This allows the buyer to place an order on open account terms without opening letters of credit.

"Most customers come to us to open letters of credit and foreign exchange in order to import electronic goods from Japan," he said.

"They have to be able to contact customers, who have to be able to open letters of credit."

The Soviet Union has already agreed to settle its bill with Hungary involving the last three and a half years and has opened letters of credit worth $70 million to Soviet importers.

A Geneva-based banker who extends credits to oil traders said he and other bankers had been contacted in recent days by wealthy Serbs, whom he declined to identify, who are opening letters of credit to finance purchases of petroleum.

The CBJ acts as a banker and fiscal agent to the government and public institutions, as it maintains their revenue and expenditure accounts, makes transfers, opens letters of credit, manages and implements loan and trade agreements, and extends credit to the treasury.