NEWS – The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and ASEAN countries have decided to create a platform to facilitate instant cross-border retail payments. Nexus, conceptualised by the Innovation Hub of the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), aims to connect FPSs of four ASEAN countries (Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand); and India, who would be the founding members and first mover countries of this platform

HIGHLIGHTS

Concept:

• Standardises the way Instant Payment Systems (IPS) connect globally.
• Initiated by the Innovation Hub of the Bank for International Settlements (BIS).

Objective:

• Enhance cross-border payments.
• Connect multiple domestic instant payment systems (IPS) globally.
• Enable instant cross-border retail payments.

Collaboration:

• Reserve Bank of India (RBI) joined the multilateral initiative.
• Linking India’s Unified Payments Interface (UPI) with FPSs of Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand.

Benefits:

• Promotes international reach of Indian payment systems.
• Facilitates Person to Person (P2P) and Person to Merchant (P2M) cross-border payments.
• Multilateral approach offers a broader connectivity beyond bilateral agreements
• Single connection reaches all other countries on the network.
• Cross-border payments completed within 60 seconds. Near-zero cost for senders and recipients.

Participating Countries

• Founding Members:
  • India
  • Malaysia
  • Philippines
  • Singapore
  • Thailand
• Future Expansion:
  • Indonesia to join the platform.