OREANDA-NEWS. December 14, 2007. During its recent meeting, the Board of the National Bank of the Kyrgyz Republic reviewed the following issues:

"On the Monetary policy Report for nine months of 2007" (the Resolution #15/1);
"On development trends of commercial banks system of the Kyrgyz Republic" (the Resolution #15/2).
"On OJSC AC "Amanbank". This Resolution lifts restrictions of issuing licenses for derivative transactions, restrictions of capital contributions to other enterprises, institutions, foundations and companies (other than banks), and restrictions of conducting trust operations and precious metal transactions. The NBKR Board Resolution #51/13 dated December 25, 2002 imposed restrictions to OJSC AC "Amanbank" of conducting the above transactions, as the bank did not fulfill minimal charter capital requirement of the NBKR. On August 16/17, 2007, the tenth stock issue of the OJSC AC "Amanbank" for the amount of 200 Million soms was offered in the Kyrgyz Stock Exchange. As a result, the charter capital of the bank amounted to 263 Million soms. As of October 31, 2007, the net compound capital of the bank constituted 305.6 Million soms.

The National Bank of the Kyrgyz Republic organized a regular meeting of the Inter-Bank Payment System Council presided by Z. L. Chokoev, NBKR Vice-President. The meeting was attended by managers of commercial banks and NBKR specialists. The meeting participants discussed issues of commercial bank fees in the Bulk Clearing System, major bank principles for providing services to legal entities and individuals, marketing policy in the part of installing ATM in retail and service outlets.

During the discussion of the above mentioned issues, the commercial banks were advised to take action in order to attract customers, expand the customer reach by providing different bank products and offering service fees based on competition. In addition, the banks which are focused at the retail business received a comment to improve their technological equipment and increase effectiveness of processing gross payments.

A range of meetings of inter-department working group was organized with participation of representatives of CJSC "Inter-bank Card Processing Center", State customs committee and the NBKR concerning the implementation of a project "Customs payments by Elkart bank cards". The working group discussed issues concerning the submitted details and formats for sending files, report forms and financial flow diagrams.

The meetings of the inter-department working group resulted in decisions to implement a pilot project on the use of Elkart for customs payments in the customs house "Manas".

Consequently, the following documents were prepared for agreement and approval: Minutes of Intent to implement pilot project for the use of Elkart for customs payments; Draft Agreement "Receiving and processing customs payments"; Roadmap for the implementation of the pilot project for the use of Elkart for customs payments.

Based on the national payment system Elkart, it is planned to introduce "benzene cards" in Kyrgyzstan. The NBKR organized a meeting of representatives of the OJSC "GazpromNeftAsia", CJSC "Inter-bank Card Processing Center" and the NBKR concerning this project. In the meeting the parties discussed the options of introducing "benzene cards", the restriction of benzene cards use to the network of OJSC "GazpromNeftAsia" gas stations. These cards can be used to pay for fuel; to buy company"s goods and services; receive various bonuses and additional discounts.

The meeting resulted in decisions to design more detailed schemes to introduce the above projects and facilitate the cash flows between project participants.

The "benzene cards" based on the national payment system Elkart will be used as an alternative option to pay for goods and services at the gas stations.

The National Bank of the Kyrgyz Republic informs that the National account for the repayment of foreign debt had the following balances as of October 15, 2007:

Account in national currency: 215,342.77 soms;
Account in US dollars- 3,350 US dollars.

As of December 1, 2007, the list of shareholders of the CJSC "Interbank Processing Center" included seventeen commercial banks and the NBKR. Thirteen commercial banks are linked to the Inter-bank Card Processing Center, 7,157 Elkart cards were issued, nine automated teller machines and 167 terminals operated. 135 terminals are installed in branches and savings banks of commercial banks in Bishkek and the district centers of the Kyrgyz Republic, 32 terminals operate in retail and service outlets.

Volume of inter-bank transactions for the reporting week amounted to 8,364.8 Million soms, which was by 1,346.1 Million soms (19.2 per cent) higher than the average weekly value for the previous month; details are as follows:

the volume of payments in the clearing system increased by 14.0% compared to the average weekly volume for the previous month, and amounted to 1,260.0 Million soms. The write-off payments in Central Treasury accounts made 19.6% of the total clearing payments volume, and the transfer payments accounted for 18.6%. The Social Fund write-off and transfer payments were 0.04% and 2.3% correspondingly; the Inter-bank Card Processing Center write-off payments were 0.01%;

the volume of payments in the gross system amounted to 7,104.8 Million soms, which constituted a 20.2% increase compared to the average weekly value for the previous month. A share of electronic payments in the volume of total gross payments was 4,403.1 Million soms, or 62.0%. The write-off payments in Central Treasury accounts made 13.0% of the total gross payments volume, and the transfer payments accounted for 16.8%.
Number of inter-bank transactions was 35,626, which was by 929 (2.5 per cent) lower than the average weekly value for the previous month; the details are as follows:

the number of payments in the clearing system decreased by 3.7% and amounted to 33,657. The write-off payments in Central Treasury accounts made 15.4% of the total clearing payments, and the transfer payments accounted for 47.2%. The Social Fund write-off and transfer payments made 0.2% and 4.0% correspondingly; the Inter-bank Card Processing Center write-off payments were 0.2%;

the number of payments in the gross system was 1,969, which was by 369 (increase by 23.0 percent) higher than the average value for the previous month. A share of electronic payments in the total gross payments was 1,488 (75.6%). The number of write-off payments in Central Treasury accounts made 3.0% of the total number of gross payments, and the number of transfer payments accounted for 4.3%.