Payments

Millions of cashless payments are made on an average day in Slovakia by banks, businesses, public institutions and consumers. It is important that these payments are made safely, efficiently and reliably. Ensuring the safe and smooth functioning of payment systems and payments per se is one of the core tasks of Národná banka Slovenska (NBS).

To this end, Národná banka Slovenska participates actively in the creation of legislation in the area of payment systems and payment services, operates payment systems (TARGET2-SK, SIPS) that provide clearing and settlement services, and exercises oversight by regularly evaluating and monitoring payment systems and securities clearing and settlement systems against an established standard (Oversight). At the same time, NBS supports discussions on payment system issues with different market participants, through meetings held mainly at the premises of the National Stakeholder Groups for payments and securities.

The establishment of the Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) eliminated differences between national and cross-border payments. Bank account numbers in all SEPA countries are in the IBAN format, which serves as a uniform identifier for account numbering. As a member of the Eurosystem, Národná banka Slovenska contributes to harmonisation efforts in the payments field as well as to the continuing search for efficient, modern and innovative solutions based on the use of SEPA payment instruments.

The Eurosystem has put in place a comprehensive retail payments strategy to promote European retail payment solutions that are safe and efficient for society as a whole and to meet the rising challenges to European sovereignty in the payments market. The main elements of this strategy are the development of a pan-European solution for payments at the point of interaction that is governed at the European level, the full deployment of instant payments, the improvement of cross-border payments beyond the EU, and support for innovation and digitalisation and for a European ecosystem for payments.