As of Today, Faster and Cheaper Payments System Among BH and Serbia

The platform for clearing of international payments among BH and Serbia will become operational today, February 4, 2008, and it will make payment system between a.m. countries cheaper and faster. It is expected that this platform will become operational with Montenegro within the next few days.

This project is significant for business entities considering the fact that these three countries have significant level of the foreign trade, but also for the citizens who will be able to transfer funds towards the banks of these countries faster and with lower expenses.

The international payments system among the countries of the Region has existed before as well, but so far, method of payment included payments through the accounts of foreign banks. The new method of payments means payment of collective sum of net positions, by one order, among central banks through the accounts of the first-class international bank, which will make payment transactions faster and cheaper. Commercial banks, in accordance with their needs, will use this platform in order to perform payment orders for their respective clients.

Implementation of this project was preceded by the signing of the Agreement on Clearing of International Payments, which was signed on September 2007 among the Central Banks of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia and Montenegro. Croatia and Macedonia have expressed their interest to join this project as well, and the final goal is to include CEFTA (Central European Free Trade Agreement) countries into this project.

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