MBABANE – SBS Bank Eswatini has taken another major step in its transformation into a full-fledged commercial bank.
The new bank formed after the conversion of the Swaziland Building Society (SBS) has successfully launched the Intellect eMACH.ai Treasury platform, a move expected to strengthen liquidity management, automate treasury operations and position the institution for greater competitiveness in Eswatini’s evolving banking sector.
The successful deployment of the artificial intelligence-powered treasury platform marks one of the most significant milestones since the institution received its provisional commercial banking licence from the Central Bank of Eswatini (CBE).
The implementation enables SBS Bank Eswatini to modernise one of the most critical functions within any commercial bank while meeting regulatory requirements associated with its new banking status.
The development was announced on Tuesday by Intellect Design Arena Ltd., a global leader in AI-first enterprise-grade financial technology, which has been a strategic technology partner to SBS since 2018.
Over the years, Intellect has supported the institution across its core banking, lending and treasury systems, making the latest implementation a continuation of a long-standing technology partnership.
For more than 60 years, SBS has been one of Eswatini’s leading mortgage financiers after being established in 1962 as Swaziland Building Society.
However, its transition into SBS Bank Eswatini requires capabilities far beyond those traditionally associated with a building society, particularly in treasury management, liquidity monitoring and investment operations.
Previously, SBS relied largely on spreadsheet-based processes to monitor liquidity and investments. While suitable for a traditional building society model, such systems could not adequately support the demands of a commercial banking environment where real-time decision-making, automated processing, risk management and regulatory reporting are essential.
The implementation of eMACH.ai Treasury, therefore, represents a fundamental shift in how the institution manages its treasury operations.
According to Intellect, the AI-powered treasury platform provides SBS Bank Eswatini with sophisticated capabilities that support the institution’s transition into a modern commercial bank while significantly reducing manual processes.
The eMACH.ai Treasury solution has empowered SBS to:
Automate complex workflows: Achieve 100 per cent automation across Foreign Exchange (FX), Money Market instruments (Call, Notice and Fixed) as well as Fixed Income Securities (FIS).
Optimise yields: The new Call/Notice module enables SBS to earn higher returns on surplus funds while maintaining sufficient intraday liquidity to meet customer and operational requirements.
Ensure technical robustness: Advanced features including the Send-Back workflow and dynamic interest splitting provide 100 per cent precision and auditability when interest rates and balances change during an investment period.
Drive operational efficiency: Reduce manual intervention by 90 per cent through automated SWIFT messaging, including MT320, MT202 and MT210 transaction messages.
Beyond automation, the new platform introduces enhanced governance, stronger operational controls and improved audit capabilities, all of which are essential for institutions operating under commercial banking regulations.
Treasury management is widely regarded as one of the most critical functions within commercial banking because it determines how effectively a bank manages liquidity, funding costs, investments and financial risks while ensuring compliance with regulatory requirements.
Commercial banks must continuously balance customer deposits, lending activities, investment portfolios and reserve requirements without compromising liquidity.
Increasingly, financial institutions are adopting artificial intelligence-powered treasury solutions to automate these complex functions while improving decision-making and operational efficiency.
For SBS Bank Eswatini, the treasury upgrade, therefore, represents much more than an information technology investment. It forms a critical pillar of the institution’s broader commercial banking strategy and creates the technological foundation needed to compete with established commercial banks operating within Eswatini.
The implementation project itself was completed through a high-velocity User Acceptance Testing (UAT) programme supported by Intellect’s offshore technical teams before specialists were deployed to Mbabane to provide on-site ‘hyper-care’ support during the critical go-live phase to ensure a smooth transition.
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