On 28 July 2021, the Bank for International Settlements Innovation Hub Singapore Centre and the Monetary Authority of Singapore published a proposed blueprint for enhancing global payments network connectivity via multilateral linkages of countries’ national retail payment systems. Titled ‘Project Nexus’, the blueprint outlines how countries can fully integrate their retail payment systems onto a single cross-border network, allowing customers to make cross-border transfers instantly and securely via their mobile phones or internet devices.

The Project Nexus blueprint has two key elements:

• Nexus Gateways which will serve to coordinate compliance, foreign exchange conversion, message translation and the sequencing of payments among all participants. The gateways will be predicated on a common set of technical standards, functionalities and operational guidelines set out within the proposal.
• A Nexus Scheme that sets out the governance framework and rulebook for participating retail payment systems, banks and payment service providers to coordinate and effect cross-border payments through the network.