Instant payments in BiH start today, July 20, which enables citizens and businesses to transfer money between accounts in just a few seconds, regardless of bank working hours, weekends or holidays.
The new system of the Central Bank of Bosnia and Herzegovina will work 24 hours a day, seven days a week and all 365 days a year. After the user submits the order to his bank, it is forwarded to the Central Bank of BiH, which processes the transaction, after which the money arrives in the recipient’s account.
Unlike the current system, in which interbank payments are processed through several daily settlement cycles, instant payments in BiH will not depend on working hours. Payments made in the evening, on Sundays or during holidays will no longer have to wait for the next working day, provided that both banks are included in the new system.
How instant payments work in Bosnia and Herzegovina
In the first phase, the system will be used for domestic interbank transfers, while the maximum amount of an individual transaction will be 5,000 KM. Commercial banks will be able, in accordance with their rules and risk assessment, to set lower limits for their clients.
As of today, the platform is available to all commercial banks in Bosnia and Herzegovina, but not all banks will join at the same time. The system can be used from day one by banks that have completed the necessary functional, operational and technical testing, while others will be included gradually.
This means that the money will not reach the account immediately in any case. To execute an instant transaction, it is necessary that both the sender’s bank and the recipient’s bank are already connected to the system. The start of work is not a test phase, but a production environment, with controlled involvement of individual banks.
Salaries and pensions are not coming yet at the moment
Payments of salaries, pensions and other mass payments in the initial phase will not be covered by the instant payment system. These transactions will continue to be processed according to the current model, due to the complex technical adjustments required for the simultaneous processing of a large number of orders.
As a result, employees and pensioners will not receive their income in their account within a few seconds from today. The inclusion of salaries, pensions and other group payments is planned in the next stages of system development, but the deadline for this has not yet been specified.
Governor of the Central Bank of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Jasmina Selimović, assessed that this is the biggest reform and modernization of the domestic payment system since 2001. The system is based on the European TIPS platform, with the support of the Bank of Italy and the consent of the European Central Bank.
The Central Bank of BiH also adopted a new tariff, according to which the fee charged to banks for processing instant transactions will be lower than the fee in the existing giro clearing system. How much compensation citizens will pay will depend on the price list of each commercial bank.
In the following stages, the introduction of payment via QR code in stores and online stores has been announced. Cross-border instant transactions are also planned, but the date of their introduction has not yet been determined, it says Klix.
