The GRKTS GU of the Bank of Russia is the head settlement and cash center of the Main Directorate of the Bank of Russia. It is the head, and not the state as many think. The Bank of Russia on the territory of our country contains many settlement and cash centers, which are subordinate to the head settlement and cash center, which is available in each constituent entity of the Russian Federation.
Russia is a country with the largest territory in the world, with many settlements, in each of which the Bank of Russia seeks to have its own branch. In each region of our country, the Central Bank has its own branch, which is called the Territorial Office of the Bank of Russia (TU). There are 79 such Territorial Institutions in total, one in each constituent entity of the Russian Federation. Exceptions are 4 subjects: the Nenets Autonomous Okrug, the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug, the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug and the Moscow Region.
If a territorial office of the Bank of Russia is located on the territory of a republic, then it is called the National Bank of this republic. For example, the National Bank of the Kabardino-Balkarian Republic. If a territorial office is located in any other constituent entity of Russia, it bears the name of the Head Office of the Central Bank (Bank of Russia).
The structure of the National Banks and Head Offices includes cash settlement centers, one of which is the head office (GRKTS). In total, there are 121 cash settlement centers on the territory of our country, of which 79 are head ones.
The capital of our homeland - the city of Moscow - has become an exception in this sense. There are no cash settlement centers in Moscow. Their functions are performed by 4 Branches, OPERU MSTU of the Bank of Russia and OPERU-1 of the Bank of Russia. The abbreviation OPERU stands for "operational management".
Head settlement and cash centers and simple RCCs have their own BIC (bank identification code), consisting of 9 digits and formed in accordance with Regulation No. 225-P of the Bank of Russia:
- the first 2 digits carry the code of the Russian Federation - 04;
- the third and fourth digits mean the code of the territory of Russia according to the OKATO (All-Russian Classifier of Objects of Administrative Territorial Division) and these numbers for all cash centers coincide within the same Territorial Office;
- the fifth and sixth digits indicate the conditional number of the subdivision in the Regional Office of the Bank of Russia; these numbers are unique for each cash settlement center and cannot coincide within the technical specification;
- the seventh, eighth and ninth digits for the GRKTS are 001.
Thus, it is easy and simple to recognize the Head Settlement and Cash Center by Bank Identification Code (BIC). The last digits of the BIK GRKTS are always 001.
At present, the Bank of Russia is actively introducing electronic settlement technologies, credit institutions are transferred to single correspondent accounts, and many cash settlement centers are no longer needed. Their number is steadily decreasing. So, in the 90s there were more than 1,300 of them, by 2013 their number had decreased to 485. As of February 22, 2018, there were only 121 of them.
Since February 2, 2015, the head cash settlement centers have officially changed their name and the abbreviations GRKTS are no longer used. Instead, the same organizations began to be called the Main Directorates or departments for a certain subject of the Russian Federation or city.
