CBN Scope, Conditions & Minimum Standards for Specialised Institutions Regulations No. 03, 2010

CENTRAL BANK OF NIGERIA Central Business District P.M.B. 0187 Garki, Abuja 09-61638445 (Fax) 09-46238445 Ref: BPS/DIR/CIR/01/2010 August 25. 2010 CIRCULAR TO ALL BANKS, SWITCING COMPANIES AND OTHER PARTIES IN THE NIGERIAN PAYMENTS SYSTEM INTEROPERABILITY AND INTERCONNECTIVITY OF THE PAYMENTS SYSTEM INFRASTRUCTURE IN NIGERIA In furtherance of efforts aimed at ensuring an effective and robust payments system in line with best practice, all Parties to the Nigerian Switching Infrastructure as defined in the Operational Rules and Regulations for the Nigeria Central Switch and the Guidelines on Transaction Switching Services shall ensure that:

all terminal access devices (POS and ATM etc) are configured to accept and process all payment card schemes and other electronic payments instruments that are acceptable in Nigeria on or before 1st December 2010 their switching systems connect to the Nigeria Central Switch and ONLY one other private switch of their choice as determined by their business case. All participants with multiple connections to private switches are hereby given till 1st December 2010 to terminate all multiple connections as appropriate private switches shall not connect to one another as this interconnectivity model has been addressed by the implementation of the Nigeria Central Switch.

there is no upward review of the current charge of N100 per transaction for each ATM Transaction that the current formula for sharing the N100 charged for each ATM transaction among the parties be retained. The current share formula apportioned to Banks for offsite ATMs shall be transferred to the IADs.

It should be noted that the CBN shall not hesitate to apply appropriate sanctions for any infraction.

A.S Atoloye Director, Banking & Payments System Department