The BIS (Bank for International Settlements) Innovation Hub Singapore Centre and partners have announced the successful connection of the test versions of three established instant payment systems (IPS) using the Nexus model and outlined the next phase of the project to work on the real-world potential of a multilateral network that could be scaled up across more countries.
The year-long collaboration included the Bank of Italy, Central Bank of Malaysia (BNM) and Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), plus the payment systems operators PayNet and Banking Computer Services (BCS). Test payments were initiated using only the mobile phone numbers or the recipients’ company registration numbers via 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.For the next phase of the project on Cooperation in Regional Payment Connectivity – Bank Indonesia (BI), BNM, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), MAS and the Bank of Thailand will leverage experiences from Phase I and Phase II of the project towards connecting their countries’ IPS and facilitate cross-border transactions across a combined population of about 500 million people. The Innovation Hub’s Singapore Centre will collaborate with these central banks to facilitate their design processes, as they aim to connect their domestic payment systems.
