Published
09/02/2026, 14:10Transferring money to a customer at another bank should become as simple as sending a text message; all you’ll need to do is select a phone number, scan a QR code or enter an account number. The National Bank is proposing to bring together Kyrgyzstan’s banks and payment organisations into a single, round-the-clock Instant Payment System.
The National Bank of Kyrgyzstan (NBKR) put the draft of the relevant regulation out for public consultation on 2 September. The document has not yet been approved, but it already gives an idea of how the country’s money transfer market might change.
The main idea behind the project is to remove technological barriers between banks. At present, remittance options largely depend on which apps, cards and payment systems the sender and recipient use. The FPS is intended to link them via a shared infrastructure.
If the project goes ahead, money will be transferable 24/7/365 — regardless of the working day, the time of day or which financial institutions the parties to the transaction use.
Users will not need to request lengthy bank details. To send money, the system will be able to use a telephone number, a national standard QR code, an account or bank card number, a payment link and other identifiers specified in the rules.
It is planned that the SBP will be used not only for transfers between individuals. The system will cover payments to businesses and government bodies, settlements between companies and other types of transactions.
Money can be sent via familiar channels: a bank’s mobile app, online banking, an ATM, a POS terminal or a QR code. After the transaction, the customer should receive a notification stating whether the payment has been processed, declined, cancelled or refunded.
According to the draft, there are no plans to create a separate, mandatory app for the SBP. Banks and payment organisations will be able to integrate its functions into their existing digital services. For the customer, it is not so much the appearance of the app that will change, but rather what happens when they click the ‘Transfer’ button.
It is proposed that the operator of the national payment system ‘Elkart’ should act as the central operator of the new system. It is through this operator that the technical interaction between participants will take place.
The operator must receive and forward payment messages, maintain registers, carry out clearing, calculate banks’ net positions, monitor suspicious transactions and be responsible for the information security and uninterrupted operation of the entire infrastructure.
Banks and other organisations holding accounts with the National Bank will be able to connect to the SBP directly. Payment organisations and operators without an account at the National Bank will need to operate through a direct participant.
However, simply wishing to connect will not be enough. Participants will have to enter into an agreement, adapt their information systems, undergo integration testing and certification, and confirm compliance with security requirements.
It is precisely the technical readiness of the banks that has been identified as one of the project’s main risks. If participants connect at an uneven pace, the single payment area may, in the initial phase, prove to be unified only in name.
For the customer, the payment must appear to have been completed in real time. However, within the banking system, the process will be more complex.
The operator will reconcile each participant’s incoming and outgoing transactions and calculate the net position. For example, if customers of one bank sent 100 million KGS to another bank over a certain period and received 80 million from it, only the difference – 20 million KGS – will ultimately need to be transferred.
These settlements will pass through the National Bank’s gross settlement system via the correspondent accounts of direct participants.
As a result, there may be a temporary lag between the instantaneous display of a transfer to the customer and the final settlement between the banks. To ensure this does not pose a threat to the system, participants will be subject to liquidity reserve requirements, net debit position limits and other restrictions.
If a bank does not have sufficient funds to complete settlements, individual transactions may be blocked or placed on hold. A mechanism for emergency liquidity injections may also be established to ensure that a shortage of funds at one participant does not bring the entire system to a standstill.
Transfers by mobile number will operate via a centralised register of identifiers. This register must link a number, QR code or other identifier to a specific customer, their bank, account, card or e-wallet.
This linking must be carried out with the user’s consent. The list of data that may be stored in the system is quite extensive: full name, telephone number, passport details, PIN, tax identification number (INN), bank details and e-wallet identifier.
In effect, the convenience of ‘one-click’ transfers will be enabled by a large centralised database, which is why the protection of personal data is becoming a key issue. The project requires that such data be processed in accordance with the Digital Code of Kyrgyzstan, that all changes be recorded, and that a history of actions be maintained in a register.
The operator must also prevent situations where a single telephone number is mistakenly linked to several recipients or where money is sent to the wrong person.
The system’s security will not rely solely on database protection. Each transaction is to be automatically checked via a centralised anti-fraud module.
Algorithms will look for unusual behaviour, the splitting of large sums, atypical transaction parameters and other possible signs of fraud. The system will be able to reject a suspicious transfer, temporarily block it or send it for further verification.
Limits may be set per transaction, per day or per month, and will depend on the amount, currency, account type and type of transaction.
At the same time, payments will be centrally checked for compliance with sanctions lists and the requirements of legislation on combating the financing of criminal activity and money laundering.
A separate section of the project is dedicated to disputed transactions. A special mechanism is to be introduced for these, through which it will be possible to challenge the status of a payment, incorrect routing or discrepancies in the details, and to request a refund.
Each transaction will be assigned a unique identifier. This will make it possible to reconstruct the entire history of the transaction — from the moment of dispatch to execution, cancellation, refund or final settlement between banks.
The deadlines for submitting claims, the list of required documents and the grounds for refunds will be set out in the National Payment System’s rules. Complex disputes may be considered by a special arbitration commission.
The national SBP is initially being established for the domestic market, but the project provides for the possibility of its integration with foreign payment systems.
This could pave the way for fast cross-border transfers. However, their launch will require separate approval from the National Bank: it will be necessary to determine the available currencies, the conversion procedure, the settlement scheme, the requirements for verifying senders and recipients, and the mechanism for verifying the origin of funds.
International operators will not be able to settle payments directly through the National Bank’s system. To carry out transactions, they will need a correspondent bank within Kyrgyzstan.
When developing the project, the National Bank of Kyrgyzstan studied the experience of Russia’s SBP, India’s UPI, Brazil’s Pix, Egypt’s Instant Payment Network and Singapore’s PayNow. All these systems are built around a single idea: it should not matter to customers which bank their money is held in, provided the country’s payment infrastructure is capable of seamlessly connecting participants with one another.
