CMA EFT Payments Directive No. 1 of 2025

CMA EFT Payments Directive no:1 of 2025

1. Preliminary Short title and commencement 1.1. This Directive may be cited as the CMA EFT Payments Directive no1 of 2025. 1.2. This Directive shall come into force on the 31st March 2025 Interpretation 1.3. In this Directive, terms whose definition is provided by the Act, shall have the meaning given to them under such definitions unless the context requires otherwise: “Act” means the National Payments System Act,2023 “Bank” means the Central Bank of Eswatini “CMA” means the means the ‘Common Monetary Area’, the monetary union which comprises the Kingdom of Eswatini, Kingdom of Lesotho, Republic of Namibia and Republic of South Africa. “High-value cross-border electronic funds transfer” means a cross-border electronic funds transfer exceeding E5 million. “Low-value cross-border electronic funds transfer″ means a cross-border electronic funds transfer not exceeding E5 million. “Payment Service Provider”-means a person or financial institution that is licensed under section 22 of the NPS Act, 2023 to provide a payment service. “Regularize” means the use of an appropriate payment system that allows payments to be executed in a manner that ensures the achievement of effectiveness, integrity and efficiency of the payment system. “Retail Payment System”- means a payment system that handles a large volume of low￾value electronic funds transfer payment transactions.

2. Application 2.1. This directive shall apply to all Payment Service Providers.

3. Objectives The objectives of this directive are to; 3.1 direct payment service providers that are routing low-value cross-border electronic funds transfer transactions to and receiving cross-border electronic funds transfer transactions from the Common Monetary Area (CMA) to regularize the execution of these transactions – currently executed through inappropriate systems including the Southern African Development Community real-time gross settlement (SADC-RTGS) system – through an appropriate retail payment system designed for low-value cross￾border electronic funds transfers; and 3.2 direct payment service providers to ensure that the execution of low value cross border electronic funds transfers to and from the CMA does not have a negative impact on the transparency, efficiency and cost effectiveness of payments to consumers and businesses.

4. Directive To ensure that low-value cross border electronic funds transfers within the CMA are regularized and routed correctly, the Bank prescribes that; 4.1 With effect from 31st March 2027, all Payment Service Providers that are presently routing low-value cross-border electronic funds transfers within the CMA through the SADC-RTGS system shall:

4.1.1 have finalized the process to migrate all off-us low-value cross-border electronic funds transfers within the CMA to a regional low-value payment system designed for low-value cross border electronic funds transfers, namely the Transactions Cleared on an Immediate Basis (TCIB) payment scheme. 4.1.2 cease executing of off-us low-value cross border electronic funds transfers within the CMA through the SADC-RTGS system. 5. Effective Date 5.1. This notice becomes effective from the 31st March 2025. 6. Conclusion This directive is not exhaustive and may be supplemented or amended from time to time as required by the Bank.

The Governor Central Bank of Eswatini