7. Payment Messages
7.1. Eligible AFAQ Transactions
7.1.1 The Direct Participant must ensure that AFAQ Transactions shall be effected solely for Genuine Client Needs. For the purposes of these Rules, Genuine Client Needs means bona fide financial and payment needs of non-banking clients of financial institutions participating in the AFAQ system, including (but not limited to) payments arising from bilateral commercial trade activities, remittances and consumer payments.
7.1.2 The Direct Participant shall place adequate measures to ensure that the Service is utilized in a manner consistent with clause 7.1.1.
7.1.3 The Direct Participant shall not, nor shall it permit any of its clients to engage in or be part of Arbitrage or Speculative Activities to profit from any price differences that may exist from time to time between the Foreign Exchange Rates used within the Service and any rates used in other foreign exchange markets.
7.2. Qualified Payment Messages
Payment messages transmitted for processing by the Service must meet the following criteria:
a) Single Payment Messages only,
b) Customer or Interbank payments in the format specified by SAMA,
c) Same day value only - must be a working day in both the Sending and Receiving countries,
d) Must include the currency code and amount in the currency of the Sending country as well as the exchange rate for that business day and the currency code and amount in the currency of the Receiving country in the appropriate fields.
e) Follow message specifications set out in respective Message Format Guidelines.
f) Be for credit to:
• The Receiving Direct Participant itself (interbank payment),
• A Financial Institution holding an account with the Receiving Direct Participant (Interbank payment), or,
• A non-financial institution or person holding an account with the Receiving Direct Participant (Customer payment).
7.3. Payments Processing
The payment for the Receiving Country, when transformed by the AFAQ Service, contains the opposite exchange rate and the two currency amounts in the opposite order. The Receiving Direct Participant, for checking of correct calculation of amounts, should use the original exchange rate used by the Sending Direct Participant (or Sending Domestic RTGS system).
The AFAQ Service cc will process the transaction as per the following:
1) Payments from countries using the CSM
a. Payment Message in the Sending Currency of countries using the CSM:
i. DR: Settlement Account of the Sending Direct Participant;
ii. CR: Shadow Account of the NCB of the Receiving Country;
b. Payment Message in the Receiving Currency:
i. DR: Shadow Account of the NCB of countries using the CSM,
ii. CR: Control (Technical) Account of the NCB of the Receiving Country
2) Payment to countries using the CSM
a. Payment Message in the Sending Currency:
i. DR: Control (Technical) Account of the NCB of the Sending Country,
ii. CR: Shadow Account of the NCB of the countries using the CSM.
b. Payment Message in the Receiving Currency of countries using the CSM:
i. DR: Shadow Account of the NCB of the sending country,
ii. CR: Settlement Account of the Receiving Direct Participant (in the countries using the CSM).
In all cases the entries of both payment messages are posted simultaneously.
If the payment cannot be processed by the AFAQ Service cc for any of the reasons listed under Reasons for Rejection in APPX (2), a rejection message will be sent back to the Sending RPG. The Sending RPG will generate a return payment and send it to the Sending the Direct Participant stating the reason for rejection.
A returned payment message must not be resent with the same Unique Message Reference as the original one. It may, after correction of the reason(s) for rejection, be sent as a new payment by the Sending Direct Participant with a different Unique Message Reference, but UETR can be the same.
7.4. Completion of a Payment
A payment is deemed to be completed, for the purpose of sending the Payment Completion Confirmation, once it has been validated and accepted by the Receiving Domestic RTGS system for onward transmission to the receiving Direct Participant.
The final stage of processing of a payment within the receiving country is subject to the rules, regulations and processing procedures that govern the Receiving Domestic RTGS system.
7.5. Confirmation of Completion
The Receiving Domestic RTGS system, after it has validated the incoming payment and accepted it for onward transmission to the Receiving Direct Participant, will generate and send a Payment Completion Confirmation through the Receiving RPG to the AFAQ Service CC quoting the Unique Message Reference of the payment message.
The AFAQ SERVICE cc will match the Payment Completion Confirmation with the Sent Payment with the same Unique Message Reference and forward the Payment Completion Confirmation through the Sending RPG to the Sending Domestic RTGS system.
The Sending NCB will monitor all payments sent to ensure that matching Payment Completion Confirmations have been received. If the relevant Payment Completion Confirmation has not been received after an interval of 10 minutes from the time the payment was sent by the Sending RPG, and the payment in question was not returned or rejected, the Sending NCB will commence enquiries with GPC as to the cause of the missing confirmation. The Sending NCB is required to monitor receipt of all Payment Completion Confirmations. All payments must be confirmed as completed before the end-of-day process is started.
7.6. Crediting Beneficiary's Account
In accordance with applicable laws, rules & regulations, The Receiving Direct Participant, where the Beneficiary's account number quoted in the Payment Message is the correct account number for the Beneficiary stated in "Beneficiary Customer" field (Field 59), must credit the Beneficiary with same day value as soon as possible but not later than the end of the same Business Cycle.
7.7. Value to Correct Beneficiary
The Receiving Direct Participant will ensure that the value of the payment is given to the correct Beneficiary as per the details in the relevant Payment Message.
7.8. Returns by the Receiving Direct Participant
In case a Payment Message couldn't be credited to the Beneficiary Customer, The Receiving Direct Participant - unless advised otherwise by SAMA - should return to the Sending Direct Participant as soon as possible, preferably within the same business day. If the payment cannot be returned on the same business day, it should be returned before the cut-off time for that type of payment on the next business day or within 2 business days at the latest without liability for use of funds compensation; abiding by the return rules prescribed in 7.8 & using the same exchange rate and currency amounts as in the original received payment with no deductions.
7.9 Return Payment Rules
The receiving Direct Participants shall perform the following validation checks, for returned cross-currency payment messages:
• Any Payment being returned must be returned as a single message,
• The Payment Reference in field 72 is the same as the Reference in the original payment,
• Only one successful return payment is allowed for each received payment message,
• The payment must be returned within a maximum of 2 business days from the date of receiving the original payment message when both countries (sending and receiving) have business day simultaneously,
• The payment currency code and amount in the return payment must be the same as those in the original payment message,
• The exchange rate in the return payment must be the same as the exchange rate in the original payment message received by the return message creator's party,
• The instructed currency code and amount in the return payment must be the same as those in the original payment message received by the return message creator's party,
• The presence of original direct payment reference is checked in Central Component database and Return is rejected if
o The original direct credit reference is not found, or,
o The return is greater than two business days
o A successful Return has already been accepted by the Central Component
o Either of the currency amounts, currency code or exchange rate do not match the original payment
7.10 Reasons for Return or Rejection
A list of valid return and rejection codes is included in APPX (2).
7.11 Payments to the UAE
All payments sent to UAE must contain the correct Purpose of Payment Code according to the list of such codes as communicated by SAMA.
7.12 IBAN
All Customer Payments sent to those countries that use the International Bank Account Number (IBAN) standard - as advised by SAMA from time to time - must quote the IBAN in the Beneficiary Customer's account number field in the payment message in the format and following the rules published for the receiving country. Failure to include valid IBAN may be a valid reason for rejecting/returning the payment.
7.13 Finality Provisions
A payment is deemed to be Final & Irrevocable once the account of the Sending Direct Participant has been debited.
7.14 Cancellation
A Payment Message, once it has been debited to the account of the Sending Direct Participant, cannot be cancelled or recalled.
7.15 Anti-Money Laundering and Combating Terrorist Financing
Each Direct Participant must comply with Anti Money Laundering and Combating Terrorist Financing laws and the Implementing Regulations.