According to the legal mandates, the National Bank shall establish, register and oversee the safety, soundness and efficiency of payment, settlement and clearing systems.
At the same time, the National Bank is the beneficiary of the payment systems in the country for the purposes of conducting monetary policy, maintaining financial stability and performing other important central bank operations.
In addition, the National Bank is the beneficiary of the international payment systems for the purposes of managing foreign reserves and executing payment operations of government authorities.
In this regard, the National Bank performs the following roles in the payment systems:
Operational role
The operational role of the National Bank covers the following aspects:
Operator of the large value payment system - MIPS
The National Bank plays this role through handling and managing real-time gross settlement system - MIPS.
Back-office operations
Back-office operations are internal operations of the National Bank associated with settlement of transactions concluded on the financial markets, and involve: processing, confirmation and settlement of transactions, accounting and reconciliation of the cash and custody accounts.
Performing international payment operations for the government
Cross-border payment operations are performed through foreign currency accounts of the National Bank opened in foreign central and commercial banks, with which it has established correspondent relations and by indirect participation in the payment system TARGET2 through central banks of the Eurosystem.
Oversight role
The National Bank's payment systems oversight is a legally defined task. Pursuant to the Law on Payment Operations, overseeing the payment systems is aimed at achieving objectives related to the safety and efficiency of payment systems by monitoring the existing and planned arrangements, evaluating them against goals and policies. National Bank’s payment systems oversight is an integral part of its wider responsibilities for the implementation of monetary policy and maintaining financial stability.
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Development and catalyst role
The National Bank performs its development role by improving financial institutions regulations, participating in the harmonization of the national with the European legislation, introducing new standards in the payment system operations in line with the internationally accepted standards, following the development trends and creating an environment for their implementation in the Republic of North Macedonia so as to get ready for the integrative flows of SEPA within the EU.
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