Namibian banks will soon roll out changes on how clients make and receive payments within the Common Monetary Area (CMA).
The CMA comprises Namibia, Eswatini, Lesotho, and South Africa, allowing for payments between these countries to be made without exchange rate fluctuations.
As per the changes, all cross-border Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT) payments processed and received by clients within the CMA will no longer be considered domestic payment methods.
Instead, they will be initiated as Forex transaction/Global Payments.
FNB Namibia Payments Manager Albert Matongela explained that when making cross-border payments to other CMA countries (South Africa, Lesotho, and Eswatini), clients will need to capture and process payments on the Foreign Exchange (Forex) tab within the existing online banking platform or the Forex tab within the FNB App, which can be found on the in-app menu.
“Once the change has been effected, clients still trying to use the domestic payment route will receive an error message when processing a cross-border EFT payment. This error will inform clients that they cannot proceed with the payment. In this instance, clients are advised to delete existing EFT cross-border recipients from their current EFT Beneficiary List, including EFT Folders and EFT Bulk Payment files. Clients will need to reload all saved beneficiaries as a Global Payment beneficiary and input all the necessary information such as Name of the Bank, Name of Branch, Swift Code, Payment Receiver’s Physical address, and Reason for the payment. Additionally, Online Banking Enterprise (OBE) clients will require channel limits and permissions to be set for individuals capturing and authorising global payments,” explained Matongela.
He further clarified that global payments can only be made from a transactional account and not a credit card. “Beneficiaries of cross-border payments will also be required to provide Balance of Payments (BOP) information to their bank before the release of the funds into their account,” Matongela said.
Matongela also noted that the payment changes are in line with modernization in the financial sector, at national and regional levels.
FNB and RMB Namibia will switch to the new system effective 11 June 2023.
