Transaction and File Journeys

The diagrams below highlight Electrum’s role in the basic transaction/file journey from the points of view of the homing bank and originating bank.

Successful Originating Bank/Electrum Journey

• Debit and credit transactions are initiated at the originating bank’s core banking system throughout the day.
• Electrum receives and sorts the transactions into files according to the EFT sub-service. Note: Electrum does not yet support the one-day and two-day services for outbound payments .
• Electrum sends files to BankservAfrica.
• BankservAfrica reads and reorganises the files so that each homing bank’s transactions are in the same file.
• BankservAfrica submits the file to the relevant homing bank on the relevant day.
• Successfully processed payments do not require an approval response.

Originating Bank Response Handling

Unsuccessful Payment

If a payment fails (e.g., there are insufficient funds in a customer account to complete a debit payment), then the originating bank will receive an ‘unpaid’ from BankservAfrica that serves to reverse the effect of the original payment.

Payment Recalls

An originating bank may recall a previously submitted payment instruction as long as the action day is later than the current day, and as long as the recall is submitted before the current day’s processing window closes.

The procedure is:

• The originating bank submits individual recall requests to Electrum during the day.
• Electrum bundles these requests into a recalls file and submits this to BankservAfrica.

Read more about EFT recalls here.

System Error Corrections

Where an originating bank has encountered a system error causing a file with payment instructions to be sent erroneously, it may initiate an SEC request file after obtaining approval from PASA. The SEC file contains requests to attempt the reversal of previously applied payments. BankservAfrica will respond with an SEC response file indicating which payments could or could not be successfully reversed.

The procedure is:

• The bank manually identifies particular transactions or groups of transactions that must be submitted for SEC.
• Electrum retrieves the original debit and credit payments (that need to be reversed) from Electrum's system.
• Electrum compiles an SEC requests file containing these transactions and submits this to BankservAfrica.
• Electrum processes the response files with positive and negative outcomes, and notifies the bank of each outcome.

Read more about SEC here.

Successful Homing Bank/Electrum Journey

• Debit and credit transactions are initiated at the originating bank throughout the day.
• The originating bank sends same-day, one-day, and two-day files to BankservAfrica.
• BankservAfrica reads and reorganises the files so that each homing bank’s transactions are in the same file.
• Electrum receives the homing bank’s transaction files and determines how to process the transactions:
  • Electrum sends the transactions for processing via the homing bank’s core banking system on the correct processing day.
  • Credit transactions are processed immediately on the relevant processing day.
  • Debit transactions are processed at the end of the processing day.
• Electrum also receives notifications about whether each transaction was successful or not.
• There is no further action required for successful payments, however, unsuccessful payments will require further processing.

Homing Bank Response Handling

Unsuccessful Payment

• For each negative response to a payment instruction at the homing bank, Electrum will generate an ‘unpaid’ payment instruction.
• Electrum groups these together and sends the unpaids in same-day files to BankservAfrica when the next processing day's window opens.
• BankservAfrica sends these on to the originating bank, where the original transactions can be reversed.

Payment Recalls

A homing bank may receive recall instructions for payment instructions that have been submitted and are in the processing queue but have not yet been actioned. Therefore recalls are applicable only to transactions meant to be actioned later than the current processing day.

Electrum will analyse the recall requests and remove all relevant debit and credit payments from the processing queue before it reaches the homing bank's core banking. Therefore the homing bank does not need to do any processing for inbound recalls.

System Error Corrections

Where an originating bank has encountered a system error causing a file with payment instructions to be sent erroneously, it may initiate an SEC request file after obtaining approval from PASA. The homing bank will receive the SEC file, which contains requests to attempt the reversal of previously applied payments.

The procedure is:

• Electrum receives an inbound SEC request file from BankservAfrica and parses the individual SEC requests.
• Electrum looks up the original debit or credit transaction to which each individual SEC request pertains, and generates a reversal request to the homing bank's core banking.
• The homing bank will return either:
  • An unpaid if the SEC was successful and the original payment could be reversed.
  • A negative SEC response if the original payment could not be reversed.
• Electrum groups the responses in an SEC response file and sends this to BankservAfrica, which forwards it to the originating bank.