| Characteristics | ACU Objectives | Keynes Framework of ICU |
1 | Mechanism | Facility for payments for current international transactions among the members on a multilateral net basis. | Increase exports and imports among members by conservation of foreign exchange in intra-group transactions until the settlement. |
2 | Currency | Use of participants’ currencies in trade settlements leading to savings in foreign reserves. | Use of Bancor for trade settlements. Bancor was expected to be an instrument of international currency having general acceptability. |
3 | Future scenario | To promote monetary co-operation among the participants and closer relations among the banking systems in their territories―to facilitate expansion of trade and economic activity among the countries of the ESCAP region. | Framework expected to use ICU as ground for regional economic co-operation in general and for monetary and financial co-operation in particular. |
4 | Flexibility | To provide for currency swap arrangement among the participants so as to make Asian Monetary Units available to them temporarily. | A system is expected to possess an internal stabilizing mechanism whereby creditors would temporarily provide credit to debtors subject of corrective action being initiated by the later. |