Central banks are reviewing wholesale payments security

The Committee on Payments and Market Infrastructures (CPMI), the global standard setter for payment, clearing and settlement services, has established a task force to look into the security of wholesale payments that involve banks, financial market infrastructures and other financial institutions.

"Recent incidents of cyber fraud are of significant concern for the central banking community, and we are working to make sure there are adequate checks and balances in place at each stage of the payments process," CPMI Chairman Benoît Cœuré said.

"The first phase of this work is seeking to review current practices in this area and, based on this input, the CPMI will decide how to proceed. It is premature to speculate what will result from this work."

This effort builds on previous work by the CPMI on cyber security and operational risk, and, more generally, existing procedures to continuously test and strengthen infrastructure. Previous publications include the CPMI-IOSCO Guidance on cyber resilience for financial market infrastructures, which was published in June, and the CPMI-IOSCO Principles for financial market infrastructures.