Kenya has upgraded its real-time payments infrastructure, placing the Country as one of the first countries in Africa to start running an ISO 20022 instant payments system with modern micro-services technology.
The Integrated Payment Services Limited (IPSL), a Kenya Bankers Association’s (KBA) real-time payment services company, recently launched a modernized real-time payment system based on ISO 20022.
The new real-time payment system was delivered to Kenya by TietoEVRY.
Globalization of real-time payments, adoption of real-time cross border payments, evolving changes in regulation, consumer choice for instant payments and rapid business complexities within the financial services industry, have all contributed to key investment decisions for modernization of real-time payment rails.
Kenya is the first in Africa to run a national payment switch based on ISO 20022
With the launch of new instant payment system by IPSL, Kenya has now become one of the trailblazers in the industry and the first in Sub-Sahara Africa to run a national instant payment switch based on ISO20022.
“We expect the new instant payments system delivered by TietoEVRY to allow banks and other stakeholders (finetchs, PISPs, PSPs and MNOs) to accelerate real-time payments across the banking industry, align banks with regulatory directive for migration to ISO 20022, launch new use cases, improve operational efficiencies, drive operational excellence and ensure best practices for KYC (Know Your Customer) and AML (Anti Money Laundering) activities using data enriched messaging protocol,” said Seun Owoeye, Chief Operating Officer at IPSL.
Valdis Janovs, TietoEVRY, Head of Instant, Retail Payments and Cards said, “We are proud to partner with Kenya’s IPSL and deliver our next generation Instant Payments Solution to Kenya. It’s clear that the payments market is advancing at a rapid pace and customer demands are growing exponentially. We are happy to be working with IPSL to meet all of these demands today and supporting them also in the future.”
He also added, “Despite the exceptional circumstance caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, project implementation went as planned and was executed fully remotely, proving the ability of both involved parties to collaborate under any circumstances.”
TietoEVRY was chosen as a partner for this project due to the company’s proven credentials in providing modern, real-time payment solutions around the world.
Most recently, the Maldives Monetary Authority has been working with TietoEVRY on their Instant Payments System project.
In addition, TietoEVRY has worked with the Swedish company Getswish, the owner of the successful mobile real-time payment solution Swish, and has developed Siirto, Finland’s first real-time mobile payment platform for Automatia.
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