Banking services suspended due to technical difficulties

The Haitian interbank payment system commonly known as “SPIH” has been suspended for several days in Haitian commercial banks.

This situation arose due to the technical difficulties faced by the Bank of the Republic of Haiti, commonly known as the Central Bank.

Through notices to their customers, commercial banks have informed that this service remains unavailable until further notice.

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Moreover, Unibank announced in a note that “SPIH requests received between June 13 and 15, 2023, will be reversed to the respective customer accounts”.

In addition to the SPIH, the Pronap and electronic clearing services are temporarily unavailable, reads a customer notice from the National Credit Bank.

However, a manual clearing process for negotiated checks has been put in place from Friday, June 16, 2023, to ensure the continuity of this service, Unibank said in its note to customers.

However, the clearing time for negotiated checks is five (5) working days for the metropolitan area of Port-au-Prince and ten (10) working days in the regional area, said the document citing directives from the BRH.

While comments are rife about this unexpected situation affecting the Haitian banking sector, the central bank, regulatory authority of the national banking system, does not say a word. No tweet, note or press release to provide the necessary clarifications around this file has yet been published.