Nepal Clearing House Ltd. (NCHL) and ProgressSoft, with the support of Nepal Rastra Bank and Integrated Solutions Private Ltd. concluded today, the signing ceremony to upgrade Nepal's Electronic Check Clearing system (NCHL-ECC) by introducing the Interbank Payment System (NCHL-IPS) as per the strategic objectives of NCHL.
NCHL-IPS is a system for clearing low-value large volume financial transactions and provides a mechanism for the participating banks and financial institutions to safely and efficiently transfer funds on behalf of their customers as well as for their own trading purposes. NCHL-IPS supports both direct debit (collections) and direct credit (transfers) transactions from any bank account to any other bank account, in addition, NCHL-IPS will also support standing instruction or mandate based payments.
By signing this project, NCHL will upgrade the current system by implementing ProgressSoft's Automated Clearing House module (PS-ACH) an international real-time payment solutions provider based in Amman - Jordan.
ProgressSoft Corporation is a leading provider of real-time payment solutions serving over 350 banks in 24 countries around the world with over 25 years of experience, and is the national provider of the countrywide Electronic Check Clearing system in Nepal.
This upgrade of the current system will largely benefit NCHL due to the major cost savings, as it requires the addition of NCHL-IPS software component only and re-utilize the majority of the hardware and network equipment, which are already in place.
Training requirements for the users of the bank/financial institutions and NCHL is also expected to be minimal as it will be easy to operate and maintain the system due to the similarity between NCHL-ECC and NCHL-IPS systems. All of this in turn will result in a shorter project implementation time of NCHL-IPS.
Mr. Michael Wakileh - ProgressSoft CEO and Cofounder said "It costs us a lot to stay ahead in the payments arena. Back in Dec 2010, we were honored with the award of the country-wide Electronic Check Clearing Solution in Nepal, and we endorsed our excellence and primacy within real-time payment solution providers. Today, we are delighted with the award of the Automated Clearing House PS-ACH solution which complements the Interbank Payment System in the country."
Mr. Wakileh further added "We are determined to build on our partnership with NCHL and the banking body in Nepal. I will make sure we achieve another success story for real-time payments in Nepal. I must thank all of ProgressSoft team, as they are the true reason for winning this project."
NCHL believes that with the successful implementation and operation of NCHL-IPS will not only promote non-paper based transactions, but it will be yet another milestone project to ensure efficient and effective payment and settlement mechanism in the banking and financial industry of Nepal.