Mozambique completes integration of banks into the single electronic payments network

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Mozambique completes integration of banks into the single electronic payments network

10:03 CAT | 29 Nov 2023

File photo: Lusa

The Bank of Mozambique announced today that, five years after the country’s infamous ‘ATM blackout’, all commercial banks and electronic money institutions in the country are now integrated into the country’s new single electronic payments network, provided by Euronet.

With the new platform, the Sociedade Interbancária de Moçambique (Simo) is now “aligned with international standards for payment systems, which impose ‘contactless’ technology” for all bank cards and POS terminals, which “offers greater security and convenience for users”, the central bank explains in a statement released today.

“Since November 19, 2023, all commercial banks and electronic money institutions have been fully integrated into the single national network and operating exclusively on the new SIMORede platform, provided by Euronet,” the statement adds.

This is “one of the main objectives of modernizing the country’s National Payment System”, “which will certainly make an undeniable contribution to boosting electronic payments in Mozambique”.

“The new SIMORede platform has the advantage of offering a diverse range of products and services, with an emphasis on interoperability (interconnection) between electronic money institutions, banks and other financial service providers,” the central bank goes on to highlight.

In November, 2018, a days-long ‘blackout’ affected ATMs and credit card operations at most Mozambican banks, the result of non-payment and other non-compliances by Simo, Portuguese fintech company Bizfirst explained at the time.

“Simo/InterBancos illegally used Bizfirst’s software for more than two years, without paying,” the firm announced at the time, in a statement in which it said it had striven to reach an agreement, with successive concessions in terms of prices, “but Simo never accepted any agreement”.

This was followed by intervention by the government and the banks themselves to unblock the situation, and then a process led by the Bank of Mozambique to define and operationalize a new single national electronic payments network, now completed.

READ: https://clubofmozambique.com/news/breaking-mozambiques-commercial-banks-decide-to-pay-bizzfirst-end-atms-blackout/

Source: Lusa