The West African Banking and Financial Organization and Standardization Committee
(CONOBAFI) launched Thursday in Côte d'Ivoire, its information and communication campaign on new
standards for bills of exchange and promissory notes, as a prelude to their entry into force.
Organized at Azalaï Hotel in Marcory (South Abidjan), the campaign launch ceremony brings together the actors
from the banking and commerce sector, who are given the opportunity to discuss all aspects of the standard.
In launching the campaign, the national director of the Central Bank of West African States
l'Ouest (BCEAO), Chalouho Coulibaly, explained that the reform makes it possible to secure the supports and the
processing commercial bills, thereby reducing operational risk.
In addition, the new standards for bills of exchange allow the speed of processing and their compliance with
provisions of the Interbank and Automated Clearing System Agreement (SICA-UEMOA), the
reduction of processing costs, dematerialization of stamp fees. The conditions for issuing bills
of commerce are optimized because the formulas are now made by banks and establishments
funds and remittances to requesting customers, whereas they were previously provided by merchants.
Previously, the Chairman of the Committee, Adama Ouattara, recalled that the project started in 2016 to
modernize the BCEAO payment systems, secure the media and computerize the system of
payment processing, among others. The test phase of the exploitation of the standard being thus open, it has
wished for healthy competition between the banking centres.
Previously, CONOBAFI Executive Secretary Kouyaté Assitan noted that CONOBAFI is a
non-profit and public utility association created by the BCEAO in cooperation with the associations
professionals of the banks and financial establishments of the WAMU States and the regulatory structures of the
financial sector. Its mission is to provide appropriate answers to questions related to banking and
organizational and normative order and to work towards interbanking.