The Bank of Ghana (BoG) has disclosed that it is working feverishly with the banking industry to migrate all payment cards from magnetic stripe standard to Europay, MasterCard and Visa (EMV) chip and PIN standard this year.
The move, according to the Bank is to enhance security and reduce fraud in the industry.
The Second Deputy Governor of BoG, Dr Johnson Asiama disclosed this at the 10th anniversary ball of Fidelity Bank Ghana Limited in Accra on Friday, April 28, 2017.
He maintained: “Clearly, the use of electronic payments will reduce payroll fraud, improve government revenue collection efforts and enhance the monetary policy transmission mechanism” in the country.
Notwithstanding the progress made in payments systems development over the last couple of years, there remains a lot more to be done, Dr Asiama added.
“It is against this background that stakeholders of the payment systems are being brought together under the Payment Systems Council to guide the orderly development of the payment system”.
Payment Systems Developments
He noted that; “information and communication technology (ICT) is transforming the financial services industry with rapidity. ICT is challenging the traditional banking model by providing alternative channels for banking and payments”.
In response to the changing banking and payment landscape, they initiated a process to review the Electronic Money Issuers and Agents’ Guidelines (2015) and the Payment Systems Act 2003 (Act 662) with the view to consolidating it into one piece of legislation called, Payment Systems and Services Bill, 2017.
To this end, “we have consulted widely with stakeholders in drafting the bill, and the draft is currently with the Ministry of Finance, ready to be forwarded to Cabinet”, Dr Asiama revealed.
“Clearly, the improvement in regulatory environment has drawn interest of banks and non-bank institutions in the digital financial space.
We are seeing increasing collaboration between banks and non-bank institutions such as telcos and financial technology firms for financial service delivery, hence there is no doubt that technology is promoting innovative financial products and a more inclusive financial system in Ghana”.
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