On January 10, a ceremony was held in Rome for the signing of the Letter of Intent to start the project of establishing an instant payment system in the Western Balkans.
It was attended by the governor and deputy governor of the Bank of Italy, together with the governors and deputy governors of the central banks of Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, North Macedonia and Montenegro.
The cooperation agreement stipulates that the Bank of Italy will deliver an instant payment system, based on a replica of the TIPS service, which is a European platform for real-time payment settlement, designed, created and managed by the Bank of Italy on behalf of the Eurosystem. Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo and Montenegro 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 in the next few weeks – will allow payments in all currencies of the participating countries. Additional functionalities will be developed after the initial implementation phase, Indikator reports. It will also, using a technologically advanced and low-cost solution, establish a bilateral payment settlement link between the areas served by TIPS and the Western Balkans.
The signing of the Letter of Intent is an important step on the way to the integration of the countries of the Western Balkans into the financial system of the European Union, according to the joint statement of the Central Bank of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Bank of Italy.
