SEFT will facilitate and improve the interbank funds transfer service. The new system which is entirely based locally in Seychelles provides a common platform for all participating members to conduct their transfers in an efficient and safe manner. This covers all banks of the Seychelles islands, including Barclays Bank, Mauritius Commercial Bank, Bank of Baroda, Habib Bank, Nouvobanq, and the Seychelles Savings Bank.

This project represents yet another addition to ProgressSoft's offering of fully-fledged payment systems to the Republic of Seychelles, which includes the Electronic Check Clearing Solution (PS-ECC) that is currently operating in CBS and all banks of the islands.

With the aim of modernising the payment system environment in Seychelles, SEFT will help in minimising the physical exchange of cash and also to reduce the cost of local transfers which are currently handled primarily through the SWIFT platform. Following its launch today, SEFT will be accessible only to the participating members and their staff in their respective payment departments so that they can first familiarise themselves to this new platform and fully adopt the new processes that have been introduced before the second phase of the project is implemented early next year.

The second phase will feature the integration and deployment of an online internet based platform that will allow registered customers to have access to the same system via the comfort of their homes and businesses.

SEFT will enable timely processing of transactions, facilitate bulk transaction uploads for corporate customers, provide email and SMS notifications and provide easy access to view current and past transactions.

ProgressSoft CEO, Mr. Michael Wakileh commented by saying, "We are delighted to launch another real-time payment solution in Seychelles, the advanced Electronic Funds Transfer from ProgressSoft, PS-EFT. With the ECC in place, the EFT and our country-wide Moide Mobile Payment endeavor, ProgressSoft is still determined that this shall be but another milestone towards a complete real-time payment and settlement portfolio in this World's most beautiful country. I would like to thank all international parties who assessed the system to endorse its readiness.

This launch continues to endorse our excellence and primacy as real-time payment solution providers around the globe. We value our long-term partnership with the banking body in Seychelles. I must thank all the teams who were involved from The Central bank of Seychelles, all banks in Seychelles and ProgressSoft, as they are the true reason for the success of this project."

The Governor of the Central Bank of Seychelles, Ms. Caroline Abel expressed her gratitude for the project by saying "the launch of the SEFT system - being a reliable and efficient payment system platform - is an important step towards ensuring the continued stability of the financial system. I wish to express my sincere thanks to all involved in one way or another in the implementation of the project".

SEFT has many capabilities and room for continued enhancements. Commercial banks and SCU will be able to fully integrate it to their CORE Banking Systems and Internet Banking platforms to further shorten and in the same instance improve the payment cycles, reducing delays and providing real time credits and debits to customers' accounts.