A little over Nu 21bn worth of international transactions was recorded between October and December of last year. According to the Royal Monetary Authority’s quarterly payment system report, this is an increase of almost seven per cent compared to the same quarter in 2022.
The international payments, include payments made out of the country and into the country, using SWIFT, international payment gateway, and international cards.
According to the RMA’s quarterly payment system report, the bulk of the international payments were made using the SWIFT payment.
SWIFT is a global messaging network used by banks and other financial institutions to securely transmit information and instructions related to financial transactions.
At 56 per cent, money sent out of the country using SWIFT makes up the majority share of international payments while payments made into the country using SWIFT are a little over 40 per cent.
International payment gateway and payments using international cards only contributed about four per cent to the international transaction by value.
On the other hand, going by the number of transactions made, payments made with international cards are the highest.
85 per cent of the total transactions by volume were made using international cards, while only about seven per cent were made using SWIFT.
By volume, the fourth quarter of 2023 saw over 130,000 transactions made, almost a threefold increase as compared to the same quarter in 2022.
Samten Dolkar
Edited by Sherub Dorji
