Project Nexus

The BIS Innovation Hub published the first Nexus blueprint in July 2021 and built a working prototype in 2022. The prototype connected test copies of three existing systems: TIPS, which Banca d'Italia operates for the Eurosystem, the Real-time Retail Payments Platform of PayNet in Malaysia and the FAST system in Singapore. No real money moved, but the test also linked the proxy services TIPS Mobile Proxy Lookup, DuitNow and PayNow, so that a payment could reach a mobile number in another country, as the BIS report of March 2023 describes.

In the third phase, the central banks and payment system operators of Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand worked out the rules and the business model for live operation. The BIS completed this blueprint in July 2024 with a scheme rulebook and technical guides that include message specifications in the ISO 20022 standard. The Reserve Bank of India joined for the next phase, and Agustín Carstens, then General Manager of the BIS, said that Nexus could connect a market of 1.7 billion people with the first group of countries alone.

Each instant payment system connects to the network through a Nexus Gateway, and a country that joins later becomes reachable for all existing members at once. The BIS calculated that 60 national systems would need 60 integration projects with Nexus, compared with 1,770 bilateral links if every pair of systems connected directly. Most links between instant payment systems are still bilateral, such as the connection of PayNow in Singapore with PromptPay in Thailand in 2021 or the link between Singapore and India in 2023.

Before a payment leaves, FX providers on the network quote exchange rates, and the bank of the sender shows the fees and the exact amount that the recipient will receive. The sender can also check the name of the account holder before confirming the transfer. The instant payment system of the sending country settles the first leg in local currency, and the system of the receiving country pays out the converted amount, normally within 60 seconds, as the BIS report of July 2024 explains. FX providers that are not members of both national systems hold accounts with settlement account providers, so correspondent banking stays in the background for currency liquidity, while the banks of sender and recipient need no account abroad.

The five first-mover central banks, the Reserve Bank of India, Bank Negara Malaysia, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, the Monetary Authority of Singapore and the Bank of Thailand, incorporated Nexus Global Payments in April 2025. NGP is a company limited by guarantee in Singapore and works as a not-for-profit organization. The BIS handed the project over and is not an owner, but it supports the transfer of knowledge until the first live transaction. The European Central Bank and Bank Indonesia, which both took part in earlier phases, stayed on as special observers.

In August 2025 NGP named Andrew McCormack its first Chief Executive Officer, who had been Chief Operating Officer of Etihad Payments in the UAE. In February 2026 José Beltrán, a former program director of the STEP2 system of EBA Clearing, became the first independent board chair. In the same announcement Bank Indonesia moved from observer to full participation as the sixth jurisdiction, and the Latin American Reserve Fund signed a memorandum of understanding on future connectivity. A joint venture of PayNet in Malaysia and NETS in Singapore became the Nexus Technical Operator, which builds and runs the Nexus infrastructure.

The Governing Council of the European Central Bank decided in October 2024 to explore joining Nexus as one of its routes for linking TIPS with fast payment systems outside the euro area. The ECB wrote that by connecting to Nexus, TIPS could become a hub for instant cross-border payments to and from the euro area, and that the Eurosystem would join if the exploration succeeds. The ECB gives the risk of a fragmented global payments system as its reason and refers to the G20 roadmap for cross-border payments.

In November 2025 the Governing Council moved the bilateral link with India to the realization phase, while for Nexus it chose to continue the feasibility work and to complete the legal arrangements in parallel. The TARGET Services Annual Report 2025 lists the open questions for such links: differences in payment standards, governance and oversight, anti-money laundering rules, national regulation and settlement finality. Nexus is one of three routes in this work, next to the TIPS cross-currency service and a bilateral link with the Unified Payments Interface of India, and the Eurosystem pursues all three as parts of its plan for cross-border instant payments from the euro area.

A transfer from a euro account to a bank account in Malaysia, the Philippines or Thailand usually runs through a chain of correspondent banks over Swift, and each bank in the chain can deduct its own fee. Within the euro area, the Instant Payments Regulation already requires euro transfers that arrive within ten seconds at any hour. With a TIPS gateway to Nexus, a bank that settles instant payments in TIPS could reach every country on the network through one connection, without a separate agreement for each corridor.

The BIS designed Nexus for individuals and for micro, small and medium-sized businesses, so remittances and smaller trade payments are the first use cases. A payment in euros would add a currency conversion by an FX provider and a sanctions check at the receiving bank, and the BIS names sanctions screening as one of the hardest frictions in instant cross-border payments. The ECB has not announced a date for a TIPS connection, so euro payments to the Nexus countries keep their current routes for now.

Project Nexus is a multilateral scheme from the BIS Innovation Hub that links domestic instant payment systems, so that each country connects once and reaches all other members. Nexus Global Payments, founded by the participating central banks, has run the scheme since the BIS handed the project over in 2025.

India, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand founded Nexus Global Payments, and Indonesia joined in February 2026 as the sixth jurisdiction. The European Central Bank follows the work as a special observer, and the Latin American Reserve Fund signed a memorandum of understanding for exploratory work on future connections.

The Reserve Bank of India joined the project for the phase after the blueprint of July 2024 and brought in the Unified Payments Interface, which the BIS describes as the largest instant payment system in the world. The RBI is one of the five central banks that founded Nexus Global Payments, while the ECB has started the realization phase for a separate bilateral link between TIPS and UPI.

The Eurosystem would connect TIPS to Nexus if its feasibility work succeeds, which is the condition the ECB set in October 2024. Until that decision, the ECB keeps its role as a special observer of Nexus Global Payments and has not given a date for a connection.

Nexus Global Payments targets go-live in 2027, after the joint venture of PayNet and NETS started the technical build in early 2026. The BIS stays involved until the first live transaction and supports the transfer of knowledge to the new operator and its members.