World-Wide On-Line Central Banking in the Late 70's … Can a Babylonian Confusion of Tongues Be Forestalled?

The difficult problem of interface is typically not one of inward interface but one of outward interface. The data processing system for a given industrial corporation may be beautifully designed, but there may arise large problems of extending it to incorporate the activities of a newly acquired subsidiary already having a data solution of its own. A national on-line real-time hotel booking system may work well, but it just may not easily merge with a similar system in another country to form an international network.

The present note describes the grave interface problems that seem to loom ahead in the field of on-line real-time central banking. The suggestion is put forward that the International Monetary Fund has a unique responsibility in preparing for interface between international payment networks of tomorrow.