Singapore promotes instant payment system connectivity in Southeast Asia
The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) said on March 23 that the Nexus Project prototype of the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) has successfully connected with the payment systems of Europe, Malaysia and Singapore.
The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) building.(Photo: AFP/VNA)
Singapore (VNA) ☂– TheMonetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) said on March 23 that the Nexus Project prototype of the Bank for InternationalSettlements (BIS) has successfully connected with the payment systems ofEurope, Malaysia and Singapore.
To enhance cross-borderpayments, the BIS Innovation Hub Singapore Centre developed the Nexus conceptof a first-of-its-kind multilateral network connecting multiple domesticinstant payment systems (IPS). Nexus prototype successfully connected the test IPS of theEurosystem, Malaysia and Singapore, allowing payments to be sent across thethree using only mobile phone numbers. In the next phase, BIS and the central banks of Indonesia,Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand will jointly work towardsconnecting their domestic IPS through Nexus. For the next phase of the project – in linewith their November 2022 Memorandum of Understanding on Cooperation in RegionalPayment Connectivity – Bank Indonesia, BNM, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, MASand the Bank of Thailand will leverage experiences from Phase I and Phase II ofthe project towards connecting their countries' IPS and facilitate cross-bordertransactions across a combined population of about 500 million people. MAS chief fintech officerSopnendu Mohanty said the success of Nexus prototype is a breakthrough thatdemonstrates the technical capabilities of multilateral instant paymentsystems. According to him, the nextphase of experiments by the five ASEAN central banks will be crucial in layingthe foundations for future implementation at big scale. PrototypeNexus is designed to address differences between national payment systems. Underthe Nexus blueprint, participating countries will only need to adopt the Nexusprotocols once to gain access to the broader cross-border payments network./.
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The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) building.(Photo: AFP/VNA) 
