BAKU, Azerbaijan, March 22. Approaches to the creation of a single payment system in Central Asian countries may be different and require appropriate levels of integration between these countries, an expert, associate professor of the Department of World Financial Markets and Fintech at Plekhanov Russian Economic University Tatyana Belyanchikova told Trend.
"The issue of creating a regional payment system is in demand at the moment. It was discussed at the meeting of representatives of the central banks of Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan, and Kyrgyzstan in October 2023. Already at the stage of discussion of these initiatives, it is clear that approaches to the creation of such a payment system may be very different and require different levels of integration between the participating countries," she noted.
According to the expert, various options can be considered, starting with the use of well-developed payment systems of specific countries, including those that do not belong to Central Asia. It could also be a bilateral or multilateral payment system created by different countries but using one of the region's national currencies or some world reserve currency. A regional supranational currency similar to the South American sucre for cross-border regional payments is also possible.
Belyanchikova mentioned that several economists and practitioners could not help but feel optimistic about the example of full integration when a regional currency replaces national currencies - following the example of the eurozone.
"The advantages of such projects include their relative independence from major international payment systems (such as Mastercard or Visa), as well as from global financial messaging systems (such as SWIFT). At the same time, this is the weakness of these systems, as their creation requires significant financial investments, and the interaction of this system with the rest of the world will not be able to do without certain time and financial costs," she emphasized.
According to her, the establishment of such structures has a positive impact on strengthening ties between countries and facilitates the transfer of funds in conditions of ensuring the security of payments and in conditions of limited possibility of using other systems.
The expert also noted that the theme of creating a regional payment system is becoming more and more relevant and even finds practical realization. However, it is necessary to take into account the diversity of objectives and approaches to its realization. Within the framework of creating a single payment system, it is possible to focus on transfers between individuals, which is quite feasible based on existing national systems of instant payments.
"Similar models are offered by Türkiye (Turan Teknoloji Anonim Şirketi, a unified digital wallet for Turkic countries) and even India (UPI unified payment interface, which it is ready to provide to Central Asian countries)," Belyanchikova added.
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