High value payment transactions pass through the Uganda National Interbank Settlement (UNIS) System, also known as, the BOU Real Time Gross Settlement (RTGS) System.
UNIS: This advanced interbank electronic payment system facilitates safe, secure and real-time transmission of high value funds between accounts in different financial institutions. It was implemented in February 2005 and was upgraded from a client/server based model to a web-based model in August 2009. The UNIS System participant base was expanded from Commercial Banks to include Non-Bank Financial Institutions.
The system has improved efficiency in payment systems by mitigating settlement risk and eradicating time lag for settling high value and time critical payments. They include; clearing house balances, interbank transfers, government securities and money market transactions.
Currently there are twenty four (24) registered UNIS System participants. Turnaround time for a transaction is T+0 (instantaneous) with a maximum time lag of two hours. The average daily processing involves 1200 transactions with a value of around 263 billion Uganda Shillings.
Five years after its implementation, about 85% of large value and time critical payment transactions pass through the RTGS system leaving only 15% to pass through the clearing system.
