RBI (Reserve Bank of India) is the latest bank to join the global Project Nexus initiative, designed to enable instant cross-border instant payments.
According to the Bank of International Settlements, who oversees Project Nexus, the goal of the initiative is to standardise the way that IPS connect to each other. Instead of payment systems operators having to build custom connections for every jurisdiction it connects to, they can instead make a single connection through the Nexus platform. This has the potential to significantly accelerate the growth of instant cross-border payments.
After a year-long tests, Project Nexus was rolled-out to Bank Indonesia, BNM, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, MAS and the Bank of Thailand in March of 2023.
This week, RBI announced that they have been collaborating with other countries in order to link India’s Fast Payments System (FPS) and its Unified Payments Interface (UPI) with their respective FPSs for cross-border Person to Person and Person to Merchant payments.
The initial phase of Project Nexus connected central banks in Malaysia, Singapore, and Italy in 2023.
As more countries join Project Nexus, the platform is expected to be fully functional and go live by 2026.