TRUST BANK DEMONSTRATES USE OF E-ZWICH (PAGE 29)

THE Lions Club of Tema, made up of professionals and business people, was at the weekend educated on the benefits and the usage of the e-zwich system.
The resource persons drawn from the Trust Bank (ttb), took members of the club through the handling of the point of sale (pos) equipment and the use of the smart card.
According to the Supervisor of the Electronic Funds Transfer Unit of the bank, Mr Ato Kwamina Wilberforce, the system would reduce fraud, eliminate counterfeit from the banking system and provide secured movement and payment of cash.
He gave the assurance that the introduction of the e-zwich system would not automatically remove cash from peoples pockets but will rather encourage the country to achieve its objectives of becoming a middle income one.
Mr Wilberforce said patrons also had the benefits of easy access to money 24 hours daily without any hindrance.
He noted that e-zwich card holders could keep track of their spending at any time, and therefore would remove doubts about further reconciliations.
Mr Wilberforce stated that as business people and professionals they had limited time and therefore writing of cheques could take more time than the use of the e-zwich system. He explained that the use of the e-zwich smartcard saved the card holder from any identification at the time of transaction.
Mr Wilberforce said the e-zwich smartcard frees card holders from carrying cash or cheques books.
He advised them to embrace the new system since cheques were not readily accepted by merchants for fear of fraud and forgery.
Mr Wilberforce said the security features of the e-zwich on the point of sale terminal was unique because the card holder would use biometrics fingerprint verification to access their accounts and every finger had different print, making it difficult for another person to access the account.
He said the account was immediately debited and the amount involved credited to the merchants account.
The Business Manager, Commercial and Consumer Banking of the Trust Bank, Mr Robert Danso-Boakye, observed that all banks in the country had joined the system to create an electronic payment platform after undergoing a successful experimentation.
He noted that it was the first payment system introduced by the central bank to further make banking easy and attractive for everybody.
Mr Danso-Boakye urged them to seek further clarification at any bank of their choice, and that the card had been designed to provide convenience, making purchases wherever the e-zwich smart poster was displayed.
He explained that those referred to as merchants were retailers who had agreed in conjunction with any bank to accept the e-zwich smart card for payment of goods and services.