Russia launches its own SEPA

Instant Payment System (IPS) is to be launched in Russia on January 28, 2019, Director of the National Payment System Department of the Bank of Russia Alla Bakina said at the system's presentation.

Bakina noted that before February 28, the banks will work with a limited number of clients, after which the full range of operations will be available for all clients of the banks, which joined the system.

The test mode will be provided for 12 banks starting from January 24: Gazprombank, VTB,  Alfa-Bank, Promsvyazbank, AK BARS, Raiffeisen, Tinkoff Bank, SKB-Bank, QIWI Bank, Rosbank, Sovcombank, Platezhny Tsentr.

The head of the department of stock markets and financial engineering of the Faculty of Finance and the Banking Business of RANEPA, former deputy chairman of the Central Bank of Russia Konstantin Korischenko, speaking with Vestnik Kavkaza, noted that the IPS is designed to significantly simplify payments for individuals. "As far as I understand, the IPS is somewhat similar to SEPA, which provides the possibility of making payments between individuals under a simplified procedure," he said.

Risks will be excluded from the new payment system. "This is the Central Bank's payment system, so there are no risks. It can be compared with a speed dial. The IPS is a technological simplification, which, among other things, has serious practical implications in terms of convenience for citizens,” Konstantin Korishchenko stressed.

Professor of the RANEPA faculty of Finance, Money Circulation and Credit, Yuri Yudenkov, agreed with Korischenko. "The IPS is beneficial for everyone, because this system allows citizens to make payments in real time," the economist said.

"Of course, payment systems always have risks, for example, a system failure due to some kind of accident is possible - but this is highly unlikely. In this case, since everything will be done using a single information system, the Central Bank will be able to minimize risks. In fact, the big data system comes into life, which can only be welcomed," Yuri Yudenkov concluded.