National payment system: development strategy until 2023
The Bank of Russia presented National Payment System Development Strategy for
The key goal set forth in the document is to create conditions for the provision of convenient and affordable payment services to households, business, and the state.
To do this, a range of fundamentally new initiatives is to be implemented in the next three years. One of them is the creation of the institution of non-bank payment service providers (NPSP). Driven by the development of technologies, fintech companies are increasingly often entering the financial market. They are ready to offer modern payment and other services to their clients. However, under the current regulation, only credit institutions are allowed to render such services. Once the NPSP institution is created, equal opportunities will be granted to financial intermediaries.
Another area of activities is the introduction of open application programming interfaces (open APIs). This technology will enable seamless data exchange between financial market participants, as well as the equal access for service providers to customer information (subject to his/her consent).
The Bank of Russia also intends to create a mechanism that would help companies to quickly change servicing banks, without interrupting the crediting of funds to their accounts following the change of their bank details. Special attention is given to the introduction of electronic invoices (e-invoicing). This will make it possible to seamlessly transform issued invoices into payment orders, thereby considerably speeding up the transmission of payment documents.
The strategy also implies further development of the national payment infrastructure, including the Faster Payments System, the Financial Messaging System, and the MIR payment system.
For the first time, the document presents key indicators to be achieved in the main areas of activities over the next three years.