At the end of December 2019, some 1,211,158 transactions valued at CFAF 621 billion had been processed through the Regional System for the Gross Settlement of Systemically Important Transactions (STAR-UEMOA), according to the annual report on financial market infrastructures, the means and services of payment of the West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU) established by the Central Bank of West African States (BCEAO).

Compared to 2018 when 924,404 transactions estimated at 512 billion FCFA were processed, there was an increase in volume of 31.02% and in value of 21.35%. "Inter-country trade within the WAEMU amounted to CFAF 55,264 billion in 2019, thus amounting to 8.90% of the overall value of transactions processed in STARUEMOA," the BCEAO services stressed.

 
Year-on-year, they report a favourable evolution of 57.36% in value of inter-country operations. 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, year-on-year, the value of transactions processed via the WAEMU Interbank Automatic Clearing System (SICA-UEMOA) decreased by 1% from 2018 to 2019.

In number, the cheque (8,177,203) and the transfer (7,348,703) are the two most used payment instruments in the SICA-UEMOA. They are also in value with respectively 40,683 billion CFA francs and 6,685 billion CFA francs.

Regarding the transactions processed in the Automated Securities and Liquidity Management System of the West African Monetary Union (SAGETIL-WAMU), the BCEAO report indicates that during 2019, the number of transactions processed increased by 32.04% compared to the previous year. dente. In terms of value, there was an increase in transactions from CFAF 4,295 billion to CFAF 6,989 billion, a variation of 62.72%. According to the services of the Central Bank, this growth is mainly related to the increase in DVP (Delivery Versus Payment) type operations with 99.76% and DVF (Delivery Versus Free) with 21.43%.

 
Among the highlights during 2019, there is the securing of the platforms for connecting participants to the financial market infrastructures managed by the BCEAO. "Analysis of attempts and cases of fraud that have occurred over the past two years on the platforms of some participants revealed that cybercriminals exploit vulnerabilities in information systems in order to carry out illicit transfers of funds," stresses the issuing institute. He adds that this situation generates incidents whose consequences can result in relatively significant financial losses for participants, disruptions in the execution of operations, even the compromise of the continuity of activity of the victim institutions and an alteration of their image with an impact on the confidence of the populations vis-à-vis the vis-à-vis 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 participants' connection platforms," reveal the services of the issuing institute.

 
The rules and requirements defined address, among other things, the obligation for participants to ensure the interfacing of their Banking Information Systems (SIB) with STAR-UEMOA in order to improve the processing times of customer transactions, to comply with the contractual provisions concerning the imputation of the accounts of the beneficiaries of interbank transfers to D+2 at the latest.

According to the services of the Central Bank, following its deployment in 2019, the application of this device in 2020 by the participants will contribute to the control of the risks inherent in insufficient security of the platforms connecting to the BCEAO's financial market infrastructures.