OREANDA-NEWS. On 15 April 2009 an official with the National Bank of Belarus (NBB) information department reported, that Belarus’ interbank payments increased 71.9% on the year in January-March 2009 to 233.288 trillion Belarusian rubles (Br).

The total number of transactions decreased 4.4% on the month in January-March to 12.651 million payments. The average payment amounted to 18.4 million rubles, up 78.6% on the year. 

The average daily interbank settlement volume amounted to 3.763 trillion rubles, up 74.7%. 

Belarus changed to interbank payments in real time starting January 1, 2009. 

The NBB set limits for settlements via the clearing system. 

To phase out settlements via the clearing system and switch to the real-time Belarus Interbank Settlement System (BISS) had planned to limit payments to 2 million rubles in the first quarter of 2008, 1 million rubles in the second quarter, 500,000 rubles in the third quarter and 250,000 rubles in the fourth quarter. 

BISS has been upgraded and will be able to deal with all interbank payments. 

BISS and the interbank clearing system are parts of the automated system of interbank payments of Belarus, which includes the NBB and all commercial banks. BISS payments are carried out immediately, while payments within the clearing system are effected through mutual offsets at fixed time.