Zanaco Implements Techurate’s Recons System -

Zambia National Commercial Bank Plc, commonly referred to by the name “Zanaco”, is a commercial bank that serves retail customers, large corporations, agri-business and public sector clients in Zambia. With the aid of Rabobank, a Dutch multinational banking and financial services company, providing management services and technical assistance, Zanaco is now one of the most solidly capitalised banks in Zambia. Zambia National Commercial Bank Plc was founded in 1969 and is headquartered in Lusaka, Zambia.

Techurate Systems Pvt. Ltd. provides robust technology solutions for banks and financial institutions that deliver greater agility, measurable business value, and improve overall customer experience. They offer products in the areas of internet banking, mobile banking, digital payments, analytics, reconciliation, and financial literacy. Techurate Systems Private was incorporated on 16 June 2015, and is headquartered in Bengaluru, India.

Prior to the implementation, Zanaco had manual processes in place for reconciliation, and was dedicating a significant amount of time and resources for the same. Manual reconciliation processes are time-consuming, require manual entry, are prone to errors resulting in low accuracy, require human intervention to resolve
errors, require manual generation of reports or transaction status checks, and lack of any real time visibility that can help organisations monitor and resolve issues.

The list of modules implemented is as follows:

Electronic Channels
ATMs including deposit taking ATMs and Exceptions (Retracts, host transaction timeouts, cash dispenser etc.)Electricity (ZESCO)AirtelMTNZamtelPOS (Merchant and Agent)
Card Payments
VISA ReconciliationMasterCard ReconciliationFISP (Farmer Input Support Programme)
Domestic Payments
Clearing ElectronicFunds Transfer
Finance
Branch Submissions of GLs ATM GLsSubmissions from BranchesVAULT Submissions

Implementation was bank wide and involved moderate level of customization requirements as per Zanaco’s workflows. The key challenge faced by the implementation team was the migration of historical data from the Flexcube system to the new system and was resolved by creating Oracle jobs. The implementation was successful and was concluded in the planned period of three months.

The implementation resulted in a 90% efficiency improvement in reconciliation with staff re-alignment to other critical operations, and auto-certification of 100% of reconciliations. Zanaco now devotes more resources to spend on quality analysis, instead of manually entering and reviewing data. Auto certification of low-risk, rules-driven reconciliations greatly reduces manual labour and shifts focus to value-added activities and analytics.

Cost savings:

Automating reconciliation significantly reduces processing costs and subsequent audit cost. There are cost savings driven by reduced risk and improved monitoring.

Improved data accuracy:

Automating reconciliation removes the risk of human error, including data input inaccuracies, thereby providing a vital layer of control.

Enhanced Exception Detection:

Auto reconciliation also helps detect exceptions and generates a different report to investigate further.

Increased productivity:

Automating reconciliation significantly reduces processing costs and subsequent audit cost. There are cost savings driven by reduced risk and improved monitoring.

Greater reconciliation control and improved compliance:

An organisation that does not use automated and integrated reconciliation processes in place will lack the ability to keep an ongoing accurate and up-to-date view of its finances, leaving the organisation open to poor Reconciliation process and compliance issues. Auto reconciliation ensure the accurate recording, validation, consolidation and reporting.