The National Bank of Ethiopia (NBE) introduced to banks on September 19, 2011a Swift Cheque Value Transfer, an interbank payment system, to ensure prompt exchange and transfer of cheques above 200, 000 birr.

The SWIFT cheque value transfer allows for the head offices of banks to use Real Time Gross Settlement (RTGS) in settling high value cheques within six hours.

“This is a good move on the part of NBE,” Anteneh Assefah, vice president of Abyssinia Bank, said. 

He said that from then on high value cheques would have speedier clearance until such time as all banks have modified their CORE banking systems and standardized their cheques for easy settlement through ACH.

This procedure hopes to rectify holdups in the flow payments associated with the launch of the Ethiopian Automated Transfer System, (EATS).

Since the launch of the National Payment System to centralize and modernize the payment systems Centralized Online Real-time Electronic (CORE) banking has been required of most banks.

However most banks faced difficulties with installing scanners and interfacing their systems with the NBE system and hence automated clearance meant a delay of days in many cases.

The solution offered by the NBE enables banks to process cheques worth more than 200,000 birr through the system that allows money transfers bypassing the delays associated with the Automated Clearance System.

Source: Fortune