CBN inaugurates new electronic fund transfer platform
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on Thursday said it had inaugurated a new Real-Time Gross Settlement system, integrated with a Scripless Securities Settlement System.
RTGS is an interbank payment infrastructure that facilitates the real-time (continuous) settlement of electronic fund transfers on gross (individual), final and irrevocable basis.
Addressing journalists at the CBN headquarters in Abuja, its Deputy Governor, Operations, Mr. Tunde Lemo, said the move was part of the execution of the Payments System Vision 2020 Strategy.
Lemo said the new RTGS replaced the one that was implemented seven years ago as part of the then CBN transformation programme code-named 'Project EAGLES.'
On the other hand, he said the SSSS was a new initiative to issue, manage and settle government and other money-market securities processed as electronic records in a Central Securities Depository system.
Some of the expected benefits of these new systems are the reduction and elimination of settlement and systemic risks in the payments system; provision of a collateral management platform to mitigate settlement (credit and liquidity) risks and achievement of instant value for bank customers.
Others are improvement in liquidity management; facilitating more efficient monetary policy implementation; facilitation of transformation efforts to improve the efficiency and transparency of government receipts and payments; provision of a more efficient, secure and appropriate payments landscape to encourage foreign investment, improve financial intermediation efficiency, and enhance financial inclusion.
The move would also help to enhance a robust infrastructure to handle faster processing of electronic payments related to banking and financial market services as well as the expansion of the functionality and effectiveness of government securities.
The CBN deputy governor said the new RTGS was built on the SWIFT messaging standard, to allow for safer, easier and faster interconnectivity with other payment system infrastructures both locally and internationally.