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Article Title:
An Evaluation of the Usage and Operational Framework of the Real Time Gross Settlement System in the Zimbabwean Banking Sector
by Thomas Bhiri, Takaivona Vhimisai and Innocent Bayai

Abstract:
Payment systems have evolved over the years in tandem with the quantum leap in the volume and value of payment system transactions. Consequentially, the banking sector together with the financial regulatory institutions have developed safe, reliable and robust payment streams such as the Real Time Gross Settlement (RTGS) system. This research seeks to evaluate the usage and operational framework of the Real Time Gross Settlement system in the Zimbabwean banking sector. The cross-sectional survey research design was adopted for this research. The major findings from the research were that the RTGS system is widely available and optimally utilized. There are manual interventions between the RTGS system and core banking systems. It was concluded that there is capacity to synchronize the RTGS system with other payment streams, the RTGS system rules and procedures are not fully implemented by financial institutions and the framework governing the RTGS system is largely comparable to international best practice. Recommendations were that the RTGS system should be synchronized with other electronic payment streams, the adoption and implementation of the Straight-Through Processing should be expedited and that there should be an introduction of system availability barometers.

Keywords: real time gross systems (RTGS), payment systems, payment streams, operational framework, synchronize

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