Bank of Mozambique Acknowledges Problems in Banking Transactions
The Bank of Mozambique today acknowledged issues in the implementation of the new National Payments System, affecting banking transactions, particularly with delays in transfers. However, the bank assured that solutions are being implemented.
This situation is a smaller-scale “repeat” of the 2018 banking system blackout crisis, specifically in the SIMO network. According to the Confederation of Economic Associations (CTA), this incident caused losses exceeding two billion meticais over four days due to unprocessed daily electronic transactions within and outside the country.
At that time, the problem significantly reduced cash flow in businesses, beyond banking, with major shopping centers experiencing a 90% drop in sales and hotel occupancy declining by 70%.
"Thanks to the prompt intervention of the Bank of Mozambique and the platform provider, and with the collaboration of commercial banks, the system is in the process of normalization, and most transactions are being processed normally," the central bank stated in a release.
In recent days, delays and problems in banking transactions in the country were reported and publicly acknowledged by the institutions themselves.
The Bank explains that as part of the modernization of the National Payments System, the Real-Time Gross Settlement (RTGS) platform became operational on November 24, 2023.
"The implementation process of this platform, which aimed to ensure the availability of funds in real-time, took over a year and involved exhaustive testing with all participants, namely commercial banks, CIMO [interbank network], and the Mozambique Stock Exchange," the central bank notes.
It adds that "the first days were exclusively dedicated to the stabilization of the platform," with "continuous monitoring of the system's functioning," "permanent support to participants in resolving any difficulties," "updates to participants about the system's functionalities," and daily meetings with bank technical teams to present verified anomalous situations.
For the Bank of Mozambique, "the problems observed in some banks during the operation of" the new platform were due to "a lack of adequate technological adjustment," changes in the technical teams involved in the platform's implementation process by the implementing company, and the "issuance of payment instructions in a format different from what was agreed, leading to their rejection by the system."
TORRE
