The addition of Godeffroy and Holmes further extends and diversifies the experience of the RTGS.global board, helping the organisation to realise its ambition to form the world’s first liquidity network.

Jean-Michel Godeffroy is an international payments expert, with almost 40 years’ experience in the financial industry. He was previously Director General at the European Central Bank (ECB), Head of the Payment Systems and Market Infrastructure department for over a decade. Godeffroy’s career spans multiple executive roles, having also previously served as Chairman of the TARGET2-Securities (T2S) Board and Deputy Head of the Policy Division of the European Monetary Institute (EMI). Other institutions for which Jean-Michel has worked include the Commission Bancaire, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and the Banque de France. Notably, he has also served as Economic lecturer at Sciences Po.

Lord Chris Holmes of Richmond is a life peer in the House of Lords and a former British Gold medal winning swimmer. Following his retirement from swimming, Lord Holmes practiced as a corporate lawyer at a leading city firm. He was also a Director for the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. Since joining the House of Lords, Holmes has focussed on the potential public and private benefits of Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) technologies. He was a founder member and is vice chair of the Parliamentary group on Fintech and is a member of the groups on AI, Banking and 4IR. He has co-authored six Select Committee reports including, Democracy and Digital Technologies, AI and Financial Exclusion. He also wrote a groundbreaking report in 2017 “Distributed Ledger Technology for public Good: leadership, collaboration and innovation.”

RTGS.global was founded by fintech entrepreneur and founder of Worldpay and ClearBank, Nick Ogden. The company’s mission is to solve financial friction which is currently estimated to cost the global economy close to $15 trillion dollars per year1. RTGS.global does this by bringing together banks and their liquidity to form the world’s first liquidity network. The network makes liquidity visible, enabling bi-lateral liquidity transfers that settle instantly. For the first time, Liquidity vs Liquidity (LvL) transfers are possible.

Earlier this month, Jerome Powell, US Federal Reserve Chair, spoke at a payments conference on the growing need for simplification and modernisation when it comes to cross-border payments. He noted that the existing system “suffers from frictions” and “a reliance on outdated technology” that make cross-border transactions both more expensive and complex than they have to be.

Nick Ogden, CEO and founder, RTGS.global, says: “Jean-Michel has vast experience in the banking and payments industry and knows only too well the burden and cost that financial friction creates for businesses and people worldwide. Lord Holmes’ passion and ability to get things done alongside Government will help us facilitate open conversations around the development of financial technology and regulations. We are delighted to have them on board to support RTGS.global as we make liquidity visible, to mitigate risk and eliminate friction, once and for all.”

Jean-Michel Godeffroy says: “According to the Financial Stability Board, the efficiency of cross-border payments has become a major issue for the world economy and I am convinced that RTGS.global will offer an invaluable solution to settle international payments. I have always liked to participate in the setting up of major innovative payments arrangements, which is why I am so happy to join the RTGS.global advisory board.”

Lord Chris Holmes says: “I’m delighted to be joining the RTGS.global advisory board. This is a passion project with the potential to transform.”

“Transformed international payments equates to transformed lives, communities and countries. It’s friction out and liquidity optimised, all in real time. This could play such a positive part in our post Covid build back.”