The National Bank of Belarus has drawn conclusions from large-scale technical failures in payment systems and will tighten requirements for service providers. This was stated in an interview with Bankovski Vestnik by Chairman of the National Bank Raman Halouchanka.
“To ensure uninterrupted provision of payment services, the National Bank has approved a set of measures and begun their implementation. The key change is the expansion of the range of situations in which the National Bank and other participants in the payment market will report disruptions in service continuity. The failures of 2025 demonstrated the need for stricter control and proactive action, especially in non-standard situations. Requirements for payment service providers will be strengthened in terms of responding both to technical failures and other situations affecting service quality (for example, erroneous debits), as well as informing users and reporting to the National Bank,” he said.
According to him, in January this year two financial services and technology standards were approved, which will come into force on July 1. They concern payment security.
“The first standard (SFST 9.06-2026) unifies requirements for banks’ anti-fraud systems to effectively counter unauthorized payment transactions. The second standard (SFST 9.07-2026) concerns the collection of digital device fingerprints of clients, which will ensure unified identification of devices when accessing remote banking systems. Financial organizations will need to formalize in their internal regulations the procedures for applying anti-fraud systems, implement session-based and transaction-based anti-fraud measures, use information from the National Bank’s automated incident processing system, and introduce restrictive measures against individuals involved in unauthorized transactions,” he said.
