Dr. Murtaza Syed, Governor (Acting) State Bank f Pakistan (SBP) assumed the charge of Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Asian Clearing Union (ACU) in the 50th meeting of the ACU Board held in Islamabad in both physical and virtual modes.
Established in 1974 with permanent headquarters in Iran, the Asian Clearing Union (ACU) is a payment arrangement system whereby member countries settle payments for intra-regional transactions among their central banks on a net multilateral basis. Currently, the Central Banks of Bangladesh, Bhutan, Iran, India, Maldives, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka are members of the ACU.
According to a press statement Sunday, the main objectives of the clearing union are to facilitate payments among member countries for eligible transactions, thereby economizing on the use of foreign exchange reserves and transfer costs, as well as promoting trade and banking relations among the participating countries.
The Secretary General of ACU, Mrs. Lida Borhan Azad, presented the annual report on the operations of the union for the year 2020, which the Board approved and adopted. The Board reviewed progress on the ongoing projects being undertaken by the union. It reviewed a new web based messaging system and constituted a sub-committee to finalize the recommendations for its implementation within six months. The Board also considered the report on issues faced by traders under the ACU mechanism and decided to implement the recommendations in the next three months.
While appreciating the report on the use of domestic currencies for settlement of trade transactions prepared by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), the Board requested RBI to convene a virtual seminar to enable member countries to gain a fuller understanding of the proposed mechanism.
The Governors and head of the delegations of the countries also gave a broad overview of the economic development in their respective economies and shared their xperiences in addressing the challenges emerging in the post COVID-19 global landscape.—Agencies
