The member countries can decide on an appropriate name and the structure of the apex body. For convenience, I have taken the liberty to name it as the SAARC Payments Council (SPC) which can be chaired by a member central bank or co-chaired by two central banks. The Council should draft vision and mission statements for the SAARC region and prepare a road map for payment reforms for the next 5 – 10 years, taking into consideration the modernization that needs to be attended to by member countries at national and regional levels. Under SPC, there should be several task forces consisting of senior officials of central banks and other financial institutions directly involved in payment and settlement related activities who will attend to the preliminary work, such as stocktaking and identification of gaps in the national payment systems. There should be task forces on (a) policy and operational matters; (b) legal and regulatory aspects; (c) technical and institutional infrastructure; and (d) communication and exchange of information. The task forces should make their recommendations to the SPC, which will take considered decisions. In nominating members to the task forces, where possible, countries should select officers from their respective NPCs, as such councils are expected to have representatives of all stakeholders with the necessary skills and expertise to handle work relating to the above areas. Sri Lanka has already established an NPC with a clear mandate to take forward payment reforms across the nation.

Several of these initiatives have taken on the challenging task of linking regional payment systems on appropriate technological platforms, thus ensuring resilience and safety of common payment systems. With peer pressure, significant reforms have been introduced in payment instruments, payment mechanisms, infrastructure systems, clearing processes, cross-border clearing and settlement systems in individual countries. To ensure efficiency and safety and achieve common goals, there should be a clear commitment by all member countries, which can be clearly displayed by working together as a group. A collective effort and cooperative agenda should support self-help mechanisms and also complement the coordination and cooperation with other regional initiatives and international institutions. As a group, we can mobilize and optimize technical support from other regional initiatives and international bodies like the World Bank, IMF and CPSS of the BIS. A logical conclusion of some of these payment initiatives would be to work towards a single payment mechanism like the Single Euro Payment Area (SEPA). This is obviously a longterm objective for the SAARC region and we need to be very cautious in taking a decision towards a single payment mechanism. At the moment, there is no visible political or official commitment towards such a move, but it is worth examining the processes that have taken place in Europe to learn some valuable lessons and avoid potential pitfalls in working towards a single payment space. Since 1999, the European Union has been using a single  2  BIS Review 79/2007  currency, the euro, as the common currency within the Union.