Standard Bank’s Go-Payments Solution Tackles Debit Order Fraud for Public Sector Clients
Unauthorised debit orders have long been a thorn in the side of South African businesses and government entities. Now, Standard Bank’s Public Sector team is taking a bold step to tackle the problem head-on with a homegrown innovation – Go-Payments – designed specifically to protect public sector funds from fraud and reputational damage.
A Growing Risk
Due to the nature of their operations, public sector entities are required to publish their banking details widely – whether for rates and taxes, licensing, or utility payments. While this ensures transparency, it also opens the door to fraudsters, who exploit these publicly accessible account numbers to initiate unauthorised debit orders.
Banking regulations stipulate that all debit orders – valid or otherwise – must be processed, leaving institutions scrambling to dispute fraudulent deductions after the fact. Although a recall mechanism exists, only transactions disputed within 60 days are guaranteed. This places a heavy burden on municipalities and government departments, who risk audit findings and public backlash over unprotected funds.
“We’ve seen the impact this can have,” says Vanessa Musoke. “Unauthorised debit orders not only compromise the safeguarding of public funds but can also result in adverse audit findings. This created a clear imperative for us to act.”
Enter Go-Payments: A First-of-its-Kind Solution
Recognising that industry-wide solutions like DebiCheck only serve personal accounts, and that registered mandates for commercial accounts are still a while away from full implementation, Standard Bank took the initiative to build its own targeted solution for its public sector clients.
The Go-Payments system is a proactive debit order verification tool that allows clients to pre-authorise which service providers may legitimately debit their accounts. Any request that doesn’t match the approved profile – whether by amount, reference, or originator – is automatically rejected.
A daily report is then shared with the client, detailing all honored and blocked debit orders, offering transparency and peace of mind.
“Clients no longer have to comb through their statements line by line or wait for a reversal,” Musoke explains. “We’ve shifted from a reactive posture to a proactive defence.”
Pilot Success and Learnings
Between September 2023 and March 2024, Standard Bank ran a pilot of Go-Payments with seven high-impact public sector clients. These were entities with a history of frequent debit order disputes.
The pilot revealed several key learnings:
- Clients often had more authorised debit orders than initially expected, prompting changes to onboarding forms.
- The solution needed to account for both fixed and usage-based debit orders.
- Daily reporting, initially manual, has now been automated to reduce workload and improve turnaround times.
Importantly, the feedback from pilot clients has been overwhelmingly positive, with several reporting a sharp decline in fraudulent debit order activity and improved audit outcomes.
“Unauthorised debits are flagged as wasteful expenditure by the Auditor-General,” Musoke notes. “We’ve helped clients avoid that, and that’s a significant win.”
More Than Just Blocking Fraud
Go-Payments complements other innovations developed by Standard Bank’s Public Sector team, such as the Customer Deposit Identifier (CDI), which allows public entities to mask their account details by listing as verified public beneficiaries across all banking channels. This protects account information and streamlines reconciliation – two critical needs in sectors like education, health, and municipal services.
Go-Payments also works alongside a “no debit order” indicator for clients who should not be receiving any debit orders at all, completely blocking such transactions at the source.
A Sector-Led Solution, Built on Trust
Currently offered free of charge as a value-added service, Go-Payments underscores Standard Bank’s commitment to protecting public funds and reinforcing trust in its capabilities as a sector specialist. With broader rollout across the Public Sector and Commercial Client segments planned for the first half of 2026, the bank is setting a new benchmark for client-focused innovation.
“There’s nothing like this on the market for commercial clients,” says Musoke. “We’re not waiting for the industry to catch up – we’re leading from the front.”