According to the annual report on WAEMU's financial market infrastructures, means and payment services established by the BCEAO, CFAF 621 billion were processed through the Regional Gross Settlement System for Systemically Important Transactions (STAR- WAEMU), at the end of December 2019. This amount is equivalent to 1,211,158 transactions carried out.
In 2018, 924,404 transactions estimated at 512 billion FCFA were processed. Inter-country trade within WAEMU stood at CFAF 55,264 billion in 2019.
On a year-on-year basis, they report a favorable development of 57.36% in the value of inter-country transactions. On the other hand, a downward trend is noted concerning the use of retail payment instruments (cheques, transfers, direct debits, commercial paper) from 2018 to 2019. Thus, on a year-on-year basis, the value of transactions processed via the Interbank System WAEMU automatic clearing system (SICA-UEMOA) fell by 1% from 2018 to 2019.
Checks estimated at 8,177,203 and transfers at 7,348,703 are the two most used payment instruments in SICA-UEMOA. They are also in value with respectively 40,683 billion FCFA and 6,685 billion FCFA.
As for the Securities and Liquidity Management of the West African Monetary Union (SAGETIL-UMOA), the BCEAO report indicates that during the year 2019, the number of transactions processed increased by 32 .04% compared to the previous year. In value, there was an increase in transactions, which rose from 4,295 to 6,989 billion FCFA, i.e. a variation of 62.72%. According to the services of the Central Bank, this growth is mainly linked to the increase in DVP (Delivery Versus Payment or Delivery of securities against payment) type operations with 99.76% and DVF (Delivery Versus Free or Free delivery of securities) with 21 .43%.
Among the highlights during the year 2019, there is the securing of the platforms for connecting participants to the financial market infrastructures managed by the BCEAO. “The analysis of attempts and cases of fraud that have occurred over the past two years on the platforms of certain participants has revealed that cybercriminals exploit vulnerabilities in information systems in order to carry out illicit transfers of funds”, underlines the institute. resignation. And to add that this situation generates incidents whose consequences can result in relatively significant financial losses for the participants, disruptions in the execution of operations, even the compromise of the continuity of activity of the victim institutions and an alteration their image with an impact on people's confidence in the financial system.
"On this basis, the Central Bank in its capacity as operator of the SAGETILUMOA, SICA-UEMOA and STAR-UEMOA Infrastructures has defined rules and minimum security requirements for the connection platforms of the participants", reveal the services of the institute. resignation.
The rules and requirements defined deal, among other things, with the obligation for participants to ensure the interfacing of their Banking Information Systems (BIS) with STAR-UEMOA in order to improve the processing times of the operations of the customers, to comply with the contractual provisions relating to charging the accounts of beneficiaries of interbank transfers on D+2 at the latest.
According to the services of the Central Bank, following its deployment in 2019, the application of this system in 2020 by the participants will contribute to the control of the risks inherent in an insufficient security of the platforms for connection to the infrastructures of the financial markets of the BCEAO.