The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has ordered banks to comply with the SWIFT universal payment confirmation.
It stated this in a circular titled ‘Compliance with the SWIFT universal payment confirmation’ signed by the Director, Banking Services Department, Sam Okojere, to all banks which was released on Friday.
Part of the circular read, “All banks operating in Nigeria are by this circular reminded of the need to ensure full compliance with SWIFT universal confirmation requirements.
“All SWIFT customers are required to provide confirmation on the outcome of all their incoming single customer payment (MT103) messages to SWIFT via tracker, also known as universal confirmations.”
A SWIFT code is a code used to identify the country, bank and branch that an account is registered to.
The CBN said the confirmation should get to SWIFT within two business days on whether the beneficiary’s account has been credited, payment is rejected or pending.
It added that all financial institutions within the ecosystem would be measured on whether they confirmed 80 per cent on their weekly payments.
The CBN noted that SWIFT offered different ways to provide the status update via automated manual methods.
The channels, it added, included the basic tracker-manual, API calls, automated MT 199 confirmations, batch confirmation, full GPi, ISO 20022-available from 202.
It advised all banks to review and select the appropriate channel that suit their operations with a view to meeting the deadline of November 22 set by SWIFT for compliance.