Forex Distribution

One of the key monetary policies of the federal government of Nigeria to keep exchange rates stable is the regular funding of the parallel market by direct intervention through the Central Bank (CBN).

The CBN (Service Owner) sells foreign currencies (US Dollar) directly to licensed Bureau de Change operators (BDCs) through partner financial institutions (Service Provider) who collate bids and distribute the currencies to the BDCs.

Package Management Systems (PMS)

Busisoft PMS, a cloud based infrastructure was designed to simplify the management and execution of the entire foreign exchange distribution service for the Service Provider.

With PMS you can quickly extend or collapse the distribution network effortlessly. You can broaden the distribution network by engaging secondary partner organizations to bring your service delivery closer to your customers.

As at the date of writing, the CBN delivers currencies in bundles of 10K US Dollar packets. In order to successfully account for these currencies in the distribution chain, PMS inventories these bundles. The 10K USD packet for example is a unit of inventory. However these quantity definitions are not cast in stone. The application is flexible enough to support multiple currencies and multiple packet definitions per currency. Each currency packet type is called a package.

PMS tracks the flow of packages across the distribution chain. The tracking is done seamlessly and transparently as packages change hands.

Accounting records/journals are created automatically as transactions take place. Thus at any point in time your account balances are up to date.

Bid Processing

Bureau De Change (BDCs) can choose their preferred package dispensing centre. They pay for bids using whatever acceptable payment instrument and means is convenient, anywhere, anytime. Payments are made to the Service Provider designated service bank accounts. The Service Provider may designate multiple bank accounts for this purpose.

For bank accounts whose domicile banks expose a JSON API, PMS is able to connect and access the bank accounts to retrieve payment entries for processing without any user intervention. For other bank accounts where the domicile bank's systems support statement downloads in CSV format, payment entries can be manually downloaded and uploaded into PMS. For bank accounts where these self service facilities are not available, entries can be manually entered into PMS from bank statement printouts..

PMS will automatically match payment entries to customers and bid packages using its advanced matching algorithm. A bid request is created for every successful match. BDCs are restricted to a single bid per day per currency.

Unmatched payments can be manually matched to BDCs to create bid requests.

Multiple payment entries by a BDC can be aggregated together to create a single bid request. The total amount must match the advertised price for the package.

On successful creation of a bid request, PMS will send an SMS confirmation to the BDC contact person containing the following:

Collection reference
Collection date/time
Collection centre

Bid Collation

Bid collation and submission activity is initiated by the creation of cheque request for all successful bids. Only the user with the Package Manager role can create this request. The application will aggregate all successful bids for the request date and create the cheque request. The request is then routed to the appropriate personnel for approval.

On approval a payment voucher is created automatically for the attention of the payment disbursement personnel, who then cut a cheque for the aggregated bid amount in favour of the regulator (CBN).

The bid request can be printed in two formats.

A single list formats that shows all bids and a running total and
A sorted format that sorts the bids by dispensing centre with running totals for each dispensing centre.

Package Distribution

The CBN package dispensing policy requires that all uncollected packages for a dispensing day must be returned to the CBN same day.

This can present a logistic nightmare for the service provider, more so if the distribution chain is spread out geographically because of the two-way flow of packages. The cost implication can also be high.

With our inventory management systems we are able to eliminate the return leg while still satisfying the requirements of the return policy.

The key to this is that the Service Provider maintains a funded dedicated foreign currency account with the Central Bank. The CBN will debit this account for any uncollected packages.

On receipt of the day's packages from the CBN, the Service Provider will likely engage the services of a CIT (Cash In Transit) company to distribute packages down the distribution chain. The package request printouts described above will show the breakdown of bids by dispensing centres. The report will also show the net bid for each dispensing centre. The net bid is arrived at after deducting any uncollected packages outstanding from the current bids. This is the quantity that will be released to the CIT company for delivery to the dispensing centre. Any surplus packages after netting off will be returned to the CBN who will then credit the Service Provider's dedicated foreign currency account.

Accounting

The accounting sub system includes the following features

Banking interface
Multiple service bank accounts
Cash book management
Automatic bank reconciliation.
Receipt processing
Payment processing
Automated bid processing
Bank charges processing
Bank transfers, in/out including non-service bank accounts

SMS notification service
BDC/Customer ledger
Service ledger
Ad hoc accounts
Automated Journals
etc

Inventory/Package Management

PMS maintains inventory records at all levels in the distribution chain.

Service provider
Dispensing centre
Package dispensers

As packages change hands, movement records are created and stock levels updated.

At each level you can view the following inventories:

On hand quantities
Package movements
Package receipts
Package transfers
Package despatch
Package returns

Customer Service

PMS uses a unique queue management system to manage package dispatch to BDCs.

Dispatch requests are processed on a first come first serve basis. The service queue is managed by the application.

Each BDC has registered representatives authorized to collect packages on their behalf. The application maintains bio metric data for each representative, These are used for authentication at collection time. Additionally every successful bid has a unique reference number that is known only to the application and the customer. Internally it is encrypted and cannot be displayed on inquiry screens. The collector/representative must provide this reference number at the point of collection.

Customers can choose their preferred collection/dispensing centres.

Dispensing Centres

The customer service centres are called package dispensing centres. A dispensing centre can be a branch office belonging to the Service Provider or it can be an outlet run by a 3rd party partner organization e.g bank branches. The service provider may choose to broaden the distribution chain by engaging the services of other financial institutions to handle package dispatch to BDCs. For example banking institutions that have an expansive branch network are especially kitted to carry out this function. They have existing arrangements with logistic companies for CIT operations.

Dispensing centres can operate a number of service points. Each service point is manned by a dispensing cashier (package dispensers). They are the final leg of the distribution chain. They issue packages to customers.

SMS Service

PMS supports the configuration of up to 4 SMS gateways for sending SMS notifications to customers. These gateways are engaged concurrently to ensure the fastest delivery of SMS to your customers.

Security

User id/password login protection
Role based access control
Subsystem ownership
Delegation of authority
Distributed security administration
No all powerful systems administrator
IP/Domain name access control
Access time control
Separate database security administration
Fail-proof database integrity
Tamper-proof database integrity
End-to-end encryption

Complimentary Services

Electronic Notice Board – PMS includes an on-line notice board service. Items posted on the board are visible across the distribution chain. Notices are auto managed. Each notice has an expiry date. On expiry, notices are removed from the display and archived. Archived notices are visible only to the notice board administrator.
Notification Service – Alerts/Email. PMS always keeps you updated. Whether it is status of tasks executing in the background, status of reports, status of your service requests or organizational changes that directly affect you. PMS will send you a notification in the form of an alert to your in-tray. You can optionally request that a copy of the notification be forwarded to your email. PMS will gladly oblige.
Batch Engine – Long running tasks are executed in the background. Thus you do not need to sit and wait at the terminal for a task to complete. On completion or termination you will be sent a notification which you can have delivered to your mailbox. You can also keep tab of your background tasks from the job queue in your out tray.

Download Centre – Like long running tasks, long running reports are submitted to the batch processing engine for execution. At completion you will be notified and your report will be held in the servers internal repository. You can access your reports from the download centre.

A unique feature of batch reports in our applications is the clean separation of the report generation process from the report formatting process. This way you can change the format of your report without having to regenerate the report all over again. So if you are not happy with the font, layout, orientation, or font-size, you simply change your options and reprint the report. For long running reports this will save you time and money. You can also choose to have the report download in CSV format for use in a spreadsheet application. You wont need to regenerate the report. These capabilities are unique to Busisoft applications.

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