Project Nexus

In over 70 countries today domestic payments reach their destination in seconds at near-zero cost to the sender or recipient. This is thanks to the growing availability of instant payment systems (IPS). Connecting these IPS to each other can enable cross-border payments from sender to recipient within 60 seconds (in most cases).

Project Nexus aims to improve the speed, cost, transparency of, and access to, cross-border payments by connecting multiple domestic instant payment systems (IPS) globally in a standardised way. Rather than a payment system operator building custom connections for every new country that it connects to, the operator can make one connection to a single platform. This single connection allows a fast payments system to reach all other countries on the network. This would significantly accelerate the growth of instant cross-border payments.

The BIS Innovation Hub Singapore Centre commenced the project in 2022 with central bank partners. Through successful phases, the project delivered a proof-of-concept, prototype, and, in July 2024, a comprehensive scheme and governance framework, commercial model and technology blueprint.

In 2025, the central banks of India, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand incorporated a new legal entity, Nexus Global Payments (NGP), to bring Nexus to live implementation. The BIS has handed over the project to Nexus Global Payments.