About Clearing

The Interbank Clearing System (ICS) is a payment system of the Republic of Kazakhstan designed to process retail payments between its participants through multilateral clearing of payment messages, followed by the determination of net positions and final settlement via the Interbank Money Transfer System (IMTS).

The ICS is classified as a significant payment system and is included in the register of payment systems of the National Bank of the Republic of Kazakhstan. The operator of the payment system is the National Bank of the Republic of Kazakhstan, while the operational center is the National Payment Corporation of the National Bank of the Republic of Kazakhstan (NPC).

Previously, the ICS used electronic messages in SWIFT formats (MT formats). Since January 13, 2025, the ICS has been operating in accordance with the ISO 20022 international standard methodology and processes participants’ payments using MX message formats.

A prerequisite for obtaining participant status in the ICS is the existence of a correspondent account in tenge opened with the National Bank in accordance with the Rules for Establishing Correspondent Relationships between the National Bank of the Republic of Kazakhstan and banks, as well as organizations performing certain types of banking operations, approved by Resolution No. 209 of the Board of the National Bank of the Republic of Kazakhstan dated August 31, 2016.

The activities of the payment system are governed by Resolution No. 211 of the Board of the National Bank of the Republic of Kazakhstan dated August 31, 2016 “On Approval of the Rules for the Functioning of the Interbank Clearing System.”

Key features of the Interbank Clearing System (ICS):

The sending bank (Bank A) submits pacs.008 / pacs.009 messages to the ICS to initiate a funds transfer.

Upon acceptance of the message for processing, the ICS notifies the sending bank (Bank A) of queue placement via a pacs.002 message (status: PDNG).

If an error is detected in a pacs.008 / pacs.009 message, the ICS informs the sending bank (Bank A) through a pacs.002 message (status: RJCT), specifying the error code and description.

After the close of the operating day, calculation of net positions, and issuance of the final statement (camt.053) to banks, the ICS generates and sends pacs.008 / pacs.009 payment messages to the beneficiary bank (Bank B) for incoming funds.

Upon receipt of a pacs.008 message, the beneficiary bank (Bank B) credits the funds to the recipient’s account.

Purpose: to ensure the settlement of a high volume of retail low- and medium-value non-cash interbank payments among payment system participants.

Functionality: operates based on multilateral netting at the end of the operating day without prior prefunding of participants’ settlement accounts. Participants are not required to pre-fund liquidity, which contributes to more efficient liquidity management.

Operating mode: operates on a 24/7 basis with a single settlement cycle. Net positions of system participants are settled via the Interbank Money Transfer System (IMTS).

Payment flexibility: supports both credit and debit transfers with same-day value or future value dates of up to T+3 business days. Allows recall of submitted payments prior to final settlement.

Partial payment processing: enables processing of one or several underlying documents within a bulk payment message (non-register-based). Allows return of only the erroneous underlying document rather than the entire message package.

Partial recall, blocking, and priority change: provides the ability to recall, block, or change the priority of individual underlying documents within a bulk payment message (non-register-based).

Risk management: includes the use of a queue unwinding mechanism in case of insufficient funds, as well as a backup (disaster recovery) center and a business continuity plan for the ICS.

Limitation: the maximum amount of a single payment message (including bulk payment messages) must not exceed KZT 5 million.

CS Operating Day

• The system accepts documents for clearing on a 24/7 basis, while final settlement and issuance of final reports are performed once on business days between 15:00 and 17:00.
• 17:00 marks the start of a new operating day.
  • Netting process: the system performs multilateral clearing by calculating the net position for each participant.
  • Reservation and settlement: for participants with a debit position, an equivalent amount is reserved in the Interbank Money Transfer System (IMTS). Final settlement is executed through the system’s position in the IMTS.
  • Completion of settlement: settlement of participants’ net positions is carried out in the Interbank Money Transfer System.
    Upon execution of all settlement instructions, the clearing position balance in the interbank system becomes zero.