Reserve Bank considers creating SA-only cards to take on Visa and Mastercard 5 March 2021 2:58 PM Share This: The South African Reserve Bank (Sarb) is assessing the feasibility of creating a domestic card scheme to rival Visa and Mastercard. Sarb published a consultation paper on the feasibility of a local card scheme earlier this week. It's calling for input on whether a domestic card scheme can work in South Africa, and how would potentially be structured. Sarb's Annah Masoga says the Reserve Bank is on a "fact-finding mission" before it announces a policy position or regulatory framework. Some have argued that an SA-only card scheme could assist in driving down transaction costs.