NQR Settlement/Accounting Process Flow & Entries

DEFINITION OF TERMS

• Dr means Debit
• Cr means Credit
• NIBSS – Nigeria Interbank Settlement System – responsible for interbank settlement of transactions.
• Billing – The process of debiting the transaction fees accumulated for a period.

First Leg (Happens within Bank A being the payer's bank )

Dr: Payers Account in Bank A

Cr: Payable Account in Bank A 

NOTE: Bank A is expected to ensure its customer's account is debited before sending the credit request to NQR(NIBSS)

Second Leg (Happens within Bank B being the beneficiary's bank)

Dr: Receivable Account in Bank B

Cr: Merchants Account in Bank B

Second Leg (Happens on NIP) after NQR validates successful debit at the payer's bank and sends an NIP request to the beneficiary's bank)

Upon Settlement

NIBSS:

Dr: CBN Account of Bank A (Through NQR Settlement)

Cr: CBN Account Bank B (Through NIP Settlement)

Where the Bank is both Issuer and Acquirer

First Leg

Dr: Payers Account in the Bank

Cr: Payable Account in the Bank

Second Leg- This will still be routed via NIP

Dr: Receivable in the Bank

Cr: Merchants Account in the Bank

NOTE: Second Leg (Happens on NIP) after NQR has received a credit instruction from the payer's bank following the bank's successful debit of their payer's account.

Upon Settlement

There is no Inter-Bank settlement to be done by NIBSS as this should be done within the bank.

NOTE: Receivable Account and Payable Account can also be a single transit account. This solely depends on the bank’s decision.

Where Bank B is the issuer and Bank A is the Acquirer

First Leg (Happens within Bank B being the payer's bank )

Dr: Payers Account in Bank B

Cr: Payable Account in Bank B 

Second Leg (Happens within Bank A being the beneficiary's bank)

Dr: Receivable Account in Bank A

Cr: Merchants Account in Bank A

NOTE: Second Leg (Happens on NIP) after NQR has received a credit instruction from the payer's bank following the bank's successful debit of their payer's account.

Second Leg is based on NIP request to the beneficiary Bank which is also dependent on the payer's credit request to the Merchant through the NQR engine.

Upon Settlement

NIBSS:

Dr: CBN Account of Bank B (Through NQR Settlement)

Cr: CBN Account of Bank A (Through NIP Settlement)

NOTE: Please note that in all scenarios, the payer bank MUST debit its customer before calling NQR for payment to the beneficiary.

Billing

Fee Settlement (Billing): (To be passed by NIBSS on weekly basis subject to change)

NIBSS: (Where the fee was borne by either the merchant or the payer).

Dr: CBN Account of the Payer’s bank (fee Only)

Cr: The counterparties/stakeholders for their own share of the fee.

NIBSS: (Where the fee was borne by the Acquirer).

Dr: CBN Account of the Acquirer bank (fee Only)

Cr: The counterparties/stakeholders for their own share of the fee.