A value of 511.588 billion FCFA (about 767.382 billion euros) was settled in 2018 by banks, financial institutions and other participating structures through the WAEMU Automated Transfer and Settlement System (STAR-UEMOA), according to data from the Central Bank of West African States (BCEAO).

Compared to 2017 when it amounted to 540,528 billion FCFA, this settled value is however experiencing a decrease of 5.35% in relative value. As for the  number of operations corresponding to this value, it  came out at 924,404  against 829,174 in 2017, an increase of 11.48%.

"Inter-country trade within the WAEMU was increased to 354,120 operations for a value of 35,120 billion FCFA in 2018, thus settling at 38.38% of the overall volume of transactions processed in STAR-UEMOA," said the BCEAO in its 2018 annual report. Compared to 2017, a favorable evolution of 2.62% in volume and a decrease of 1.08% in value of intercountry operations are noted by the issuing institution.

At the end of December 2018, the STAR-UEMOA system had 132 participants  compared to 127 the previous year. These participants are the BCEAO, banks and financial institutions, the Central Depositary / Settlement Bank of the Regional Stock Exchange (BRVM), the WAEMU Interbank Electronic Banking Group (GIM-UEMOA) and the West African Development Bank (BOAD).

 
Concerning the WAEMU Interbank Automated Clearing System (SICA-UEMOA), during this period it had 140 participants under review against 137 in 2017 including banks, BCEAO and the Public Treasuries of Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d'Ivoire, Mali, Niger and Senegal.

During this period, the volume of trade amounted to 14,536,605 operations.

for an amount of 56.394 billion FCFA. "The activity of SICA-UEMOA was marked

by respective increases of 6.68% in the volume of cleared payments and 16.04% in their value compared to 2017," the Central Bank said.

Growth in the value of cleared transactions was particularly dynamic

in Côte d'Ivoire (+35.06%), Guinea-Bissau (+20.19%), Burkina Faso (+15.01%) and

sub-regional level (+19.31%). Inter-country trade accounted for 1.46% of the overall value of EU transactions in 2018 compared to 3.46% in 2017.

Regarding the distribution of payment media processed in the tele-clearing system, the BCEAO argues that "the relative share in volume of transfers increased by 3.17% unlike cheques which recorded a decline of 3.23%, confirming a trend observed over the past two years". In 2018, transfers accounted for 42.51% of exchanges compared to 56.15% for checks. A year earlier, the respective share of these instruments was 38.24% and 60.53%. In value, 76.17% of exchanges were made by check in 2018.