Overview
Absa Bank's Business Banking API lets you read accounts + transactions and initiate EFT/Absa Pay payments. Also includes Account Verification Services (AVS) and biometric identity checks. The Automize Absa connector covers all of these.
- Regions: South Africa + Absa's broader African footprint (BWA, GHA, KEN, MUS, MOZ, SYC, TZA, UGA, ZMB).
- Plans: Absa Business Banking + Corporate Banking customers. Programmatic access requires enrolment through your Absa Relationship Manager.
Setting up the connection
Auth type: OAuth 2.0 (Client Credentials).
- Contact your Absa RM to enrol for programmatic API access.
- Absa provides Client ID + Client Secret + API key after enrolment.
- In Automize, open Settings → Connectors → Absa → Add connection. Paste credentials. Connector handles OAuth Client Credentials token refresh.
Find your credentials at https://developer.absa.africa/.
Rate limits
Absa enforces strict per-customer limits (varies by tier). Connector retries 429 with backoff. AVS calls billed per verification.
Data model
Banking primitives:
Account ─┬─ Balance
├─ Transactions
└─ Statement (period-based PDF/MT940)
Payments – EFT or Absa Pay (instant) to any account
AVS – verify account ownership before paying (RAFT compliance)
Biometric – fingerprint/face checks against Absa identity recordsAvailable operations
9 operations available. Click any row to jump to its detail.
| Operation | Category | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Get Account | Accounts | Get account by ID |
| Get Balance | Accounts | Get account balance |
| Get Statement | Accounts | Get a statement for a period |
| Get Transactions | Accounts | Get account transactions |
| List Accounts | Accounts | List accessible accounts |
| Verify Biometric | Identity | Biometric identification (face/fingerprint) via Absa API platform |
| Get Payment | Payments | Get payment status by payment ID |
| Initiate Payment | Payments | Initiate an EFT payment or Absa Pay transaction |
| Verify Bank Account (AVS) | Verification (AVS) | Verify an account number belongs to the stated party |
Operations
Get Account
Get account by ID
| Parameter | Required | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
Account Id account_id | Yes | text |
Tips
- account_id. Returns full account metadata.
Get Balance
Get account balance
| Parameter | Required | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
Account Id account_id | Yes | text |
Tips
- account_id. Returns current + available balance.
Get Payment
Get payment status by payment ID
| Parameter | Required | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
Payment Id payment_id | Yes | text |
Tips
- payment_id. Returns status: INITIATED, ACCEPTED, REJECTED, SETTLED.
Get Statement
Get a statement for a period
| Parameter | Required | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
Account Id account_id | Yes | text |
Tips
- account_id + period. Returns statement bytes (PDF or MT940 depending on bank config).
Get Transactions
Get account transactions
| Parameter | Required | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
Account Id account_id | Yes | text |
Tips
- Filter by from + to dates.
Initiate Payment
Initiate an EFT payment or Absa Pay transaction
| Parameter | Required | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
Amount amount | No | text | |
Currency currency | No | text | |
Debtoraccount debtorAccount | No | text | |
Creditoraccount creditorAccount | No | text | |
Creditorname creditorName | No | text | |
Remittanceinformation remittanceInformation | No | text | |
Reference reference | No | text |
Tips
- amount + currency + debtorAccount + creditorAccount + creditorName + remittanceInformation + reference.
- Async – returns paymentId. Poll Get Payment for status.
List Accounts
List accessible accounts
No input parameters.
Tips
- Returns accounts you have access to (varies by your access tier).
Verify Bank Account (AVS)
Verify an account number belongs to the stated party
| Parameter | Required | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
Accountnumber accountNumber | No | text | |
Branchcode branchCode | No | text | |
Accounttype accountType | No | text | |
Idnumber idNumber | No | text | |
Initials initials | No | text | |
Surname surname | No | text | |
Companyregistrationnumber companyRegistrationNumber | No | text |
Tips
- Account Verification Services (AVS) – confirms account number + owner before paying.
- Pass accountNumber + branchCode + accountType + (idNumber + initials + surname) OR companyRegistrationNumber.
- Charged per call. Use before Initiate Payment to avoid funding mistakes.
Verify Biometric
Biometric identification (face/fingerprint) via Absa API platform
| Parameter | Required | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
Idnumber idNumber | No | text | |
Biometrictype biometricType | No | text | |
Biometricpayload biometricPayload | No | text |
Tips
- Identity check against Absa's biometric records. biometricType: 'face' or 'fingerprint'. biometricPayload: base64 image.
- Use for KYC verification in high-value workflows.
FAQ
- Why does my payment stay INITIATED?
- EFT payments take ~15 min - 2 hrs to settle (depends on banking schedule). Absa Pay (instant) settles within seconds. Use the right rail for your urgency.
- AVS – when worth it?
- For high-value payments + new payees. R1.50-R3 per call but cheaper than wrong-account claw-back. Banks may also require it for compliance (RAFT).
- Sandbox?
- Absa provides a sandbox with test accounts. Get credentials through your enrolment.
- Other African subsidiaries?
- Absa Group covers multiple countries – API surface is similar but tenant credentials are per-country. Use separate Automize connections.