The Bank of Namibia has postponed the rollout of changes by the country’s banking sector regarding how clients make and receive payments between Namibia, Eswatini, Lesotho, and South Africa, collectively known as the Common Monetary Area.
These changes were scheduled to become effective from April 15, 2024.
“Following the latest directive issued by the Bank of Namibia, the implementation date for MA cross-border payments under PSD 9 has been extended. FNB Namibia shall align with the industry on this new date. Therefore, we will continue to facilitate low-value EFT payments and receipts between MA countries to FirstRand Bank Limited (FNB), ABSA Bank Limited, Standard Bank of Southern Africa Ltd, and Nedbank Limited until September 2024. More communication will follow in due course,” banking group FNB Namibia said.
According to FNB Namibia, the implementation of these changes will mean that all cross-border Electronic Fund Transfer (EFT) payments processed and received by clients within the Common Monetary Area (CMA) will no longer be permitted through domestic payment methods and channels. Instead, they must be initiated as a Global Payment on the FNB App and FNB Online Banking platforms.
FNB Namibia said as part of the planned changes, global payments will only be made from a transactional account and not a credit card. Additionally, the Pay2Cell functionality, as well as the scheduled payments functionality, will be disabled for global payments for its clients.
The payment changes, according to FNB Namibia, are necessary to comply with regulatory requirements while also meeting modernization expectations at both national and regional levels.
