core of the product, and no provider's features are treated as if they were legally compliant escrow by default.
A financial state is never shown as confirmed because someone pressed a button. It is shown as confirmed when the provider reports it, and the report is checked, deduplicated and posted to a ledger that must balance.
The open decision
Four ways the funds could lawfully be held. None has been chosen yet.
Option A
A bank escrow product
A licensed bank holds the funds in an escrow account and acts on instructions. Dhira Pay supplies the transaction logic and never touches the money.
Option B
An authorised payment institution
A provider authorised for third-party payments holds funds in segregated accounts. Dhira Pay integrates as a technology layer.
Option C
An attorney trust arrangement
Funds sit in a trust account held by a legal practitioner, the long established way escrow is done in South Africa.
Option D
Dhira Pay's own authorisation
Dhira Pay applies to be authorised for the relevant payment activity itself, with the capital, safeguarding and compliance duties that brings.
The choice depends on legal advice, on the Reserve Bank's final authorisation framework and on what banks and providers will contract for. It is made in Phase 4 of the roadmap. Until then the product's own database refuses to store a live financial record.
The South African framework
The laws that shape the answer, in one paragraph each.
- National Payment System Act and SARB directives
- Accepting money from one person to pay another as a regular business is a regulated payment activity. The Reserve Bank is replacing the current sponsor based regime with direct, activity based authorisation.
- Banks Act
- Taking deposits from the public is the business of a bank. A draft exemption would allow authorised non-banks to hold funds for specified payment activities.
- Financial Intelligence Centre Act
- Whoever holds or transfers the funds is likely an accountable institution with customer due diligence, record keeping and reporting duties.
- Protection of Personal Information Act
- Applies to Dhira Pay directly, whatever the financial model, for the personal information it processes.
- Electronic Communications and Transactions Act
- Gives legal effect to agreements formed and accepted electronically, which is how parties accept terms on the platform.
- Exchange control
- Cross-border payments must go through authorised dealers. Cross-border settlement is switched off in the product until that is addressed.
This is a summary of research carried out for product planning in October 2026. It is not legal advice, several of the instruments it mentions were still in draft at that time, and it must be confirmed with a South African attorney who practises in payments regulation before any decision relies on it. The full investigation, with sources, is kept in the product repository.