LiquidAfrica, the African stock market trading platform, has acquired Fin-X, a company providing back-office integration for straight through processing (STP), from Global Technology (Glotec).
Fin-X recently opened an African bureau offering banks and other financial institutions access to SWIFT (Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunications). The parties say that Fin-X's SWIFT capabilities, which they believe are more cost-effective for clients than other offerings, and its other skills in securities trading complement LiquidAfrica's activities.
SWIFT services over 6 700 financial institutions in 200 countries, processing daily payments estimated at $5 trillion. It is the standard of interbank telecommunications in Europe, the US and most of the world, the parties say.
Cyrille Nkontchou, CEO of LiquidAfrica, says up until now SWIFT has been relatively expensive to deploy throughout Africa, meaning that only the major players have been able to benefit from the service.
"With the establishment of the Fin-X's SWIFT African bureau, banks will become part of the SWIFT network on a shared cost basis. This will give them access to a large-scale IT infrastructure at a fraction of the cost of outright ownership, while enjoying the full technical support from Fin-X."
Nkontchou believes a wider dissemination of SWIFT will enable all banks in Africa to securely process transactions in real-time, and central banks to implement an electronic national payment system.
A total of 24 banks throughout Africa, including SA, Mozambique, Kenya, Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe and Tanzania, have signed up with Fin-X. The SWIFT offering is designed to allow them to speed up settlement and ensure secure electronic payment.
Fin-X has also been appointed by the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (Comesa) to advise on the implementation of a regional payment system that enables member countries to settle regional trade in their own currency.
"By creating an electronic platform such as this, we will fulfil our mandate from Comesa and assist Africa in meeting the New Partnership for Africa Development's aim of enhancing trade in Africa," says Barry Botes, Fin-X MD.
Fin-X, in association with the International Air Transport Association, also operates an Internet portal (finexonline.com), enabling travel agents and corporations to competitively order foreign exchange notes and travel cheques for their clients from five major foreign exchange dealers. The company also provides an international calling facility via virtual prepaid calling cards.
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