Luke Forau: Launch of Solomon Island's payment system SOLATS
Remarks by Mr Luke Forau, Governor of the Central Bank of Solomon Islands, at the
Launch of the National Payments System SOLATS, Honiara, 8 April 2024.
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Representatives from IFC and WBG - Ms Hang, Mr. Smiley and Ms Annette
DFAT and MFAT representatives -
CBSI Directors
Heads of Financial Institutions
National Payment System Project Managers and your technical teams
CBSI Management and staff
Members of the Media
Distinguished invited guests, Ladies and Gentlemen.
A very good morning to you all, and a warm welcome to Honiara, to our visitors from
abroad.
I have great pleasure to welcome you to the Central Bank of Solomon Islands to
witness the launch of, yet another milestone in our payment infrastructure, the Solomon
Islands Automated Transfer System, called Solomons ATS (SOLATS). This new
platform revolutionizes payments in Solomon Islands.
Individuals, businesses, and the government will benefit from secure, efficient, and
convenient transactions. SOLATS lays the foundation towards the digitalisation of the
Solomon Islands economy; it will create the conditions for banks and other financial
institutions to offer new products/services.
This event is the culmination of years of hard work and collaboration between payments
experts from IFC/WBG, Montran (the vendor), Datec (the network consultant) and the
project teams across the PAPRI countries in the region. You will agree with me that this
event also marks the success of the ongoing Pacific Partnership Program between the
Solomon Islands government, multilateral organisations and donor partners.
This National Payment System project is unique as it introduced us to unfamiliar
frontiers given the gaps that existed in the technical and legal infrastructure, and even
at the operational level in terms of adequate resourcing, let alone skilled resources to
take on the challenges that come with the project requirements.
For Solomon Islands, the project inception began in July 2019 - a year before the
Covid-19 disruptions - you can imagine the challenges we all faced during Covid-19.
Now, that is all history!
Having reached this stage of implementation, therefore, means that we have
successfully bridged the gaps, perhaps, connected the dots and map out the
unchartered waters in the local payment ecosystem.
On that note, I would like to register our sincere thanks to the banking industry for the
invaluable contributions and support that you've rendered towards the project, from
inception right through to the final stages of the project implementation, and now the
launch of the SOLATS.
Also, I acknowledged the unwavering service of the payments experts, project
managers, IT technical teams and operational teams that worked together, often times
under stressful situations, to enable us come together this morning and celebrate such
a huge achievement, despite the many challenges we encountered since inception in
2019.
Let me now take you through a few major achievements that I think are worth
highlighting this morning:
First, at the inception meeting in 2019, we made mention of the need for policy makers,
regulators and industry players to collaborate on issues of importance to the youth in
the digital inclusive economy of the near future. I am pleased to inform that we have
taken a major step forward in recent years, to not only recognise the place of youths in
the digital economy, but document it in the third National Financial Inclusion Strategy
(NFIS3) 2021-2025.
It is our desire for higher level of inclusiveness in the economy through our renewed
focus on bringing innovative and responsive financial services, built upon digital and
accessible technology, to the market.
This is consistent with the broader national objectives of Solomon Islands
Government's National Development Strategy (NDS) 2016-2035, with a digital
approach to financial inclusion guided by the G20 High Level Principles of Digital
Financial Inclusion.
As such, Objective 1 of the NFIS 3 states, to 'amplify the reach and quality of digital
financial services, products, and channels.' Under this objective, Activity 1.2, specifies
the establishment of an inclusive payments infrastructure. This morning I am pleased to
announce that this has been achieved with the launch of this payment infrastructure.
Second, I'd like to reiterate the importance of the legislative changes through the
enactment of the National Payment System Act 2022 by the last Parliament and the
subsequent amendment to the CBSI Act 2012.
The enactment of the Payments System Act 2022 resulted in Part 6 of the CBSI Act
2012 being repealed. A payments legislation that provides the specific mandates for
CBSI to carry out its 'operational' and 'oversight' roles is highly necessary to mitigate
the risks in the payment ecosystem.
While we have made successful strides in modernising our legal framework, we are
aware that the advent of modern technology has also brought about innovations in the
payment landscape.
With these innovations come new challenges, shaped by market requirements and
developments, as our economies respond to new demands and opportunities.
That being said, I also believe that there is a need to also recognise that there must be
a balance of innovation and regulation, as we strive to make our payment systems
faster, safer, more efficient and interoperable.
The NPS project has proved that stakeholders can do this together - by sharing
knowledge, experiences and resources.
The Central Bank aims to achieve our mandate and objectives in ensuring financial
system stability and monetary policy while promoting financial inclusion.
At this juncture, I wish to remind the financial industry that with the National Payment
System infrastructure in place, you now have the opportunity to create unique
opportunities for enhanced payment mechanisms for commerce in the future.
I am particularly interested to see the interoperability of payments systems in the
country where e-payments, mobile phones and the internet will integrate with the NPS
infrastructure to ensure settlements are done in real time, enabling the ordinary person
to make payments fast, efficiently and cost effectively.
Let me close by, once again, extending our gratitude to the IFC and WBG for their
technical support and constant guide in this important reform work, to strengthen the
legislative framework and modernizing the National Payment System to meet
international standards.
I also acknowledge the donors and the development partners for the funding support
that has made it possible for Solomon Islands to benefit from the financial market
infrastructures
I also extend my deep appreciation to the participating banks and your hard-working
project teams for having faith in the project and believing in the benefits that this great
initiative will bring to the people of Solomon Islands.
Overall, I am grateful for the general support to the CBSI project team.
Despite the odds, we have proved our resilience and I am overwhelmed with joy by the
commitment and collaboration displayed by all parties to bring about positive changes
to the lives of our people.
Thank you.