BAKU, Azerbaijan, March 16. It would take at least a year to create a unified regional payment system for Central Asian countries, an expert and associate professor of the Department of World Financial Markets and Fintech at Plekhanov Russian University of Economics, Tatiana Belyanchikova told Trend.
"Real world experience demonstrates that the political will of the participating nations is necessary for the establishment of regional payment systems. Participants in such associations are subject to varying obligations based on the level of integration. When discussing collective currencies, occasionally it is required to ratify international treaties and even harmonize laws, at least with regard to payment operations," the expert said.
She added that in order to make such payment systems more
convenient, it is possible to set up an institutional structure
akin to that of a regional bank. This bank would handle settlements
as well as the conversion of national currencies without the need
for the dollar or the euro, lowering the costs incurred by the
parties involved in payment transactions.
"In any case, developing such a system will take at least a year,
even with ideal conditions and negligible organizational and
technical changes. But two to three years sounds more reasonable,"
Belyanchikova added.
The development of a regional payment system, in her opinion, is a topic that is growing more and more relevant and is occasionally already beginning to find practical application.
Belyanchikova further pointed out that, even if a nation is not
in Central Asia, it may nevertheless adopt one of its highly
sophisticated payment systems. Options for bilateral or
multilateral payment systems developed by many nations and
utilizing either the global reserve currency or one of the national
currencies of the area can be taken into consideration.
Furthermore, a supranational regional currency like to the sucre
from South America might be established and restricted to
cross-border regional payments.
To note, the notion of establishing a single regional payment
system for the nations of Central Asia has been brought up
frequently. Specifically, this matter was deliberated about during
the October 2023 conference of the central banks of Kyrgyzstan,
Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and Azerbaijan.
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