CPMI calls for comments on payment system operating hours to enhance cross-border payments

• CPMI invites comments on a consultative report into extending and aligning payment system operating hours for cross-border payments.
• The report outlines three potential improvements: an incremental increase in opening hours on current operating days; an extension to current non-operating days; and an increase to full 24/7 provision.
• The CPMI seeks input from payment system operators, participants and other interested parties on the benefits and challenges presented by these three scenarios.

The Committee on Payments and Market Infrastructures (CPMI) today invites comments on a new report into extending and aligning payment system operating hours for cross-border payments.

The consultative report Extending and aligning payment system operating hours for cross-border payments – issued as part of the G20 cross-border payments programme – focuses on the operating hours of real-time gross settlement (RTGS) systems, which are considered key to enhancing cross-border payments. An extension of RTGS operating hours across jurisdictions could help address current obstacles, thereby increasing the speed of cross-border payments and reducing liquidity costs and settlement risks. 

Based on a survey of central banks from 82 jurisdictions, 62 RTGS systems around the world were analysed and three potential "end states" for extending the operating hours of key payment systems were posited:

• End state 1 is an increase in operating hours on current operating days. If undertaken by multiple jurisdictions, this would help to close daily gaps in RTGS operating hours, primarily on standard working days given that most jurisdictions' RTGS systems are closed on weekends and public holidays.
• End state 2 involves an extension of operations to additional days on which many RTGS systems don't currently operate. If undertaken by multiple jurisdictions, this would help to close the gaps created by holidays and weekends.
• End state 3 is the extension of operating hours to 24/7. Very few RTGS systems currently provide near 24/7 service. Doing so would likely require substantial operational changes but, if broadly adopted, this would largely remove frictions for cross-border payments arising from gaps in opening times.

The report also introduces the concept of a "global settlement window" – the period when the largest number of RTGS systems simultaneously operate. It also discusses operational, risk and policy considerations related to those end states.

The CPMI invites comments on this consultative document generally and the questions set out in the document specifically.

Responses should be sent via e-mail to the CPMI Secretariat (cpmi@bis.org) with "Operating hours consultation" in the subject line by 14 January 2022.

All responses will be published on the website of the CPMI. Commercial or other sensitive information should not be included in the submissions, or may be included, with redactions for publication clearly noted.