The National Bank of the Republic of North Macedonia operates the Macedonian Interbank Payment System with 24 direct participants. Seventeen are commercial banks and seven are non-bank financial institutions. MIPS processes all domestic payments exceeding MKD 1 million. The system operates on weekdays from 08:00 to 16:30 CET. The Macedonian denar has maintained a fixed peg to the euro at approximately MKD 61.5 per EUR since 1998.
North Macedonia joined the SEPA geographical scope on March 6, 2025. Macedonian payment service providers reached their Operational Readiness Date on October 5, 2025. The German Economic Team estimates that SEPA membership will save the country EUR 61.8 million annually. EUR 58.0 million of this total comes from reduced trade payment processing costs. In 2024, North Macedonia received EUR 423 million in formal-channel personal remittances. Seventy-five percent of these remittances originated from SEPA member countries.
North Macedonia signed a letter of intent in October 2025 to join the TIPS Clone initiative led by Banca d'Italia. The platform connects payment systems in Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro, and North Macedonia to the Eurosystem's TARGET Instant Payment Settlement infrastructure. Go-live is scheduled for 2026. The NBRM also operates KIBS, the domestic retail interbank clearing system that processes the majority of transaction volume below the MKD 1 million RTGS threshold.