Sixth Meeting of the BH Payments Council

The Bosnia and Herzegovina Payment Council held its latest meeting in Sarajevo on 21 April 1999. This was the sixth meeting of the Council since its establishment. The meeting was chaired by the Governor of the Central Bank of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Peter Nicholl and attended by members from both the FBiH and the RS including the Minister of Finance of RS. The Council endorsed the payment systems reform program proposed by the IMF. In order to better integrate and coordinate the payment systems reform, the Council agreed on the establishment of three State level working groups. They are: - Working Group on Legal Issues will cover issues pertaining to the organization and operation of payment system, including all payment mechanisms. Initially, the Group will review the new Payments Transaction Laws and the Bank Account Agreements Law. - Working Group on Technical Issue will address the various technical issues arising in the development of the payment system infrastructure. The Group will first evaluate the use of SWIFT infrastructure in the Electronic Interbank Transfer System.

- Working Group on Liquidity will deal with liquidity issues, stemming from the use of central bank money in settlement process. The Group will address and develop alternate solutions for daylight overdrafts for any other form of extension of credit. These working groups will meet in the near future to begin their work on these issues and report back to the Council during its next meeting. Mr. Nicholl stated that the CBBH with assistance from the International Advisory Group had prepared the Amendments to the FBiH Internal Payment Law for removing the monopoly of the payment bureaus and will allow commercial banks to provide payment services. CBBH and the Banking Agencies from both entities have developed a draft regulation for commercial bank's activities for providing payment services in BiH. This regulation will be issued to commercial banks when the Amendments to the Internal Payment System is formalized.