Belarusian banks to connect to CIPS, Chinese equivalent of SWIFT

The Belarusian banks will be connected to the Chinese analogue of SWIFT - the national system of bank transfers CIPS. This was told to reporters by First Deputy Prime Minister Nikolai Snopkov, BelTA informs.

As Nikolai Snopkov noted, the connection of Belarusian banks to the Chinese national bank transfer system CIPS will be an important element in cooperation with China. Belarusbank will be the first to join it, followed by other financial institutions.

"This is a special payment system, which is an alternative to SWIFT," said First Deputy Prime Minister.

Belarus will also actively implement an international payment system UnionPay. It was established in 2002, initiated by the State Council and the People's Bank of China.

It is planned that Belarusbank will start issuing payment cards of the system in December. "That is, cards that Belarusians will be able to use to pay within the country, in China and in more than 100 other countries," said Nikolai Snopkov.