Asian Clearing Union (ACU)

The Asian Clearing Union (ACU) was established in December 1974 when the countries in the region were facing settlement difficulties, mainly due to resource constraints.Asian Clearing Union (ACU) is the simplest form of payment arrangements whereby the members settle payments for intra-regional transactions among the participating central banks on a multilateral basis.

The ACU is a clearing union among other clearing houses/payments arrangements operating in various regions of the world. The objectives of the ACU are:


(1) To provide a facility to settle payments, on a multilateral basis, for current international transactions among the territories of participants;

(2) To promote the use of participants' currencies in current transactions between their respective territories and thereby effect economies in the use of the participants' exchange reserves;

(3) To promote monetary cooperation among the participants and closer relations among the banking systems in their territories and thereby contribute to the expansion of trade and economic activity among the countries of the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and Pacific (ESCAP) region; and

(4) To provide for currency SWAP arrangement among the participants so as to make Asian Monetary Units (AMUs) available to them temporarily.