In line with regulatory requirements, the Common Monetary Area’s banking sector will be rolling out changes on how clients make and receive payments as of 15 April 2024. The CMA is comprised of Namibia, Eswatini, Lesotho and South Africa.

The changes 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 the domestic payment methods and channels. 

As in the case with First National Bank, all cross-border payments to an individual or a business in the CMA must instead be initiated as a Global Payment on the FNB App and FNB Online Banking.

According to FNB Namibia Payments Manager Albert Matongela, when making cross-border payments from FNB Namibia to other CMA countries clients will need to capture and process payments on the Foreign Exchange (Forex) tab within the existing online banking platform or FNB App which can be found on the online banking and App menus.

“Once the change has been effected, clients will receive an error message when processing a cross border EFT payment with any transactional value. This error will inform clients that they cannot proceed with the payment. In this regard, clients are advised to delete existing EFT cross-border recipients or beneficiary list, including EFT Folders and EFT Bulk Payment files. Clients need to reload all saved beneficiaries as Global Payment beneficiaries 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,” Matongela explained.

He further explained that Global Payments can only be made from a transactional account and not a credit card, adding that the Pay2Cell functionality as well as the scheduled payments functionality are also disabled for global payments.

“Clients and their beneficiaries can expect longer payment turnaround times as the beneficiary will also be required to provide Balance of Payments (BOP) information to their bank before the release of the funds into their account and will be required to provide additional disclosures concerning the reason for the payment and the payment beneficiary to enable the fulfilment of Balance of Payments (BOP) regulatory reporting requirements,” he said.

Matongela reiterated that the payment changes are necessary because of the need to comply with regulatory requirements while also to being in line with modernisation expectations at national and regional levels. 

“Despite relatively longer turnaround times, payments will be made and received in a way that meet regulatory expectations. Additionally, clients and beneficiaries will be able to self-service, via their preferred channel, to release incoming payments,” he concluded.