Bosnia and Herzegovina: Financial Sector Assessment Program-Detailed Assessment of Observance of the CPMI-IOSCO Principles For Financial Market Infrastructures

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Major achievements have been made in modernizing the payment system. Bosnia and Herzegovina was the first country of the former Yugoslavia to dismantle the old payment system, leading to significant efficiency improvements and risk reduction. The Central Bank of Bosnia and Herzegovina played a key role in reducing transaction costs and the number of payment agencies. Risk was further reduced with the development and launch of the real-time gross settlement system for large-value payments and the giro clearing system for retail payments in 2001. Resiliency of the interbank payment system was demonstrated against the severe floods of May 2014, which had an impact on the real economy and parts of the financial services sector. The interbank payment system has functioned normally since its launch in 2001. Contingency arrangements were earlier strengthened with the development of a disaster recovery site located at a distant location from the primary site to ensure the resumption of critical operations in the event of a wide scale disruption. Plans to adopt the Principles of Financial Market Infrastructures of 2012 into the regulatory framework are at the early stages. The currency board arrangement has helped protect the payment system from credit risks. There is no credit risk due to pre-funding requirements in the real-time gross settlement system. Prohibition of the central bank from extending intraday credit and strict rules on the use and replenishment of reserve requirements has established strong discipline for commercial banks. This was tested with the provisional administration and liquidity management issues faced by some banks that helped contain settlement risks that could have led to potential systemic risks.