RBI, ASEAN to Create Platform for Fast Cross-Border Retail Payments.

• The Reserve Bank of India (RBI), along with the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) and central banks of four ASEAN countries, is collaborating on Project Nexus, a multilateral initiative aimed at enabling efficient, faster, and cost-effective retail cross-border payments. The platform is expected to go live by 2026 and will interlink domestic fast payment systems (FPS) of Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and India.
• An agreement to this effect was signed by the BIS and the central banks of the founding countries—Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM), Bank of Thailand (BOT), Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), and the Reserve Bank of India—on June 30, 2024, in Basel, Switzerland. Indonesia will be involved as a special observer.
• India has been promoting its homegrown FPS, the Unified Payments Interface (UPI), for cross-border person-to-person (P2P) and person-to-merchant (P2M) payments. Countries such as Mauritius, Singapore, Nepal, and Sri Lanka accept UPI payments. The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) has been focusing on international payments, breaking into markets like France, Sri Lanka, Singapore, and Mauritius.

Published date : 02 Jul 2024 03:17PM