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The significance of cross-border payments has never been greater. The global economy is increasingly interconnected, and remittances play a crucial role in the financial well-being of millions worldwide.
Yet, despite the rise of instant domestic payments, cross-border transactions remain slow, costly, and inefficient.
Currently, sending money internationally often involves multiple intermediaries, high fees, and processing times that can take days. Domestic instant payment systems (IPS), such as Malaysia’s DuitNow and Singapore’s PayNow, have revolutionised payments within their respective countries.
However, these systems are not inherently connected across borders, making international transactions much more cumbersome.
Project Nexus seeks to change all of this by enabling real-time, cost-efficient cross-border payments. Instead of countries negotiating individual payment linkages—an effort that could take decades—Nexus offers a standardised solution.
It aims to make seamless international payments as easy as domestic transfers.
The Role of the NSO in Cross-Border Payments
To bring this vision to life, the Nexus Scheme Organisation (NSO) is being established to govern and manage Project Nexus. Based in Singapore, the NSO will be owned by the central banks and IPS operators of participating countries.
Initially, these include countries like India, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand, with Bank Indonesia participating as a special observer.
Rather than requiring payment system operators to build custom links for each new country, Nexus provides a multilateral approach. With a single connection to the Nexus platform, an IPS gains access to all other participating countries.
This move drastically reduces integration costs and accelerates the expansion of instant cross-border payments.
An important note is that while the BIS Innovation Hub played a key role in developing Nexus, it will not own or operate the Nexus Scheme Organisation.
However, BIS will continue providing technical advisory support, facilitating collaboration among members and potential new participants.
The governance structure ensures that Nexus remains a public good, driven by central banks and financial regulators rather than private entities.
NSO’s Search for a Visionary CEO Begins
To ensure the successful launch and management of the Nexus Scheme Organisation, Project Nexus is actively seeking a CEO to lead the organisation. This leadership role is crucial for setting the strategic framework and operational direction of Nexus as it moves toward live implementation.
According to Benjamin Ming-An Lee, Projects Manager & Senior Advisor at the BIS Innovation Hub’s Singapore Centre, in his LinkedIn post, finding the right leader is essential for establishing a strong foundation for the NSO.
The CEO must be capable of overseeing Nexus’s early operational stages while driving adoption and expanding its reach globally.
The CEO will be responsible for ensuring that Nexus delivers on its promise of reducing costs, increasing transparency, and improving accessibility in cross-border payments.
By standardising how IPS connect, Nexus eliminates the need for individual agreements between countries. Instead, a single connection enables interoperability across all participating nations.
What’s Next for Project Nexus and the Nexus Scheme Organisation (NSO)?
With the Nexus blueprint finalised, the next few years will be critical in transitioning from a conceptual framework to an operationally viable system. As the CEO selection progresses, the NSO will also focus on refining its governance structure, onboarding new participants, and preparing for technical integration.
To support the live implementation of Nexus, the BIS has released detailed technical documentation.
These documentations include implementation guides for various types of participants, ISO 20022 message specifications, and API standards. It is to ensure that Nexus meets international interoperability standards and can scale effectively with future participants.
In a previous simulation, Kah Kit Yip, Adviser at the BIS in Singapore said that linking just 20 fast-payment systems using traditional bilateral negotiations would have required 190 separate connections, each taking two to three years to finalise.
Kah Kit Yip
“So [in this scenario,] the vision of global instant payments experience is not something that can be achieved within our lifetime,” Yip explained.
According to him, that was the rationale that gave BIS the inspiration to come up with Project Nexus. They are developing a “hub-and-spoke model” that would allow the different fast payment systems to interlink with one another, leveraging on a single connection.
“This would help to scale up the promise of a cross-border payment system to more countries and regions within a shorter space of time,” he said in a webinar with Fintech News Network.
Once fully implemented, Nexus will enable individuals and businesses to send money across borders seamlessly—just as they do with domestic payments today.
Something along the lines of being able to send funds from Singapore to Malaysia using just a mobile number or using a local payment app like TNG to pay merchants across ASEAN, all in real-time.
This initiative is particularly relevant for ASEAN, where cross-border trade and remittances are vital economic drivers. As the recruitment process unfolds, the global payments industry will be watching closely to see who will take the helm of this ambitious initiative.
The success of the Nexus Scheme Organisation—and by extension, Project Nexus—hinges on strong leadership, effective governance, and continuous innovation in cross-border payments.
The next CEO of the NSO will play a defining role in shaping the future of global financial connectivity.
