Payment Systems

Payment Systems are the key component of any financial system. The efficient functioning of the payment system makes a key contribution to overall economic performance by allowing safe and timely completion of financial transactions. Payment Systems also provides the conduit for effective transmission of monetary policy.

It is recognized worldwide that an efficient and secure payment system is an enabler of economic activity. There are diverse payment systems functioning in the country, ranging from the paper based systems where the instruments are physically exchanged and settlements worked out manually to the most sophisticated electronic fund transfer system which are fully secured and settle transactions on a gross, real time basis. They cater to both low value retail payments and large value payments relating to the settlement of inter-bank money market, Government securities and FOREX transactions.

Banks are the main providers of payment services to the customers in India. The payment systems are Message based funds transfer like NEFT, RTGS and SWIFT. These messages facilitate the bank to receive and remit funds across the banking system and inter-bank financial settlements would take place in real time i.e. online environment.

ZSL's PayManager offers the bank the capability to better regulate and optimize funds for NEFT, RTGS and SWIFT transactions before releasing it to the Central Bank. PayManager incorporates comprehensive algorithms and validation features to hold the fund to NEFT, RTGS and SWIFT so as to better manage the outflow of funds from the bank to the Central Bank. PayManager also provides facility to help the bank to monitor any incoming and outgoing transactions, and provides real-time position for all incoming and outgoing payment instructions. In addition to the aforementioned features, PayManager provides multiple host interfaces and functions as a common interface to the various host applications within the bank. The protocol used to interface with the various hosts is MQ Series, a messaging middleware.

Payment Hub

Payment HUB is a Centralized Payment Hub (PH) that enables the bank to have a centralized release of RTGS payment instructions and to intervene when necessary before a stipulated cut-off time to transmit the instructions on a timely basis. It provides real-time position for all incoming and outgoing payment instructions.

Solution Overview

PH inter-connects banks, hosts Payment Gateways and vice versa. PH is built on an open, J2EE technology and MVC framework. The integration is primarily done using IBM WebSphere MQ, a message oriented middleware application.

For hosts that uses file based payment processing, it provides an optional component 'PayManager Adapter' to convert file based messages to MQ messages and vice versa. PayManager provides a common interface to the various host applications within the bank, which allows centralized release of messages to Payment Gateway.

The system supports processing of SWIFT, RTGS, SFMS and NEFT messages for end to end integration with bank's hosts and payment gateways. Support for additional message protocols can be done with minor customization.

Key Features of Payment Hub

• SOD and EOD Operation
• Inter-connects with the banking host with number of payment and settlement systems.
• Seamless integration with STP
• Custom Adapters for systems using file formats
• Has the facility to monitor all incoming and outgoing transactions.
• Provides a real-time position for all incoming and outgoing payment instructions.
• Provides routing mechanism for all incoming and acknowledgement messages
• Single Message and Batch Message Processing
• Manual Construct of RTGS/SWIFT/SFMS/NEFT Messages
• Cancellation of RTGS/SWIFT/SFMS/NEFT Messages
• Facility to monitor the balances in various settlement accounts, with a facility to drill down to the various sub group of messages, individual message and message fields there under.
• Broadcast or receive messages to/from any of the bank's braches or host systems.
• Intraday Liquidity Manager Module available
• Comprehensive SWIFT message handler
• Manual Messages
• Status Monitor
• Provides the mechanism to update the Swift as well as RTGS branch duplicate Codes.
• Re-prioritization of Messages Systems
• MQ Series compliant in sending payment messages to RTGS/SWIFT
• Payment Release Management
• Provides the mechanism to find the missing sequence of Payment messages.
• Ensures end-to-end confidentiality of communication using industry standard security tools
• Extensive Error Handling
• Transaction Report, Payment report, Reconciliation report, Audit Report and various customizable reports

PayManager

PayManager is an Intra-day Liquidity Manager (ILM) with centralised Payment Hub (PH) that enables the bank to have a centralised release of RTGS payment instructions and to intervene when necessary before a stipulated cut-off time to transmit the instructions on a timely basis. It provides real-time position for all incoming and outgoing payment instructions. Intra Day Liquidity Manager

Intra Day Liquidity Manager displays real-time currency wise liquidity position. Actual liquidity available is calculated based on various parameters such as balance in the various settlement accounts in each currency, payments received, payments settled, payments awaiting settlement, payments awaiting acknowledgement, payments awaiting authorization.

Key Features

• Multi-currency Liquidity Manager
• SOD and EOD Operation
• Displays actual liquidity available taking into account, balance in various settlement accounts in different currencies
• Automatically matches payments with predictions; however it has the flexibility to match manually
• Rule based mechanism to schedule/prioritize both outward and inward payments based on BIC, currency, amount, beneficiary and time
• Reserve fund allocation for high priority messages or expected debit
• Graphical and tabular display of active fund status, predicted vs. actual at any given point of time
• Forecasting Net Position of day-end, based on known payments and receipts at day-begin or any time during the day at Bank's option
• Alert when liquidity falls below preset threshold
• Transaction Report, Prediction Report, Transaction Volume Report, Graphical reports and various customizable reports