This report covers the WesternHemisphere payments and securities settlement forum centerfor Latin American monetary studies and focuses on severalissues. The first section covers economic and financialmarkets overview of Belarus. This section covers thefinancial sector, capital markets, and major trends in thepayments systems. The second section covers institutionalaspects such as the general legal framework, role offinancial institutions, market structure and regulation, andthe role of the securities regulatory. The third sectioncovers the payment media used by non financial entities. Thefourth section describes payments, such as inter-bankexchanges and settlement circuits. The fifth section toucheson securities, market structure and trading. While the sixthand seventh section cover the topic of settlement circuitsfor government and corporate securities. The reportconcludes with discussion on the role of the central bank inclearance and settlement systems and well as the supervisionof such systems.