The Asian Clearing Union (ACU), with headquarters in Tehran

Tehran

Tehran , sometimes spelled Teheran, is the capital of Iran and Tehran Province. With an estimated population of 8,429,807; it is also Iran's largest urban area and city, one of the largest cities in Western Asia, and is the world's 19th largest city.In the 20th century, Tehran was subject to...

, Iran

Iran

Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...

, was established on December 9, 1974 at the initiative of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific

United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific

The Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific , located in Bangkok, Thailand, is the regional arm of the United Nations Secretariat for the Asian and Pacific region. It was established in 1947 to encourage economic cooperation among its member states...

 (ESCAP). The primary objective of ACU, at the time of its establishment, was to secure regional co-operation as regards the settlement of monetary transactions among the members of the Union and to provide a system for clearing payments among the member countries on a multilateral basis.

Members

Currently (2009), the members of ACU are the central banks of Bangladesh, Bhutan, Iran, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and Myanmar. The central banking authority of member countries has issued detailed instructions and modalities for channeling the monetary transactions through the ACU. Membership in the ACU is open to central banks located in the geographical area of ESCAP.

State	Central Bank	Year
Bangladesh	Bangladesh Bank Bangladesh Bank Bangladesh Bank is the Central bank of Bangladesh and is a member of the Asian Clearing Union.-History:After the liberation war, and the eventual independence of Bangladesh, the Government of Bangladesh reorganized the Dhaka branch of the State Bank of Pakistan as the central bank of the country,...	1974
Bhutan	Royal Monetary Authority of Bhutan Royal Monetary Authority of Bhutan The Royal Monetary Authority of Bhutan is the central bank of Bhutan and is a member of the Asian Clearing Union. It is also the minting authority for the Bhutanese ngultrum. The Royal Monetary Authority of Bhutan was established under the Royal Monetary Authority of Bhutan Act of 1982...	1999
India	Reserve Bank of India Reserve Bank of India The Reserve Bank of India is the central banking institution of India and controls the monetary policy of the rupee as well as US$300.21 billion of currency reserves. The institution was established on 1 April 1935 during the British Raj in accordance with the provisions of the Reserve Bank of...	1974
Iran	Central Bank of the Islamic Republic of Iran	1974
Maldives	Maldives Monetary Authority Maldives Monetary Authority Maldives Monetary Authority or MMA acts as the central bank of the republic of Maldives and was established on July 1, 1981, under the mandate provided by the "MMA Act" of 1981...	2009
Myanmar	Central Bank of Myanmar Central Bank of Myanmar The Central Bank of Myanmar is the central bank of Myanmar . It was established under the Central Bank of Myanmar Law in 1990. Its headquarters are in Yankin Township, Yangon, Yangon Division and is headed by a 17-member board of directors, headed by Than Nyein...	1977
Nepal	Nepal Rastra Bank Nepal Rastra Bank The Nepal Rastra Bank , established in 1956, is the central bank of Nepal. It has seven offices, located at Biratnagar, Janakpur, Birgunj, Pokhara, Siddharthanagar, Nepalgunj, and Dhangadhi....	1974
Pakistan	State Bank of Pakistan State Bank of Pakistan The State Bank of Pakistan is the central bank of Pakistan. While its constitution, as originally laid down in the State Bank of Pakistan Order 1948, remained basically unchanged until January 1, 1974, when the bank was nationalized, the scope of its functions was considerably enlarged...	1974
Sri Lanka	Central Bank of Sri Lanka Central Bank of Sri Lanka The Central Bank of Sri Lanka is the monetary authority of Sri Lanka. It was established in 1950, two years after independence. The founder governor of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka was John Exter, while the minister of finance at the time was J.R...	1974

Unit

The unit of settlement of ACU transactions is a common unit of account of ACU, and the unit is equivalent to one USD, and the Asian Monetary Unit may be denominated as ACU dollar.

Eligible transactions

All eligible transactions between member countries are required to be settled through the Asian Clearing Union. The monetary transactions eligible to be settled through the Asian Clearing Union includes the following: -

• Payments from the resident in the territory of one participant to a resident in the territory of another participant,
• Payment for current international transactions as defined by the Articles of Agreement of the International Monetary Fund,
• Payment permitted by the country in which the payer resides,
• Payment which are in compliance with FEMA 1999, rules, regulations, orders or directions issued thereunder and the specific provisions of the Memorandum ACM.
• Payment for exports and / or import transactions between ACU member countries on deferred payment terms.

Ineligible transactions

The payments not eligible for settlement though the Asian Clearing Union include the following: -

• Payment between Nepal and India; and between Bhutan and India, except certain exceptions pertaining to imports from India by an importer resident in Nepal and who has been permitted by the Nepal Rashtra Bank to remit payment in foreign exchange,
• Payments which are not on account of current international transactions, as defined by the International Monetary Fund, except to the extent mutually agreed upon between the member countries, and
• Such other payments as may be declared, from time to time, by the Asian Clearing Union to be ineligible for being routed through the facility provided by the Asian Clearing Union.

See also

• Asia Cooperation Dialogue
• Asian Currency Unit
• Asia-Pacific Trade Agreement
  Asia-Pacific Trade Agreement
  The , previouslyknown as the and renamed 2 November 2005, was signed in1975. It is the oldest preferential trade agreement between developing countries in the Asia-Pacific region....
  
  
• Asian Development Bank
  Asian Development Bank
  The Asian Development Bank is a regional development bank established on 22 August 1966 to facilitate economic development of countries in Asia...
  
  
• European Payments Union
  European Payments Union
  The European Payments Union was an organization in existence from July 1950, until December 1958, when it was replaced by the European Monetary Agreement.With the end of World War II, economic depression struck Europe...
  
  
• International Clearing Union
  International Clearing Union
  The International Clearing Union was one of the institutions proposed to be set up at the 1944 United Nations Monetary and Financial Conference at Bretton Woods, New Hampshire by British economist John Maynard Keynes...