THE First National Bank (FNB) Zambia has commenced the simulation testing to convert all the banking systems from the old currency to the rebased Kwacha in readiness for the changeover date effective January 1, 2013.

And the bank has pumped in K5 billion as direct costs for the implementation of the rebasing exercise.

FNB Zambia chief executive officer  said the bank had started the simulation testing to see how the bank would run the full programme to convert all the banking systems from the old currency to the rebased Kwacha.

"This is when we run the full programme to convert all our systems from the old currency to the new currency exactly the same as what we will do on December 31, 2012, except that we are doing this in a ring fenced test environment to simulate the full migration process in the test environment," Mr van Zyl said.

In a response to a Press query, Mr van Zyl said FNB was on track in terms of its project plan and has in fact started to do simulation testing, which was running smoothly.

"We have also started to communicate to our customers, a process that will continue throughout the project," Mr van Zyl said.

He said the direct cost budget for the project was K5 billion adding that the bank was working with the Bankers Association of Zambia (BAZ) to see if there are any opportunities to reduce avoidable costs.