The year-long tests were overseen by the Bank for International Settlements Innovation Hub in Singapore under the banner Project Nexus.

Test payments were initiated using only the mobile phone numbers or the recipients’ company registration numbers via the Eurosystem’s Target Instant Payment Settlement (TIPS), Malaysia’s Real-time Retail Payments Platform (RPP) and Singapore’s Fast and Secure Transfers (FAST) payment system.

"I am thrilled at our success in connecting three national payment systems and the potential this indicates for Nexus," says Cecilia Skingsley, head of the BIS Innovation Hub. "It paves the way for further development, and we look forward to collaborating with our partner central banks on the next phase of the project."

For the next phase, Bank Indonesia, BNM, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, MAS and the Bank of Thailand will connect their countries’ instant payment systems and facilitate cross-border transactions across a combined population of about 500 million people.

Looking ahead, the BIS and the five central banks envisage that Nexus could eventually be implemented globally. To achieve this, they plan to establish a Global Advisory Panel of central banks and payment system operators to advise on the project’s development beyond the Southeast Asian region. The Bank of Italy and the European Central Bank will be invited to join this panel.