Skopje, 24 July 2026
The President of the European Central Bank (ECB), Christine Lagarde, at yesterday's press conference dedicated to monetary policy, answering a journalist's question, highlighted the project for establishing a regional infrastructure for instant payments in the Western Balkans and confirmed the expected joining of North Macedonia to the TIPS clone platform.
In her address, President Lagarde pointed out that following the successful joining of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Montenegro, our country is expected to join the platform in November, along with Albania and Kosovo, whereby the fast payments initiative will include all participating countries in the Western Balkans.
The fact that the President of the ECB singled out this project and publicly confirmed the expected joining of our country is a significant confirmation of the importance of the activities carried out by the National Bank for modernization of the domestic payment infrastructure and its harmonization with the European standards.
By joining the TIPS Clone, North Macedonia will become part of the modern instant payments infrastructure based on the technology of the European system TIPS (TARGET Instant Payment Settlement). The project will enable faster, safer and more efficient payments in denars and euros for citizens and companies and will represent an important step in the further integration of the domestic payment system with the European payment infrastructures.
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