Project Nexus: enabling instant cross-border payments

Updated 5 November 2024

In over 70 countries today domestic payments reach their destination in seconds at near-zero cost to the sender or recipient. This is thanks to the growing availability of instant payment systems (IPS).  Connecting these IPS to each other can enable cross-border payments from Sender to Recipient within 60 seconds (in most cases).

Nexus is designed to standardise the way that IPS connect to each other. Rather than a payment system operator building custom connections for every new country that it connects to, the operator can make one connection to the Nexus platform. This single connection allows a fast payments system to reach all other countries on the network. Nexus could significantly accelerate the growth of instant cross-border payments.

Following a successful proof-of-concept between the Eurosystem, Malaysia and Singapore in 2022, the BISIH Singapore Centre have worked with the central banks and IPS operators of Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand to evaluate the model against the reality of their IPS. The project team also consulted with central banks, standard-setting bodies, IPS operators and commercial banks from around the world to validate that Nexus is scalable and interoperable with IPS beyond those five countries. 

The five central bank partners in Project Nexus have agreed to establish a managing entity, the Nexus Scheme Organisation (NSO), which will manage the project in its live implementation stages, in Singapore.

In July 2024, they stated their intention to work towards live implementation. Establishment of the NSO marks a key milestone towards this goal.  

In line with its mandate to explore the development of public goods for the central banking community, the BIS will not own or manage any of the NSO's activities, but it will play a technical advisory role. In this capacity, the BIS has published detailed technical documentation covering the implementation guides for each type of participant in the Project Nexus scheme, along with ISO 20022 message and API specifications. These key elements are necessary to meet international standards and facilitate scalability for future participants. 

The BIS and partners also welcomed the European Central Bank's announcement of its intention for the Eurosystem to join Nexus as a special observer as part of exploratory work on linking its TARGET Instant Payment Settlement with other fast payment systems. The Eurosystem and Bank Indonesia are special observers to the project after having contributed to earlier phases of the work.