Bank for International Settlements Innovation Hub publishes Project Nexus technical documentation as partner central banks establish a Nexus Scheme Organisation in Singapore

The Bank for International Settlements Innovation Hub has outlined progress on Project Nexus, a platform intended to standardise connectivity between domestic instant payment systems (IPS) so cross-border payments can be executed in around 60 seconds in most cases. The update positions Nexus as an alternative to bespoke, country-by-country integrations by enabling a single connection from an IPS operator to the Nexus platform. Development work has included a 2022 proof of concept linking the Eurosystem with Malaysia and Singapore, followed by evaluation with the central banks and IPS operators of Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand, alongside broader consultation with standard-setting bodies, IPS operators and commercial banks to validate scalability and interoperability beyond the initial participants. The central banks of India, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand are working towards live implementation and have agreed to establish the Nexus Scheme Organisation (NSO) in Singapore to manage the scheme during live implementation stages, while the BIS acts as technical adviser and has published implementation guides and ISO 20022 message and API specifications. The materials also reference the European Central Bank’s intention for the Eurosystem to join Nexus as a special observer as part of exploratory work on linking TARGET Instant Payment Settlement with other fast payment systems, with the Eurosystem and Bank Indonesia participating as special observers following earlier contributions.