PHILIPSBURG--The Central Bank of Curaçao and St. Maarten (CBCS) is currently in the process of upgrading the system that regulates the traffic of payments between the local banks of Curaçao, St. Maarten and Bonaire. The new so called National Automated Clearing and Settlement System NACS3 is scheduled to go live on November 9, 2020.
The world of technology is rapidly advancing and is affecting more and more aspects of our lives. This also includes the way we make our daily payments for groceries, gasoline, electricity, etc. Electronic payments are an essential part of our lives and our national payment system is the foundation of a healthy monetary economy, CBCS said in a press release on Monday.
Currently, the Central Bank’s NACS2 system is being upgraded to the newer version NACS3 to comply with the next generation of payments technology, in particular the ISO 20022 payments standard. Furthermore, the new system contains some improvements to enhance the functioning of the system.
The ISO 20022 payment standard is the new payment standard for cross-border and domestic payments messaging. It creates a common language and model for payments data across the globe, one that provides higher quality data than other standards, which means higher quality payments.
With regard to the introduction of the new system, the CBCS offered a virtual NACS3-user training to the commercial banks of Curaçao, St. Maarten, and Bonaire this month. During this training, the participants were introduced to the new NACS3 system and informed of the major changes compared to the current system. The participants also had the opportunity to practise simulated transactions.
The upgrade of the system is mainly technological and will improve the payment infrastructure according to the international payment standards. It will have no direct implication for the public in general.
