The Reserve Bank of New Zealand (RBNZ) has selected Italian payments company SIA to implement and support a 
new real-time gross settlement (RTGS) system, which will replace the current exchange settlement account system (ESAS). One of SIA’s subsidiaries in South Africa, Perago, will deliver the system. RBNZ deputy governor Geoff Bascand said the central bank wanted to find and use an existing off-the-shelf system rather than build a new bespoke system. The functionality of the existing ESAS system will largely be incorporated into the replacement, including auto-overnight reverse purchase of eligible securities, tiered interest, authorization and liquidity management features, and key interfaces to the SWIFT messaging system. The bank expects to start settling on options and features in the second half of this year, with installation of the new RTGS following. Along with implementation of the Perago RTGS system, the bank will replace the underlying payment system IT infrastructure, which is currently integrated with the corporate IT infrastructure. The new RTGS will operate on a standalone IT infrastructure.
