Central Banks Foresee Global Instant Payments Via Mobile Phones

Central banks in Italy, Malaysia, and Singapore have praised the success of tests of instant payments across borders using mobile phones.

Under the name Project Nexus, the Bank for International Settlements Innovation Hub in Singapore oversaw the tests for a whole year.

With 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 systems, test payments were made using only the mobile phone numbers or the company registration numbers of the recipients.

“I am thrilled at our success in connecting three national payment systems and the potential this indicates for Nexus,” says Cecilia Skingsley, head of the BIS Innovation Hub. “It paves the way for further development, and we look forward to collaborating with our partner central banks on the next phase of the project.”

In the next step, Bank Indonesia, BNM, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, MAS, and the Bank of Thailand will connect the instant payment systems of their countries. This will make it easier for about 500 million people to do business across borders.

In the future, the BIS and the five central banks think that Nexus could be used all over the world. To do this, they plan to set up a Global Advisory Panel made up of central banks and payment system operators who will give advice on how the project should grow outside of Southeast Asia. The European Central Bank and the Bank of Italy will be asked to be on this panel.