PRESS RELEASE
BANK OF GHANA AND BANKS SET UP GHANA INTERBANK PAYMENT
AND SETTLEMENT SYSTEM (GIPSS)
The Bank of Ghana and the Ghana Association of Bankers have agreed to establish
the Ghana Interbank Payments and Settlement System (GIPSS). GIPSS would be an
independent entity responsible for the different components of Ghana’s payment and
settlement system infrastructure and would include the following:
i. National Switch (the Common Platform)
ii. Biometric Smart Card
iii. Cheque Clearing
iv. Codeline Cheque Truncation
v. Real Time Gross Settlement System (RTGS), and
vi. Automated Clearing House (ACH)
All banks would be members of GIPSS either directly or access the system
through member banks. It is expected that the National Switch, biometric
smartcard, codeline cheque truncation, and Automated Clearing House would be
installed by the end of 2007 and this should provide Ghana with an efficient,
robust and modern payment system infrastructure.
The GIPSS would also significantly reduce the usage of cash for business
transactions and move the economy towards electronic payments, with the
National Switch allowing ATM interoperability between banks. The system would
extend services to the unbanked and underbanked segments of the population. It
would allow banks, savings and loans, and other financial and non-financial
institutions (such as Government, Universities, Cocobod, SSNIT, NHIS, large
enterprises, hospitals, public transport, etc) to deploy products for the banked and
unbanked that they have thus far been unable to do. The biometric (finger print)
smartcard, for example, is designed to function in location without electricity and
telecommunication equipment and eliminates the need to have basic literacy and
numeracy to operate a bank account, and it also offers protection against fraud.
The cost of electronic transactions should also reduce as banks would be able to
pass on the advantages of economies of scale to be derived from this cooperative
effort.
DATE OF ISSUE: MAY 10, 2007