Belarusian banks to develop cooperation with Russia's Mir payment system, China's UnionPay - NBB

MINSK. Oct 18 (Interfax) - Belarusian banks will develop cooperation with Russia's Mir payment system and China's UnionPay, the deputy governor of the National Bank of Belarus (NBB), Dmitry Kalechits said.

"One of the possibilities for making payments is the Mir payment system. Obviously, all issues of integration are a gradual process. There are future plans to develop cooperation with other payment systems as well. China's UnionPay is coming to our market, our banks will work more actively with this payment system," Kalechits was quoted as saying by state news agency BelTA.

The payment system of Belarus works fairly reliably for making cross-border payments, he said.

"We have done a great deal of focused work to strengthen our payment infrastructure. This enables us to feel more or less confident in the current fairly difficult conditions, work within the context of cross-border cooperation. As for messaging systems, there are alternatives. A large share of issues lie in the area of correspondent relations between banks on one and the other side," Kalechits said.

"We have the ability to pay to other countries by regular bank payment, the ability to work through card access. We're trying as much as possible to diversify possibilities for our citizens and businesses to work on the payments market," Kalechits said.