National Payment Systems Directives on Automated Teller Machine, Point of Sale, Internet Transactions and Mobile Payments, 2019

The National Payment Systems Directives on Automated Teller Machine, Point of Sale, Internet Transactions and Mobile Payments, 2019 are directives issued by the Bank of Zambia under the National Payment Systems Act, 2007 to regulate the principal electronic retail-payment channels in Zambia. They are a core part of the suite of Bank of Zambia directives that govern fintech and digital-payment services and complement the directives on electronic money issuance. The Directives apply to providers and operators of ATM, point-of-sale (POS), internet (online) and mobile payment services, including banks, payment system businesses and e-money issuers, and to the participants in those channels. They set out the conduct, operational, security and consumer-protection standards that must be observed across these channels. Core obligations typically include the requirement to be authorised/designated by the Bank of Zambia to operate the relevant channel, adherence to technical and security standards (including measures to prevent fraud and to secure card, online and mobile transactions), interoperability and access requirements, transaction-processing and settlement rules, customer-disclosure and fee-transparency obligations, dispute-resolution and complaints-handling mechanisms, limits and authentication requirements for higher-risk transactions, and reporting of transaction data and incidents to the Bank. The Directives reflect the Bank's objective of promoting safe, efficient and inclusive electronic payments while managing operational, fraud and consumer-protection risks. The Bank of Zambia supervises compliance and may take enforcement action against providers that breach the standards. Sitting beneath the umbrella National Payment Systems Act, 2007, the Directives are an operative conduct-and-operations instrument for card, online and mobile payments in Zambia and remain in force.

1. 1Regulate ATM, point-of-sale, internet and mobile payment channels under the National Payment Systems Act
2. 2Require authorisation/designation to operate the relevant payment channel
3. 3Impose technical, security and anti-fraud standards for card, online and mobile transactions
4. 4Set interoperability, access, transaction-processing and settlement requirements
5. 5Require customer disclosure, fee transparency, dispute resolution and authentication for higher-risk transactions
6. 6Require incident and transaction reporting to the Bank of Zambia, with supervision and enforcement