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The value of bank transfers through the Automated Clearing House (ACH) Direct Credit has hit GH¢11.02 billion in the first half of 2018, data from the Ghana Interbank Payment and Settlement Systems (GhIPSS) have shown.

The half-year product performance summary indicated that the value of transfers is about 43 per cent higher than the amount of transactions recorded for the same period 2017, which stood at GH¢7.7 billion.

The volume was also 29 per cent higher at about 2.9 million transactions in the first half of this year, compared to 2.2 million transactions for the same period last year.

The higher growth in the value suggests an increased confidence in the payment system as more people are using it for high value transactions. Direct Credit, which is one of the two forms of Automated Clearing House (ACH), is a simple, secure and reliable service, which enables individuals, large and small organisations to make payments by electronic transfer directly into a bank account.

It involves a debit to an account in the sender´s bank and a transfer of the amount of money directly into the beneficiary´s account in another bank.

The electronic nature of the Direct Credit makes disbursement of bulk funds quicker, safer, secure, requires less effort and saves time. It also enables intended recipients to receive their funds on time.

The Chief Executive Officer of GhIPSS, Mr Archie Hesse, said consistent public education together, with the banks, accounted for the growth in patronage for ACH Direct Credit. He said ACH Direct Credit was a more efficient way of making bulk payments, such as salaries, and encouraged companies, who were still paying salaries using cheques to try ACH Direct Credit.

Direct Credit is used for payment of salaries, pensions, welfare benefits, commissions, supplier payments, dividend and refunds among others. It is also suitable for interest payments, government payments, as well as business-to-business payments.

Meanwhile, the express form of Direct Credit recorded an even higher growth in patronage for the first of half this year.
The volume of transactions shot up by over 140 per cent from 131,635 to 317,716 transactions while the value shot up by almost 170 per cent from GH¢1.4 billion to GH¢3.7 billion.

Express Direct Credit implies that the transfer is credited on the same day payment files are sent to the payer’s bank.
Mr Hesse called for a lot more effort from stakeholders to popularise ACH Direct Credit. He expressed the hope that public patronage for ACH Direct Credit will significantly outstrip cheques as it was a better alternative.

GNA

There is an increasing shift away from the use of cheques to electronic payments channels for various transactions. Although cheques continue to have the single largest share, it is growing at a slower pace while other electronic payments are experiencing a faster growth in patronage. This is demonstrated in the half year summary performance of GhIPSS product.

The dominance of cheques begun to reduce following the introduction of electronic payment products. In the first half of 2016, it accounted for 39 percent of products and services offered through the Ghana Interbank Payment and Settlement System (GhIPSS) platform.

Its percentage share dropped further to 30 percent in the first half of this year. e-zwich transactions are running neck to neck with cheques, accounting for 29 percent of transactions for the first half of this year, followed closely by ACH Direct Credit which accounted for 26 percent of the transactions.

The other services with smaller contributions include gh-link, Direct Debit, GIP and latest entrant, mobile money interoperability, which are all chipping away the shares of cheques.

Archie Hesse, Chief Executive of Ghana Interbank Payment and Settlement Systems (GhIPSS), noted that the trend is a strong indication that people are adopting digital payment platforms for payment. He added that the introduction of mobile money interoperability in just two months have taken 3% of total transaction volume of 2018 half year.

Cheques are increasingly being considered as less efficient as it involves physically going to the banking hall when the same transaction could be performed faster using other channels without visiting a banking hall. Some banks have therefore started introducing measures to discourage the use of cheques for smaller transactions, in order to encourage the public to go for channels such as ACH, GIP, e-bils pay or mobile money among others.

Mr. Hesse said the patronage for ACH Direct credit which allows for electronic interbank transfers was enjoying a steady rise, as many institutions and individuals continue to find it a better alternative.

Mr. Hesse encouraged organisations not to restrict formal payment to cheques only but to open up and accept other channels as equally formal ways of making and receiving payments. He explained that the various electronic channels have audit trails and other details that could be recorded in their books for accounting purposes.

“Times have changed and there are quicker, faster and more secure ways of making formal payments and our organisations must move with the times and accept these new channels as formal payments as well” he emphasised.

Mr. Hesse said GhIPSS together with the banks will continue to educate and assist organisations to set up their accounting system to recognize these various electronic payments.

The total value of e-zwich transactions in Ghana went up by 102 percent in the first half of this year to GH¢2.7 billion, according to a report on Payment Systems by the Bank of Ghana (BoG). This is compared with GH¢1.3 billion the same period last year.

According to the report, cash deposit value was up by 122 percent to GH¢444 million at the end of June 2018, whilst cash withdrawal value was also up by 91 percent to GH¢1.0 billion.

The Payment Distribution System, (PDS) also saw a 67 percent jump in the first half of this year compared to the same period last year. It grew from about GH¢433 million to GH¢727 million. Many government organizations and the National Service Secretariat all make salaries, wages and emoluments payments using the ezwich platform.

The report further stated that the number of cards with value grew by 31.63 percent, from 972,612 to 1,280,272.
However, the story was not very pleasant regarding the gh-link platform where total value transactions grew only by 0.73 percent.
For mobile money interoperability, GHc25.3 million was the value received for total wallet transactions between January 2018 and June 2018. 287,659 were the number of transactions done. But total banking sending value was GH¢67,357.

Regarding, cheque clearing, the value went up by 13.58 percent to GH¢73 billion in the first half of this year. Express cheque clearing was however up by 32.4 percent to GH¢26 billion

Earlier, the Central Bank said cheques still dominate banking transactions value despite mobile money transactions leading the non-cash retail payment instrument in terms of volume. According to the Payment Oversight Report 2017, mobile money transactions followed closely with GH¢155.8 billion value of transactions.

The volume of mobile money transactions was however 981.6 million, followed by debit card (60.4 million), ezwich (8.4 million), cheques (7.3 million) and direct credit transfer (6.1 million).

Mobile money financial services experienced exponential growth as compared to other non-cash payment stream on account of expansion in agent network and introduction of innovative products.

The report also emphasized that the number of registered internet banking customers declined by 2.65 percent from 962,487 in 2016 to 936,965 in 2017.
Continuing, the report said payments in 2017 remain one of the fastest growing components of the financial services industry.

The GhIPSS Instant Pay (GIP) has recorded a massive increase in patronage in the first half of this year compared to the same period last year. The GIP is an electronic payment system that enables a customer to transfer money from one bank account to another of a different bank and the transfer is effected instantly.

According to a half year summary performance of GhIPSS product report, the volume of GIP transactions moved from 7,181 in the first half of 2017 to 53,201 in the first half of this year, up by a whopping 698 per cent.

The value of transaction equally shot up impressively from GH¢16.5 million to GH¢150.2 million, representing a jump of over 812 per cent.
The huge jump in volume and value of GIP transactions has been attributed to increased number of institutions offering services based GIP, following consistent public education on the product.

At the end of the first half of this year, 31 banks and 6 third party institutions had successfully integrated with the GIP platform.

Mr. Archie Hesse, Chief Executive Officer of Ghana Interbank Payment and Settlement Systems (GhIPSS), said in an interview that GhIPSS expected GIP patronage to keep going up as more banks and Fintechs integrate with the platform.

He also anticipated that banks and Fintechs will come up with more innovative services to run on the GIP platform, which he said would further increase patronage for the service. The GIP and mobile money interoperability are two electronic payment products that experts anticipate will significantly deepen financial inclusion in Ghana.

Mr. Hesse explained that because the GIP was instant and real time transfer, “it was as good as cash but even more secured”. He urged the public to continue using the GIP anytime they need to quickly move funds, since it was safer and more efficient compared to cash.

The public is able to use the GIP through the various channels including internet banking portals and mobile applications offered by banks and Fintechs. Some banks have even used the GIP platform to transfer remittances directly into the bank account of recipients, saving the customers the trouble of queuing up to receives their funds over the counter.

Fintechs have seen the power of GIP and cashing in strongly by riding on it to offer several services to their clientele.

Source: GNA