Access Bank, UBA get ready for instant transfers
Two banks, Access Bank (Ghana) and United Bank of Africa (UBA) Ghana, have expressed their readiness to integrate their online banking gateways to that of the Ghana Interbank Payment and Settlement System (GhIPSS) to enable them to take part of direct transfers between banks.
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Currently, customers of banks are able to move funds from one type of account to the other instantly within the same bank, and from one customer to the other of the same bank within a day through the Automated Clearing House (ACH). The same cannot be done if the banks are different and are at different locations across the country.
But GhIPSS, the Bank of Ghana subsidiary, which has been tasked to promote a cashless society, has developed a national switch which makes for various applications to advance that cause and push the frontiers of banking in the country to international standards. GhIPSS is, therefore, working with banks to prepare their switches (automated systems) and integrate into theirs to bring the service alive.
The Managing Director of Access bank, Mr Dolapo Ogundimu, in a recent interview with a section of the press, said the bank was ready to integrate its system with that of GhiPSS to pave the way for such interbank direct transfers.
The story is not different from UBA, whose Head of e-Banking Products and Sales at UBA, Mr Johnson Olakunmi, confirmed the bank was working closely with GhIPSS to activate.
The Chief Executive Officer of GhIPSS, Mr Archie Hesse, in an earlier interview with the GRAPHIC BUSINESS, said: “We are at the implementation stage of the Ghana Instant Pay (GIP) service. At our end, we have completed development and we are waiting for banks to complete theirs for us to test and integrate.”
Mr Hesse encouraged all banks to complete their development but said GhIPSS was not waiting for all banks to be ready at a go. It will work with a few banks which had shown readiness and commitment to launch a pilot to attract other banks.
Access Bank is said to be the first bank to be EMV (chip-and-pin) compliant with its smart cards, and it was also one of the first to roll out the gh-link card, which the bank said is doing well.
“We are currently revamping and retooling our internet banking platform for customers to be able to bring banking to their fingertips and to do their business anywhere. And so we are open to GhIPSS, depending on how fast they can go with the integration,” Mr Ogundimu said.
He added that the bank had just received approval from Visa to do web-based settlement, where its customers could host payment on their websites.
He underscored the importance of technology to the success of a financial institution, saying “the bank is investing heavily in that area.”
The managing director of Access Bank said the bank would also leverage on mobile money to reach more people across the country, especially those in the lower income.
For his part, Mr Olakunmi said: “We are working with GhIPSS to provide instant transfers across banks.”
Even before that happens, UBA has launched an online corporate banking solution, U-Direct Corporate, which has a plethora of functionalities, including payments, collections, liquidity management, balance reporting, cash flow forecasting, e-trade, e-treasury and supply chain financing.
“For now, you can use UDC to make payments within UBA and its operations across 19 African countries and also to other banks, including rural banks,” Mr Olakunmi explained.
What is, therefore, missing in the stand-alone banking solutions is the instantaneous features, which GhIPSS seeks to partner the banks to achieve.