The five central bank partners in Project Nexus, a Bank for International Settlements initiative to interlink domestic real-time payment rails across borders, have commenced a procurement exercise to appoint a technical network operator.
Nexus is designed to provide a centralised single connection to instant payment networks across the world, using ISO 20022 message specifications and a suite of prupose-built APIs.
Following a successful proof-of-concept between the Eurosystem, Malaysia and Singapore in 2022, the BIS in Singapore has since worked with the central banks and IPS operators of Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand to evaluate the model.
With live implementation on the horizon, the BIS is scaling down its role in overseeing the project, making way for Nexus Global Payments, a company limited by guarantee in Singapore with a mandate to operationalise and manage the Nexus scheme for enabling safe and instant cross-border payments at scale.
As part of the handover, the central bankers bank will facilitate knowledge transfer and provide support until the first live Nexus transaction.
NGP has been established by Reserve Bank of India, Bank Negara Malaysia, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), and Bank of Thailand. The European Central Bank and Bank Indonesia, which took part in previous phases of Nexus, will continue to serve as special observers throughout this operationalisation phase.
The 'first mover' jurisdictions will contribute the initial capital required to build and establish the Nexus platform and bring it to live operation. They aim to expand membership and participation to other interested jurisdictions over time as part of the shared vision of making Nexus a scalable multilateral model for connecting IPS globally.
NGP has appointed MAS executive Benjamin Lee as the interim director until a permanent director has been appointed through a selection process.
It has also announced the commencement of an open procurement exercise to select and appoint a suitable Nexus Technical Operator (NTO). This external service provider will be responsible for the technical development and subsequent day-to-day operation and security of Nexus.
Details of the NTO procurement exercise can be found here.