Central banks of SAARC urged to facilitate cross-border payment
Fri, Dec 4, 2015 11:15 AM on External Media,
Central bankers of South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) countries have underlined the need to design a process to appropriately contextualize Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) at the regional level in the payment systems arena.
Speaking at the inaugural session of two-day 17th SAARC Payment Council Meeting that kicked off on Thursday at Dhaka of Bangladesh, Bangladesh Bank (BB) Governor Atiur Rahman said that adoption of a realistic, pragmatic, and step-by-step approach toward solution of issues will open up new avenues of cooperation among the SAARC nations.
Issuing a statement, BB said that 20 high-level delegates from central banks of Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka are taking part of the SPC Meeting. "Effective communication and exchange of information in the region through SPC has helped most of the countries travel the first mile of payment systems with the establishment of Automated Clearing House, Electronic Fund Transfer Network, Interoperable ATM & POS, and the recently launched Real Time Gross Settlement (RTGS)," the statement quoted Bangladesh central bank chief Rahman as saying.
Rahman also said an interoperable system will be established to manage cross-border payment using latest technology. "We need to sort out the right instrument/payment platform for more effective communication with the tech-savvy netizen generation," the BB governor noted.
Among others, Deputy Governor of Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Harun Rashid Khan, Deputy Governor of BB Nazneen Sultana, SPC Chairman and Deputy Governor of State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) Saeed Ahmed and Deputy Governor of Nepal Rastra Bank Gopal Prasad Kaphle also spoke on the occasion.
SAARC Payments Initiative is a regional forum created by SAARC Finance Group in July, 2007 to develop an understanding for promoting cooperation among member countries to move forward in reforming their national payment and settlement systems and to facilitate trade and investment flows in the region.
