Page 109 - ITU-T Focus Group Digital Financial Services – Interoperability

ITU-T Focus Group Digital Financial Services
Interoperability

Outcome (actual) The aimed outcomes were achieved. A high level of technical interoperability exists in Nigeria
today, and many DFS devices and schemes are able to interoperate seamlessly. Entry barrier
has also been lowered substantially. While technical interoperability has been achieved and
service providers comply with technical interoperability as required by regulation, they do not
promote interoperability services (i.e. from a business/commercial perspective, there is little
interest in interoperability). Interoperability has mainly been achieved among and between
banks and non-banks, but not among non-banks, e.g. mobile money operators and microfi-
nance banks.

Country: Philippines

Respondent: Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas 11

Mandate DFS is within the mandate of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (central bank), specifically for
products and services that would meet established regulatory criteria. Telecommunication
operations, on the other hand, remains with the telecom regulator.
State of the market Even without interoperability being mandated, the industry players were able to interoper-
before authority’s ate among themselves (with some encouragement from the central bank) in the following
involvement instances:
1. In 2005, the three ATM networks in the country interconnected, allowing an ATM card-
holder to transact at any ATM in the country;
2. In 2010, the same ATM networks opened up their POS services to allow any ATM card-
holder to transact at any POS device in the country;
3. In the first quarter of 2016, two of the largest e-money issuers launched a pilot to interop-
erate their e-money products. It is set to be launched to the public in late 2016.

Relevance assigned The relevant authorities have considered interoperability an important issue.
to interoperability

Reason to address The decision to promote interoperability across DFS was aligned with the objective of encour-
interoperability aging and promoting electronic payments. Despite the increase in the number of institutions
offering DFS and the increased use of DFS, a diagnostic study conducted in 2013 revealed
only one per cent of the 2.5 billion payment transactions in an average month are effected
electronically. The development of the national retail payments system (NRPS) hopes to
address some barriers to entry in the existing set-up, including concerns on efficiency and
affordability.

Authority’s approach In the Philippines, interoperability is being strengthened with the NRPS initiative. NRPS is a
policy and regulatory framework, which aims to establish a safe, efficient, reliable, and afford-
able retail payment system in the Philippines. Discussions across various groups are facilitated
by the central bank to gather inputs and establish buy-in from the participants. It is an on-go-
ing process with planned policy and regulatory issuances.
Outcome The process is still on-going but positive results are expected, based on the results of prelimi-
nary discussions.

Country: Uganda

Respondent: Bank of Uganda 12

11 Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas was represented by Mr. German S. Constantino Jr.
12 Bank of Uganda was represented by Mr. Ivan Ssettimba.

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