  The increasingly complex economic and financial environment in which we live
makes the management of liquidity in payment systems and the economy in general
a persistent challenge. New technologies are making it possible to address this
challenge through alternative solutions that complement and strengthen existing
payment systems. For example, the interbank balancing method can also be
applied to private payment systems, complementary currencies, and trade credit
clearing systems to provide better liquidity and risk management. In this paper
we introduce the concept of a balanced payment system and demonstrate the
effects of balancing on a small example. We show how to construct a balanced
payment subsystem that can be settled in full and, therefore, that can be
removed from the payment system to achieve liquidity-saving and payments
gridlock resolution. We also briefly introduce a generalization of a payment
system and of the method to balance it in the form of a specific application
(Tetris Core Technologies), whose wider adoption could contribute to the
financial stability of and better management of liquidity and risk for the
whole economy.
