FIS has launched a central infrastructure payment solution, RealNet Central, to help central banks transform their markets to digital-first, real-time payment economies. Currently, 72% of the world’s population has, or will soon have, access to instant payments, according to the 2022 Worldpay from FIS Global Payments Report.

Many markets are also replacing or renovating their established real-time services, especially those that repurposed their corporate real-time gross settlement (RTGS) services to cater for instant payments, such as Brazil, the UK, Japan, South Africa and Mexico. Similarly, India and the US are introducing additional competing services that will sit alongside the established schemes. RealNet Central aims to connect a country’s businesses, consumers, financial institutions and government entities to real-time networks, both domestically and internationally.

FIS will also help central banks launch CBDCs. Through FIS’ CBDC Virtual Lab – created in collaboration with M10 Networks (M10) and its high-performance digital money platform – FIS will support countries’ efforts to integrate CBDCs into their economy. The CBDC Virtual Lab allows central banks, commercial banks and other financial participants to experiment with – and pilot – core concepts of issuance, transfer, redemption, offline payments, programmable payments, retail, wholesale and cross-border payments.

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