Electrum Regulated Payments API (26.1.1)

The Electrum Regulated Payments API is an asynchronous API that allows partners to participate in various nationally regulated payment schemes.

This document describes the operations exposed by Electrum for partners to consume in order to initiate outbound or respond to inbound payments.

As the Regulated Payments API is asynchronous, partners have a choice of how to integrate with Electrum:

Webhooks: Electrum will send events to the partner containing inbound payments to action, or responses to outbound payment requests. Webhooks are defined in this document.
Partner API: Electrum will call operations exposed by the partner containing inbound payments to action, or responses to outbound payment requests. The operations are defined in the Electrum Regulated Payments Partner API.

Receiving transactional events via webhooks or API are equivalent, except that it may be more familiar or convenient to implement one style or the other. Partners may request the method of communication Electrum should use when selecting which payment schemes to participate in.

Download OpenAPI description

elpapi-redoc.json

elpapi-redoc.yaml

Overview

URL

https://electrum.co.za

Electrum Support

support@electrum.co.za

License

proprietary

Servers

Payments API sandbox

https://example.com/path/payments/api/v1/

transactional

Operations that participate in transaction processing, which may or may not have financial impact.

Operations

financial

Operations that participate in transaction processing and have financial impact.

Operations

credit-transfer

Operations related to credit transfer transactions.

Operations

direct-debit

Operations related to direct debit transactions.

Operations

payment-return

Operations related to payment returns.

Operations

account-management

Operations that involve customer account information.

Operations

proxy

Operations that involve the management or processing of proxies

Operations

scheme-inquiry

Operations that are related to retrieving information from industry for a particular scheme.

Operations

identifier-determination

Operations used to retrieve additional information related to an identifier

Operations

identifier-verification

Operations used to verify information relating to an account identifier

Operations

request-to-pay

Operations which pertain to a request for payment from a creditor to a debtor

Operations

funds-management

Operations related to the management of funds, including reservations, postings, and voiding of reservations.

Operations

refund

Operations related to the refund of a prior successful financial transaction.

Operations

risk-assessment

Operations related to the assessment and identification of risk in transactions.

Operations

fraud-assessment

Operations related to the processing of fraud assessments for payment transactions.

Operations

sanctions-assessment

Operations related to the processing of sanctions assessment for payment transactions.

Operations

mandate-management

Operations related to the lifecycle management of direct debit mandates.

Operations

Schema

UnderlyingCopyDetails

Contains the details of the mandate copy request including the original mandate reference.

mandateStatusobject(MandateStatus)

Current status of a mandate.

originalMandateobject(OriginalMandateReference)required

Reference to an original mandate. The partner may identify the mandate using any of the following identifiers, depending on the context of the request and the information available. At least one of originalMandateIdentification for the original mandate, or originalMandate must be provided.

For mandate amendment, cancellation and suspension requests, originalMandate is required and the originalMandateIdentification cannot be used as the sole reference.

originalMandate.originalMandateobject(Mandate)

Core mandate data structure containing all the details of a direct debit mandate.

originalMandate.originalMandateIdentificationstring<= 35 characters

Unique identification to unambiguously identify the original mandate. Can be the mandateIdentification as assigned by the creditor or the mandate reference number as assigned by the debtor agent

originalMessageInformationobject(OriginalMandateMessageInformation)

Identifies the original mandate-management message being referenced or responded to. For MandateInformationRequest, this block is optional on the partner request — Electrum will populate it from the latest message recorded against the mandate before forwarding to the scheme.

{
  "mandateStatus": {
    "schema": "string",
    "value": "ACTV"
  },
  "originalMandate": {
    "originalMandate": { … },
    "originalMandateIdentification": "string"
  },
  "originalMessageInformation": {
    "creationDateTime": "2019-08-24T14:15:22Z",
    "messageIdentification": "string",
    "messageNameIdentification": "string"
  }
}

MandateInformationRequest

A request for a copy of mandate details. Sent to request the current state of a mandate.

messageIdentifiersobject(MessageIdentifiers)required

Holds a point-to-point unique message identification string as well as a message's creation date time.

messageIdentifiers.creationDateTimestring(date-time)required

The date and time at which the message was created, in senders local timezone or UTC. The date must be formatted as defined by date-time in RFC3339

messageIdentifiers.messageIdentificationstring<= 35 charactersrequired

A reference used to unambiguously identify the message between the sending and receiving party. Take note that this uniquely identifies a single message in a potentially multi-message exchange to complete a payment.

supplementaryDataobject(SupplementaryData)

A list of key-value pairs to support adding any supplementary/additional data to an Electrum Regulated Payments API message.

initiatingPartyobject(Party)

This model is the basic representation of a Party. It is expanded on depending on whether the party is a person or an organisation.

instructedAgentobject(InstitutionIdentification)

instructingAgentobject(InstitutionIdentification)

paymentSchemeobject(MandatePaymentScheme)required

Designates which scheme a mandate operation is associated with and describes scheme-specific information for the mandate operation where relevant.

paymentScheme.schemastring(PaymentSchemeName)required

Identifies the scheme used for the payment

ZA_RTC: South African Realtime Clearing scheme.
ZA_RPP: South African Realtime Payments Platform scheme.
ZA_EFT: South African Electronic Funds Transfer scheme.
ZA_AC : South African Authenticated Collections scheme.
ZA_RMS: South African Registered Mandate Service scheme.
CBPR_PLUS: Cross-Border Payments and Reporting Plus.

Enum"ZA_RTC""ZA_RPP""ZA_EFT""ZA_AC""ZA_RMS""CBPR_PLUS"

Discriminator

paymentScheme.schemeDataobject(ZaAcMandatePaymentSchemeData)required

South Africa specific supplementary data fields. These fields supplement the core mandate structure with local requirements.

paymentScheme.schemeData.authenticationTypestringrequired

Indicates the delivery and authentication mechanism of the mandate transaction.

In the ZA_AC scheme, this field dictates the specific Transaction Type (TT) processing rules that will be applied:

REAL_TIME: Maps to TT1 (non-card). The mandate request is routed over the real-time interbank switch without an upfront authentication key. Note: The actual Payer authorisation might be immediate (e.g., 120-second USSD timeout) or delayed (until the end of the day), but the routing type remains REAL_TIME.
PREAUTH: Maps to TT3 (Card Present). Indicates the Payer has already been authenticated via a prior card-and-PIN transaction at the point of interaction. Mandates using this type must include the resulting Message Authentication Code (MAC) in the request payload.
BATCH: Maps to TT2. The mandate request is submitted via delayed bulk file processing.
NOT_APPLICABLE: Debtor authentication is not required for this action (e.g. MandateInformationRequest).

Enum"REAL_TIME""PREAUTH""BATCH""NOT_APPLICABLE"

paymentScheme.schemeData.collectionDayinteger[ 1 .. 99 ]

The Payer's preferred recurring day for collection from their bank account.

In the ZA_AC scheme, the Collection Day is a rigid, legally binding clearing rule that is strictly evaluated relative to the mandate's Frequency. The interpretation of this integer changes based on the frequency type:

Monthly, Quarterly, Bi-annually, Annually, Once-off: Values 1 to 30 represent the exact calendar day of the month. 99 strictly represents the "Last Day" of the month (e.g., automatically adjusting for February 28th/29th). Note: 31 is not a valid input.
Weekly: Values 1 to 7 represent the day of the week (1 = Monday, 7 = Sunday).
Fortnightly: Values 1 to 14 represent the day within the two-week cycle (1 to 7 for week one; 8 to 14 for week two).
Monthly by Rule: Values map to specific occurrences (e.g., 1 = Last Monday, 7 = First Monday, 14 = 2nd Last Day).

Interbank Validation Rules: The Debtor Bank is required to store this exact day in their Mandate Register. If the mandate's dateAdjustmentRule is set to 'N' (No), the Debtor Bank will strictly validate incoming collections against this day. If a collection's Action Date does not exactly match this collectionDay (or the immediately following Processing Day), the Debtor Bank will trigger an upfront rejection.

Note: According to clearing rules, Debtor Banks are only required to enforce this strict date validation on Weekly and Monthly frequencies.

paymentScheme.schemeData.debitValueTypestring

This dictates strict interbank validation rules for how collection amounts are calculated, capped, and adjusted over the life of the mandate.

The rules for each type are:

FIXED: Used for contracts where an upfront, calculated Instalment Amount is the basis for normal collections. Regular collections are strictly validated and cannot exceed this Instalment Amount. The Adjustment Category for a fixed mandate must strictly be 'NEVR' (Never).
VARIABLE: Used for contracts where an upfront Instalment Amount is calculated but can be amended by the Creditor based on pre-agreed variables, such as annual increases or interest rate changes. Regular collections cannot exceed the currently active Instalment Amount.
USAGE_BASED: Used for contracts where the collection amount fluctuates depending on the Payer's usage of a product or service during the payment cycle. Unlike Fixed and Variable mandates, the regular Instalment Amount is optional, and interbank validation is instead performed strictly against a mandatory Maximum Collection Amount.

Enum"FIXED""VARIABLE""USAGE_BASED"

paymentScheme.schemeData.debtorBankMandateReferencestring<= 22 characters^[0-9]{4}20[0-9]{2}[0-1][0-9][0-3][0-9].{10}$...

The Mandate Reference Number (MRN) assigned by the debtor bank upon mandate acceptance. This is the official, unique industry-wide identification number for the mandate that is unique for the mandate's entire lifecycle (including time in archives).

It is returned in the acceptance report and must be included in subsequent mandate amendment, and suspension requests.

Not to be confused with mandateIdentification (creditor's internal ID), mandateRequestTransactionIdentifier (MRTI), or mandateReference (mandate management app reference).

Structure (22 characters):

Bank Number (4 numeric): The 4-digit identifier of the Debtor Bank.
Mandate Creation Date (8 numeric): The date the mandate was successfully registered, formatted strictly as YYYYMMDD.
Free Format (10 alphanumeric): A unique identifier or sequence generated by the Debtor Bank.

paymentScheme.schemeData.mandateRequestTransactionIdentifierstring(MandateRequestTransactionIdentifier)<= 35 characters^\d{4}\d{4}-\d{2}-\d{2}\d{9}$

Mandate Request Transaction Identifier (MRTI) A unique transaction identifier used for matching multiple messages to a single transaction. This identifier is created for each new mandate request to uniquely identify the transaction within the Authenticated Collections scheme.

Important: Usage of mandateRequestTransactionIdentifier**.

If the client is the host of the mandate register and is the source of truth for mandate state the client is required to always populate the MRTI. The format is validated and the provided MRTI is used by Electrum.
If Electrum is the source of truth for mandate state the MRTI should not be provided by the client when initiating new mandate transactions; Electrum will generate a compliant MRTI automatically which will be echoed back to the client.

Structure (23 characters):

Positions 1–4 (4 numeric): Originating bank number. Must be a valid, registered bank.
Positions 5–14 (10 alphanumeric): Origination date in the format YYYY-MM-DD. Must be a valid date.
Positions 15–23 (9 numeric): Mandate sequence number. Unique within the bank and date.

Lifecycle behaviour:

Mandate Initiation Request: The originating bank creates a new, unique MRTI for the initiation request. If not provided by the client, Electrum generates one automatically.
Mandate Amendment Request: A new, unique MRTI is required for the amendment request. If not provided by the client, Electrum generates one automatically. The amendment is linked back to the original mandate using the Mandate Reference Number (MRN).
Mandate Cancellation Request:
- In-flight cancellation: If cancelling a mandate request that is still in-flight (e.g. awaiting debtor authentication), the MRTI must exactly match the MRTI of the in-flight request being cancelled. If not provided, Electrum handles this automatically by retrieving the MRTI of the in-flight transaction.
- Active mandate cancellation: If the mandate is already fully registered and active, a new, unique MRTI must be issued for the cancellation request. If not provided, Electrum determines the mandate state and applies the correct rule automatically.
Mandate Acceptance Report: The response echoes back the MRTI from the request being responded to. For API-level correlation, clients use originalMessageIdentifiers.messageIdentification instead.
Mandate Status Report: The status report echoes back the MRTI from the request being reported on. For API-level correlation, clients use originalMessageIdentifiers.messageIdentification instead.

Validation rules enforced by the scheme:

Must not be blank or spaces.
The bank number (positions 1–4) must be a valid, registered bank.
The date (positions 5–14) must be a valid calendar date.
Must conform to the 23-character structured format.
Must be unique at the time of request origination.

paymentScheme.schemeData.requestTransmissionNumberinteger(MandatePaymentSchemeRequestTransmissionNumber)[ 1 .. 4 ]

Sequence number for the message's transmission. Used exclusively for real-time (TT1/TT3) messages to track message retries. 1 = original message transmission, 2-4 = retries.

schemastringrequired

Value"MandateInformationRequest"

underlyingCopyDetailsobject(UnderlyingCopyDetails)required

Contains the details of the mandate copy request including the original mandate reference.

underlyingCopyDetails.mandateStatusobject(MandateStatus)

Current status of a mandate.

underlyingCopyDetails.originalMandateobject(OriginalMandateReference)required

For mandate amendment, cancellation and suspension requests, originalMandate is required and the originalMandateIdentification cannot be used as the sole reference.

underlyingCopyDetails.originalMandate.originalMandateobject(Mandate)

Core mandate data structure containing all the details of a direct debit mandate.

underlyingCopyDetails.originalMandate.originalMandateIdentificationstring<= 35 characters

Unique identification to unambiguously identify the original mandate. Can be the mandateIdentification as assigned by the creditor or the mandate reference number as assigned by the debtor agent

underlyingCopyDetails.originalMessageInformationobject(OriginalMandateMessageInformation)

{
  "messageIdentifiers": {
    "creationDateTime": "2019-08-24T14:15:22Z",
    "messageIdentification": "string"
  },
  "supplementaryData": {
    "property1": "string",
    "property2": "string"
  },
  "initiatingParty": {
    "address": { … },
    "contactDetails": { … },
    "countryOfResidence": "string",
    "identification": { … },
    "knownAsName": "string",
    "legalName": "string"
  },
  "instructedAgent": {
    "additionalIdentifications": [ … ],
    "address": { … },
    "bicfi": "string",
    "branch": { … },
    "clearingSystemMemberId": { … },
    "companyRegistration": "string",
    "lei": "string",
    "memberId": "string",
    "name": "string"
  },
  "instructingAgent": {
    "additionalIdentifications": [ … ],
    "address": { … },
    "bicfi": "string",
    "branch": { … },
    "clearingSystemMemberId": { … },
    "companyRegistration": "string",
    "lei": "string",
    "memberId": "string",
    "name": "string"
  },
  "paymentScheme": {
    "schema": "ZA_RTC",
    "schemeData": { … }
  },
  "schema": "MandateInformationRequest",
  "underlyingCopyDetails": {
    "mandateStatus": { … },
    "originalMandate": { … },
    "originalMessageInformation": { … }
  }
}

ZaAcCustomerPaymentStatusReportPaymentSchemeData

The mandateRequestTransactionIdentifier and suspensionRequestIdentification are mutually exclusive fields

If the status report is responding to a standard mandate operation (Initiation, Amendment, Cancellation), it echoes the MRTI.
If the status report is responding to a Suspension, it echoes the Suspension Request Identification.

mandateRequestTransactionIdentifierstring(MandateRequestTransactionIdentifier)<= 35 characters^\d{4}\d{4}-\d{2}-\d{2}\d{9}$

Important: Usage of mandateRequestTransactionIdentifier**.

If the client is the host of the mandate register and is the source of truth for mandate state the client is required to always populate the MRTI. The format is validated and the provided MRTI is used by Electrum.
If Electrum is the source of truth for mandate state the MRTI should not be provided by the client when initiating new mandate transactions; Electrum will generate a compliant MRTI automatically which will be echoed back to the client.

Structure (23 characters):

Positions 1–4 (4 numeric): Originating bank number. Must be a valid, registered bank.
Positions 5–14 (10 alphanumeric): Origination date in the format YYYY-MM-DD. Must be a valid date.
Positions 15–23 (9 numeric): Mandate sequence number. Unique within the bank and date.

Lifecycle behaviour:

Mandate Initiation Request: The originating bank creates a new, unique MRTI for the initiation request. If not provided by the client, Electrum generates one automatically.
Mandate Amendment Request: A new, unique MRTI is required for the amendment request. If not provided by the client, Electrum generates one automatically. The amendment is linked back to the original mandate using the Mandate Reference Number (MRN).
Mandate Cancellation Request:
- In-flight cancellation: If cancelling a mandate request that is still in-flight (e.g. awaiting debtor authentication), the MRTI must exactly match the MRTI of the in-flight request being cancelled. If not provided, Electrum handles this automatically by retrieving the MRTI of the in-flight transaction.
- Active mandate cancellation: If the mandate is already fully registered and active, a new, unique MRTI must be issued for the cancellation request. If not provided, Electrum determines the mandate state and applies the correct rule automatically.
Mandate Acceptance Report: The response echoes back the MRTI from the request being responded to. For API-level correlation, clients use originalMessageIdentifiers.messageIdentification instead.
Mandate Status Report: The status report echoes back the MRTI from the request being reported on. For API-level correlation, clients use originalMessageIdentifiers.messageIdentification instead.

Validation rules enforced by the scheme:

Must not be blank or spaces.
The bank number (positions 1–4) must be a valid, registered bank.
The date (positions 5–14) must be a valid calendar date.
Must conform to the 23-character structured format.
Must be unique at the time of request origination.

requestTransmissionNumberinteger(MandatePaymentSchemeRequestTransmissionNumber)[ 1 .. 4 ]

Sequence number for the message's transmission. Used exclusively for real-time (TT1/TT3) messages to track message retries. 1 = original message transmission, 2-4 = retries.

suspensionRequestIdentificationstring(MandateSuspensionRequestIdentification)<= 35 characters^STP/\d{4}/20\d{2}-\d{2}-\d{2}/\d{9}$

Suspension Request Identification A unique transaction identifier used to unambiguously identify the mandate suspension request to the clearing house.

Important: Usage of suspensionRequestIdentification**.

If the client is the host of the mandate register and is the source of truth for mandate state the client is required to always populate the suspensionRequestIdentification in the MandateSuspensionRequest. The format is validated and the provided suspensionRequestIdentification is used by Electrum.
If Electrum is the source of truth for mandate state the suspensionRequestIdentification should not be provided by the client when initiating new mandate suspension; Electrum will generate a compliant suspensionRequestIdentification automatically which will be echoed back to the client.

Lifecycle behaviour:

Mandate Suspension Request: The originating bank creates a new, unique suspensionRequestIdentification for the suspension request. If not provided by the client, Electrum generates one automatically.
Customer Payment Status Report: The suspensionRequestIdentification is echoed in CustomerPaymentStatusReports that confirm the outcome of a mandate suspension.

Structure (29 characters): The identifier is composed of 4 components separated by forward slashes (/), matching the pattern STP/<BankCode>/<Date>/<Sequence>:

Prefix (STP): Fixed string indicating a Suspension.
Bank Code (4 numeric): The 4-digit identifier of the initiating bank.
Date (10 alphanumeric): The date the suspension is generated in YYYY-MM-DD format.
Sequence Number (9 numeric): Mandate Suspension sequence number. Must be unique within the bank and date.

{
  "mandateRequestTransactionIdentifier": "string",
  "requestTransmissionNumber": 1,
  "suspensionRequestIdentification": "string"
}

operational

Operations

bulk

Operations

accounts

Operations

account-verification

Operations