ABSTRACT
CENTRAL AND COMMERCIAL BANKERS now generally realise that payment and settlement arrangements cannot simply be left for the “back office” to sort out. In their role as the “plumbing” of the financial and banking system, the efficiency and safety of these arrangements have become issues with wider strategic and policy implications for central banks.1 So this chapter has two basic objectives. The first is to examine the reasons why central banks are interested in payment systems. The second is to provide an overview of the role of central banks in the payment system reforms in transitional economies; Poland is used for illustrative purposes.
