July 2025
Cross-border payments are a critical component of the global financial architecture, supporting remittances, international trade, digital commerce, and tourism. Despite this central role, they have long been associated with high costs, slow processing times, limited transparency, and restricted access. In response, particularly through the G20 Roadmap for Enhancing Cross-Border Payments, global policymakers have made concerted efforts to address these challenges.
One such initiative is Project Nexus, conceived and developed by the BIS Innovation Hub and its partner central banks, and now being led and operationalised by the newly established Nexus Global Payments (NGP). Nexus envisions a scalable multilateral platform to interlink domestic instant payment systems (IPS) for real-time, cross-border transfers.
This report synthesises current perspectives on the evolution of cross-border payments and identifies the role that a multilateral model such as Nexus could play in shaping the future.
