The Bank for International Settlements is progressing towards the live implementation of Project Nexus, an initiative aimed at enhancing cross-border payments by linking various domestic instant payment systems worldwide.
The live launch follows a successful prototype phase where Nexus effectively connected test versions of three established instant payment networks: the Eurosystem’s Target Instant Payment Settlement (TIPS), Malaysia’s Real-time Retail Payments Platform (RPP), and Singapore’s Fast and Secure Transfers (FAST) payment system.
Nexus is designed to standardize the connections between domestic Instant Payment Systems (IPS). Instead of requiring IPS operators to construct unique connections for each new country, they will only need to establish a single connection to Nexus. This will enable IPS to access all other countries within the network.
The go-live will involve linking real-time payment systems in India, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand. Partner central banks and IPS operators are also committed to establishing the Nexus Scheme Organisation (NSO), which will be fully owned by participating banks and tasked with managing the Nexus scheme.
Agustín Carstens, general manager of the BIS, remarked, “This is the first BIS Innovation Hub project that central banks are advancing to the live phase in collaboration with instant payment providers. Even with the initial wave of connected countries, Nexus has the potential to link a market of 1.7 billion people globally, facilitating instant payments among them in a simple and cost-effective manner.”