Interbank financial telecommunication system for Customs Union under consideration

The central banks of Belarus, Russia, and Kazakhstan are discussing the integration of the national payment systems and the possibility of creating an equivalent of the SWIFT system (Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication), BelTA learned from Sergei Dubkov, Deputy Chairman of the Board of the National Bank of the Republic of Belarus.

Belarus already has a national payment system under the name of Belkart. Russia and Kazakhstan are working to create systems of their own. At the same time the national banks of Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Russia stay in touch in order to come up with the correct mutual relations so that Russia’s and Kazakhstan’s future national payment systems would interact with Belkart for the sake of providing the service to individuals and corporations, said Sergei Dubkov.

The sides will have to implement a rather complicated technical project that requires precise structuring, the use of robust equipment, including banking and telecommunication equipment. IT solutions and the relevant personnel will be needed. Without accomplishing these tasks it will be impossible to build a system that will fully satisfy the requirements of the three countries, noted the official.

The integration of the national payment system goes beyond the interaction of the bank payment card systems. It is necessary to enable interbank interaction. In other words, it will be necessary to create an equivalent of SWIFT, the international system used to deliver information and carry out transactions. Belarus, Russia, and Kazakhstan use the SWIFT system, said Sergei Dubkov. “But it does not mean that we cannot have some other channels of interaction that we will control and that will be comfortable for us for the sake of the safety of payment information,” he said.

“We are not against Visa and MasterCard. When the intensity of cooperation with these international payment systems dropped in Russia, the Chinese system UnionPay was fast to offer its services. It is an interesting move, it is profitable, because consumers now have a choice,” he stressed.

The development and integration of the national payment systems is a logical step for the countries intent on creating common economic space. It is also a global trend. Belarus started developing its national payment system and improving the infrastructure of cashless retail payments ahead of its partners in the future Eurasian Economic Union and now enjoys an advantage. “We started looking at these matters before our counterparts did. Therefore, we have an advantage that we should preserve and multiply,” concluded the Deputy Chairman of the Board of the National Bank of the Republic of Belarus.