RBI has announced its participation in Project Nexus - platform aimed to facilitate instantaneous cross-border retail payments

An international project called Project Nexus, which aims to provide a platform for rapid cross-border retail payments, has seen the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) declare its involvement. Created by the Innovation Hub of the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), the initiative aims to connect four ASEAN nations—Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand—with India's Fast Payments System (FPS), also known as the Unified Payments Interface (UPI). 

Through this partnership, Indian payment systems—more especially the Unified Payments Interface (UPI)—will be able to operate more effectively and globally.

Among the initial participants and pioneers of Project Nexus are India, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand. In Basel, Switzerland, on June 30, 2024, a formal agreement formalising this relationship was signed. 

BIS and the central banks of the participating nations—Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM), Bank of Thailand (BOT), Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), and Reserve Bank of India—signed the agreement. Remaining a special observer, Indonesia has participated in the project since its inception.

The Nexus platform offers a number of benefits over the present bilateral agreements, including the potential to increase the effectiveness, speed, and affordability of retail cross-border payments. 

By 2026, the platform ought to be up and running. When it goes online, Nexus will be extremely important in improving and simplifying cross-border retail payments.