A new milestone has been reached in the modernisation of payment infrastructure in Central Africa.
| The Bank of Central African States (BEAC) and ProgressSoft have successfully launched SYSTAC 2, the new centralised electronic clearing house serving the six member states of the Economic and Monetary Community of Central Africa (CEMAC). Since 3 August 2026, BEAC has put into production a modernised and unified regional clearing infrastructure serving 59 participating banks, six National Treasuries and six BEAC National Directorates across Cameroon, the Central African Republic, Chad, the Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, and Gabon. SYSTAC 2 brings together several ProgressSoft solutions within a common regional infrastructure. At its core is ProgressSoft’s automated clearing house, comprising central and participant modules for processing retail payments, including credit transfers, direct debits, and bulk payments. It is complemented by ProgressSoft’s electronic cheque clearing solution for check processing, as well as a dispute management system designed for handling payment-related disputes. |
Bringing benefits
Designed in accordance with the ISO 20022 standard and deployed under an Application Service Provider (ASP) model, SYSTAC 2 facilitates participants’ connection to the regional clearing system and reduces their infrastructure requirements at the participant level, while centralising platform maintenance, upgrades, and future enhancements. Beyond the technological modernisation, SYSTAC 2 brings several tangible benefits to the regional financial ecosystem.
The centralisation of operations helps harmonise clearing processes across CEMAC member states, improve transaction processing efficiency and strengthen transaction traceability, security and monitoring. The common infrastructure also facilitates the introduction of new functionalities and the continued evolution of regional payment services. The deployment of SYSTAC 2 also involved a coordinated migration of all participants.
All 71 participants transitioned to the new infrastructure simultaneously through a single, region-wide cutover. The successful go-live of SYSTAC 2 represents an important step in the continued modernisation of payment services within CEMAC and establishes a technological foundation for their future evolution.
At a later stage, ProgressSoft’s interoperable instant payments platform will complement this infrastructure, extending regional payment services into real-time payments. ProgressSoft is proud to have supported BEAC in delivering this project, reflecting a shared commitment and close collaboration with the Central Bank, the participating banks, National Treasuries and BEAC National Directorates.
