The signing ceremony of the Letter of Intent to launch the project to establish an instant payment system in the Western Balkans was held at Palazzo Koch in Rome. It was attended by the Governor and Deputy Governor of the Bank of Italy, along with the Governors and Deputy Governors of the central banks of Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, North Macedonia and Montenegro, the Central Bank of Bosnia and Herzegovina announced.
The cooperation agreement envisages that the Bank of Italy will deliver an instant payment system, based on a replica of the TIPS service, which is a European real-time payment settlement platform, designed, created and managed by the Bank of Italy on behalf of the Eurosystem.
Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo and Montenegro have joined the initiative, which was approved by the Governing Council of the European Central Bank (North Macedonia reserves the right to join later).
The new platform, which will be operational within 18 months of its establishment, which is expected to be in the next few weeks, will enable payments in all currencies of the participating countries. Additional functionalities will be developed after the initial implementation phase.
It will also, using a technologically advanced and low-cost solution, establish a bilateral payment settlement link between the TIPS-served area and the Western Balkans region.
The signing of the Letter of Intent is an important step on the path towards the integration of the Western Balkan countries into the financial system of the European Union, the CBBH stated.
Source: ba.ekapija.com
