Translated material
Million in a minute
The Central Bank launched a real-time settlement system
This coming Monday, the Central Bank will put into permanent operation a real-time settlement system. Chairman of the Central Bank Sergei Ignatiev (pictured) said yesterday that the system of banking electronic urgent payments (BESP) will allow banks and other clients with current accounts with the Central Bank to ensure large and urgent payments in real time almost around the clock. The system will also allow multi-branch banks to control the availability of sufficient funds in the correspondent accounts of their branches throughout the country, and securities market participants will be able to use it in settlements on delivery-versus-payment terms. True, BESP tariffs are slightly higher than in the current system: for example, the most expensive - extra-urgent - payment will cost 30 rubles, regular - 25 rubles. (now 19 rub.). But Mr. Ignatiev promised not to force the transition to BESP - banks will be able to make a choice between the new and the current order.“To be able to become a participant in the system, the bank will have to submit an application,” Mr. Ignatiev said at yesterday’s press conference. “It will take about a month and a half to set up and test the software (the Central Bank will provide it free of charge), after which the bank will be included in the system.” And Deputy Chairman of the Central Bank Mikhail Senatorov said that in order to build the BESP system, the Bank of Russia had to switch to a centralized settlement system, which took a total of five years.
According to another deputy chairman of the Central Bank, Tatyana Chugunova, the current settlement system is divided into intraregional and interregional segments. If the sending bank and the receiving bank are in the same region, the payment is made the same day, and if in different regions, only the next day. With the introduction of BESP, this time will be reduced to minutes. The system will operate almost around the clock, calculations within the system will be carried out from two o'clock in the morning to 21 o'clock Moscow time, which makes it accessible to all regions of the country.
Within the framework of the system, the existence of direct participants (credit institutions) and associated participants (credit institutions that have not become direct participants, and all other clients of the Bank of Russia) is assumed. The opportunities for direct participants will be greater - they will be able to receive information services, for example, control the liquidity of their branches or queue payments depending on the availability of funds in the account. Banks working with the SWIFT system will be able to use the capabilities of the old and new systems - according to Ms. Chugunova, this will be the first step in Russia's entry into the international payment system.
“We did not set out to predict exactly how many banks will connect to the system,” noted Ms. Chugunova. -- It is obvious that everywhere such systems are in demand by large banks for urgent payments. In countries where such payment systems operate, 5-10% of the number of payments pass through them, but in terms of amounts this is 90% of gross payments.”
“Among the points that require improvement are technical requirements, not all of them are known yet,” Victoria Safina, head of the cash operations department of Ogresbank (which decided to become a member of BESP), commented to Vremya Novostei on the new system. “But taking into account the settlement experience that the Bank of Russia has, there is an understanding that the project will be successfully implemented.”