In a landmark move to revolutionize cross-border retail payments, the Reserve Bank of India has joined forces with four ASEAN countries to create a platform aimed at facilitating instantaneous transactions. This initiative, known as Project Nexus, is set to connect the Fast Payment Systems (FPS) of Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and India, enabling seamless Person to Person (P2P) and Person to Merchant (P2M) payments across borders.
The RBI has been actively working to link India’s UPI with the FPS of various countries through bilateral collaborations. “While India and its partner countries can continue to benefit through such bilateral connectivity of Fast Payment Systems, a multilateral approach will provide further impetus to our efforts in expanding the international reach of Indian payment systems,” RBI stated in a release.
Project Nexus, conceptualized by the Innovation Hub of the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), represents a major step towards this goal. On June 30, 2024, in Basel, Switzerland, an agreement to establish this multilateral platform was signed by BIS and the central banks of the founding countries: Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM), Bank of Thailand (BOT), Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), and the Reserve Bank of India. Indonesia, involved since the early stages of the project, continues to participate as a special observer.
The Nexus platform is designed to be expandable, with the potential to include additional countries in the future. Set to go live by 2026, Nexus promises to significantly enhance the efficiency, speed, and cost-effectiveness of retail cross-border payments.
