Namibia adopts global financial messaging standard to boost efficiency, security
WINDHOEK, May 15 (Xinhua) -- The Bank of Namibia announced on Thursday that it has successfully migrated the Namibia Interbank Settlement System (NISS) to the ISO 20022 global financial messaging standard.
The migration to ISO 20022 is part of efforts to align Namibia's payment infrastructure with international standards, the central bank said, adding that it is a global standard currently being adopted by central banks and financial institutions around the world.
The new standard is expected to improve payment processing efficiency, enhance liquidity management, and support better fraud detection through richer data formats, contributing to the overall stability of the financial system, the bank added.
According to the bank, the development supports the goals of its National Payment System Vision and Strategy (2021-2025), which includes several modernization initiatives aimed at improving the country's financial infrastructure.
The NISS is Namibia's real-time gross settlement system that facilitates both high-value interbank payments and low-value retail payment transactions. The system processed more than 97,000 transactions valued at over 1.2 trillion Namibian dollars (about 66.5 billion U.S. dollars) between April 2024 and April 2025, according to the bank.
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