Work in progress to introduce ID cards, biometric passports into banking practice in Belarus

MINSK, 18 May (BelTA) – Plans have been made to introduce ID cards and biometric passports into banking practice in Belarus. Chairman of the Board of the National Bank of the Republic of Belarus (NBRB) Pavel Kallaur made the statement as the second international digital forum #GBC (Government. Business. Citizens) opened in Minsk, BelTA has learned.

Pavel Kallaur said: “Closer cooperation and search for new technological solutions for the tasks our country and all the Eurasian Economic Union member states face determine the topicality and significance of the areas the #GBC forum covers. Raising the effectiveness of interaction of the state, the private sector, and citizens has always been one of the tasks of the central bank and the Operations and Analysis Center. Our organizations are connected by many years of fruitful cooperation. The fulfillment of important decisions for the state has always been effective and result-oriented.”

The head of the central bank reminded that the National Bank of the Republic of Belarus was the first state administration body to introduce electronic document management, electronic documents, and electronic signatures. “The promising project for creating ID cards and using them to provide digital services was also born in tight cooperation of our government agencies. Work is now in progress to introduce these cards, their details, and other biometric documents into banking practice in order to comply with the legislation,” the NBRB head noted.

Pavel Kallaur believes that Belarus’ social and economic development is closely connected with the digitization of all spheres of life and with the development of foreign trade relations. In turn, digitization is related to security and data protection.

Pavel Kallaur also talked about progress of union integration in the banking industry. “Within the framework of the Union State of Belarus and Russia and within the framework of the Eurasian Economic Union we can perform banking activities by means of remotely providing services, making transboundary payments, and transferring financial information,” he noted. “Within the framework of realization of the roadmaps the integration of payment systems has been enabled on the basis of bank cards, a financial information transfer system of the National Bank of the Republic of Belarus, and a financial messaging system of the Bank of Russia. The integration of instant payment systems of Belarus and Russia is in a high readiness state. Active joint work is in progress on legislating the possibility of remote transboundary identification of bank clients and the sharing of information about fraudulent schemes.”

The second international digital forum #GBC (Government. Business. Citizens) began in the National Library of Belarus on 18 May under the slogan “Achievements of the state and the private sector for citizens”. Taking part in the forum are heads of government agencies and organizations, representatives of IT companies, banks, the private sector, and the social sphere. The forum is designed to create dialogue platforms for closer cooperation and search for new solutions, which can improve the effectiveness of interaction of the state, the private sector, and citizens. The forum is also supposed to present Belarus’ accomplishments in the sphere of digital transformation.

Taking part in the forum are heads of government agencies and organizations, representatives of IT companies, banks, the private sector, and the social sphere. The forum is held under the aegis of an independent regulator in the sphere of information and communication technologies, which functions are performed by the Operations and Analysis Center under the President of the Republic of Belarus. The forum has been organized by the National Traffic Exchange Center with assistance of the National Center for Electronic Services and Belarusian Cloud Technologies (beCloud).