Banker S.A. June 2012 | Page 24

SADC INTEGRATION To effectively discharge the mandate provided by the CCBG, the association continues to work with its members to create the necessary governance frameworks, roles, and structures for the project. STRATEGIC DECISIONS The CCBG have agreed that the project will be implemented in line with the following key decisions: • existing market infrastructures will be used wherever possible – while allowing banks choice in providers. • use of international standards to ensure interoperability; • invest for straight through processing; • each country will keep its own currency and financial infrastructure; • regional settlement currency to be the ZAR (South African Rand); • start with Common Monetary Area and build out; • cross-border cheques to be phased out. SADCBA’S MANDATE The CCBG has given the SADCBA a specific mandate in the creation of a single SADC payments systems area in the region. The mandate is to: • set and implement regional standards; • establish which payments instruments are appropriate; • development of the regional instruments; • promote the development of interoperable systems. To effectively discharge the mandate provided by the CCBG, the association continues to work with its members to create the necessary governance frameworks, roles, and structures for the project. 22 KEY INFRASTRUCTURES 1 An interbank settlement system to be run by the CCBG will be known as SADC Regional Electronic Settlement System (SIRESS) 2 Regional Clearing Capability for EFT Debits and Credits 3 Regional Clearing Capability for Card and ATMs APPROACH TO IMPLEMENTATION The SADCBA identified 10 payment streams that needed to be worked on in the project. THE BANKER Edition 2