INDIA PLANS CROSS-BORDER RETAIL PAYMENT PLATFORM WITH 4 ASEAN NATIONS

A formal agreement to establish Project Nexus was signed on June 30, 2024, in Basel, Switzerland, by BIS and the central banks of Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines, Singapore, and India, with Indonesia participating as a special observer.

India has officially joined Project Nexus, a multilateral international initiative aimed at enabling instant cross-border retail payments by interlinking the payment systems of various countries. This groundbreaking platform, conceptualized by the Innovation Hub of the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), aims to connect the payment systems of four ASEAN countries—Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand—along with India, making these nations the founding members and initial movers of the project.

A formal agreement to establish Project Nexus was signed by BIS and the central banks of the participating countries, including Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM), Bank of Thailand (BOT), Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), on June 30, 2024, in Basel, Switzerland. Indonesia, which has been actively involved in the project’s early stages, will continue its participation as a special observer. The platform is poised for expansion, with the potential for more countries to join in the future.

The ambitious Nexus platform is expected to become operational by 2026. Once live, it will play a crucial role in making retail cross-border payments more efficient, faster, and cost-effective.