afrol News, 29 June - The Bank of Zambia has launched a new payment settlement system that provides Zambian banks with a state-of-the-art payment system. The system enables the Zambian banking industry to implement safe and secure inter-bank money transfers, and improves international transactions.

The new Zambian Inter-bank Payment Settlement System (ZIPSS) was introduced on 21 June, and represents a general modernisation of Zambia's banking system. The ZIPSS system is also based on international best practice and Southern African Development Community (SADC) guidelines, meaning that international transactions to and from Zambia will become easier.

Wille Chisimba at the Payment Systems Division of the Bank of Zambia today commented that the new system signified an "important modernisation initiative" to the bank. Zambia is the fourth country in the SADC region to implement this particular solution, supplied by the South African company Perago.

The Zambian system utilises SWIFT as the message transfer network for safe and secure delivery of messages to the central bank system. SWIFT codes are used by most banks in the world. All in all, 14 Zambian banks, including Bank of Zambia, will use the system to exchange payments and settlement instructions in real-time.

The advantages of the new system are mainly to reduce inter-bank settlement risk, provide safe and secure inter-bank transfers, enable banks to manage their liquidity efficiently and provide the Bank of Zambia with better tools for monetary policy formulation and implementation, according to Perago.

The implementation of the system at the Bank of Zambia was completed in just eight months. The implementation included the installation of a new computer infrastructure, the application software, training of central bank and commercial bank staff as well as interconnecting the commercial bank and central bank systems through SWIFT.

- Perago is very proud of its association with the Bank of Zambia and its other central banks clients in Sub Saharan Africa, commented Philip Tromp, Managing Director of Perago. "These banks are making major improvements to the core financial infrastructures in their countries, upgrading the financial plumbing necessary for growth and development," Mr Tromp added.

Zambia's banking system has not had best of reputations until these modernisation efforts. Money transactions for Zambian and foreign companies have been slow and complicated, in particular if the transactions were international.

Also travellers to Zambia have so far made negative experiences when travelling with credit cards. Withdrawing money from a Visa card has only been possible in major cities and often has cost the whole day in the bank. Also these services are now expected to improve significantly in Zambian banks.

By staff writer

© afrol News

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