Interoperability is one of the major challenges in the development and digitization of financial systems
Standard Bank sees interoperability as one of the greatest challenges in the development and digitization of financial systems, particularly electronic payments, in Mozambique.
The establishment of an effective connection between different financial systems will allow operating costs reduction, broadening of communications between banks and their customers and will make companies more efficient, according to Alexandre Nhantumbo, manager of Digital Channels at Standard Bank, during a TechTalk, at the 4th edition of MozTech, held in Maputo.
"Our country still has a lot to do in the field of interoperability, which implementation represents a solution for improvement of financial services provision and financial inclusion," said the bank manager in his speech.
He also argued that each bank operating in the country developed its own mobile portfolio in isolation, especially the main banks in the market, and now there is a need to get out of this isolation, causing the systems to communicate with each other.
“In our country, we still don’t have a platform that allows communication among the various mobile portfolios, since the Sociedade Interbancária de Moçambique SA (SIMO) network only interconnects the different commercial banks, through ATMs and POS" Stressed Nhantumbo.
However, according to Alexandre Nhantumbo, even among the mobile portfolios of mobile companies, m-pesa (Vodacom), m-kesh (mcel) and e-mola (Movitel) representing digital money and a new way of being , There is no interoperability yet.
"A customer in a given mobile wallet cannot yet trade or make payments to someone who has a mobile wallet from a diferent mobile company. For this, he would have to collect his physical money on an ATM in order to make the payment, "he explained.
On his view, if there were interoperability between the mobile portfolios, it would not be necessary to collect physical cash at an ATM to make payments, which would contribute to the reduction of operating costs for commercial banks, particularly with regard to the circulation of values, which entails high Transport costs, security, among other aspects.
It was in this context that Standard Bank and m-pesa established the first agreement in the country within the framework of the interoperability of banks and mobile telephony. This service allows m-Pesa customers to transfer money from their accounts to any Standard Bank account and vice versa.