The House of Peoples' Representatives yesterday authorised the National Payment System bill drafted by the Budgetary and Financial Affairs Standing Committee.

The bill was endorsed taking into consideration the significance of legal framework supporting the payment system in the country.

It is to be recalled that the Ethiopia Automated Transfer System (EATS) was launched on 27 May 2011. Its introduction in banks all over the country had started the same week according to Getahun Nana, vice governor of National Bank of Ethiopia (NBE). Almost all banks had already finalized their automation and were in the process of networking their branches.

The EATS will set up a modern national payment system which facilitates bank large volume money transfer among banks and interface with the retail payment system. While the large sum transfer is mostly the responsibility of central banks, the private sector could handle the retail transfer once it proves competent.

The EATS will replace cash and cheque based transactions. It will consist of two parallel lines of transactions. The basic infrastructure for interbank large money transfers and interfacing with the retail payment system will be provided by the NPS.

Source: Ethiopian News Agency