Settlement risk is entirely eliminated since settlements are completed through participant accounts at the Central Bank or in 'central-bank money.' To address counterparty and liquidity risks, CBO has implemented intra-day liquidity support, queue management, and gridlock resolution mechanisms. For deferred net settlement systems such as ACH and ECC, participant-specific net debit caps are enforced.
Operational Risk is mitigated at multiple levels. Systems are designed to avoid “single points of failure," incorporating cluster technology for processing servers, disk mirroring for data storage, load balancing, and redundancy at gateway and LAN levels. Risk management is further enhanced by regular data backups following standard procedures and maintaining a hot standby Disaster Recovery Site, which undergoes regular testing.
The Central Bank of Oman adheres to the Principles for Financial Market Infrastructure (PFMI) as minimum benchmarks for risk management. Payment systems are periodically evaluated by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) under the Financial Sector Assessment Programme or by GCC-sponsored IMF assessments.