FAST PAYMENT SYSTEMS

Considerations and Lessons for the

Development and Implementation of

Part of the World Bank Fast Payments Toolkit

MAIN REPORT • SEPTEMBER 2021

B | Fast Payment Systems: Preliminary Analysis of Global Developments

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FINANCE, COMPETITIVENESS & INNOVATION GLOBAL PRACTICE

Payment Systems Development Group

CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS v

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 1

1. INTRODUCTION 1

2. THE FAST PAYMENTS TOOLKIT 11

3. FRAMEWORK FOR ANALYZING FAST PAYMENT DEVELOPMENTS 13

4. PAINTING THE BIGGER PICTURE: WHAT HAVE WE LEARNED? 15

4.1 Module A: Structure of a Fast Payment Arrangement 15

4.1.1 Motivation to Introduce Fast Payments 15

4.1.2 Fast Payment Stakeholder Ecosystem and Approach to Setting Up a Fast Payment 18

Arrangement

4.1.3 Funding and Pricing to Participants 23

4.2 Module B: System Speciﬁcations and Operating Procedures 25

4.2.1 Infrastructure Development 27

4.2.2 Technical Speciﬁcations 32

4.2.3 Network Connectivity 38

4.2.4 Clearing and Settlement 40

4.2.5 Interoperability 43

4.3 Module C: Features of Fast Payment Arrangements 45

4.3.1 Payment Instruments, Payment Types Supported, and Use Cases/Services 45

4.3.2 Overlay Services and Aliases 49

4.3.3 Access Channels 51

4.3.4 User Uptake 56

4.4 Module D: Legal and Regulatory Considerations, Risk Management, 57

and Customer Dispute Resolution

4.4.1 Legal and Regulatory Considerations 57

4.4.2 Risk Management 57

4.4.3 Dispute Resolution and Customer Complaints 61

5. KEY LEARNINGS AND FORWARD OUTLOOK 66

5.1. What’s Next for Fast Payments? 69

ii | Considerations and Lessons for the Development and Implementation of Fast Payment Systems

APPENDICES

Appendix A: Acknowledgments 72

Appendix B: Glossary, Acronyms, and Abbreviations 76

Appendix C: Primer on Fast Payments 82

Appendix D: Study Methodology 86

Appendix E: Full Jurisdiction List 88

Appendix F: The 25 Jurisdictions Shortlisted for a More Detailed Review 91

Appendix G: Methodology for Selecting the 16 Deep Dives 93

Appendix H: Questionnaire for Primary Research 97

ENDNOTES 103

BOXES

Box 1: Fast Payments versus Other Types of Payment System Arrangements 2

Box 2: Deﬁning Fast Payments 7

Box 3: Ownership of Fast Payment Arrangements 19

Box 4: Messaging Standards for Payments/Financial Transactions 33

Box 5: Customer Authentication in the European Union 35

Box 6: Application Programming Interfaces 37

Box 7: Cross-Border Aspects 44

Box 8: Request to Pay in Fast Payment Arrangements 48

Box 9: Aliases for Fast Payments 50

CHART

Chart 1: Fast Payments Toolkit Illustration 12

FIGURES

Figure 1: Overview of Fast Payments Framework 3

Figure 2: Global Fast Payments Landscape 9

Figure 3: Fast Payment Statistics across Select Jurisdictions (2019) 9

Figure 4: The Fast Payments Toolkit 11

Figure 5: A Project Development Life Cycle for Fast Payments 13

Figure 6: Fast Payments Framework 14

Figure 7: Components of the Different Modules 15

Figure 8: Key Motivators for Introducing Fast Payments 16

Figure 9: Primary Fast Payments Implementation Drivers, as per Survey Findings13 16

Figure 10: Fee Structure in Fast Payment Arrangements for Participants 25

Figure 11: Messaging Standards Adopted 33

Figure 12: Observed Clearing Models 40

Figure 13: Participant Settlement Models Adopted for Fast Payment Arrangements 41

Figure 14: Payment Instruments Supported by Fast Payment Arrangements 46

Figure 15: Transaction and Message Flow for Push and Pull Payments 46

Figure 16: Payment Types 46

Figure 17: Use Cases Supported by Fast Payment Arrangements 47

Figure 18: Access Channels and Their Relevance for Fast Payments 52

Figure 19: Access Channels Supported by Fast Payment Arrangements 53

Considerations and Lessons for the Development and Implementation of Fast Payment Systems | iii

Figure 20: QR Code Payment Process 54

Figure 21: Primary FPS Adoption Drivers as per Survey Findings 55

Figure 22: Beneﬁts and Potential Sources of Fraud Associated with Real-Time Payments 62

Figure 23: Stakeholder Mapping of Key Learnings 67

Figure 24: Iberpay’s Integration of a Distributed Ledger with STC Inst. 70

TABLE

Table 1: Key Learnings 4

Table 2: Select Findings on Motivation 17

Table 3: Select Findings on Role of Governments and Regulators 17

Table 4: Select Findings on the Division of Roles between Overseer, Operator, and Owners 20

Table 5: Select Findings on Participants in Fast Payment Arrangements and Access Criteria 22

Table 6: Select Findings on Industry Body Collaborations 24

Table 7: Select Findings on the Classiﬁcation of Fast Payment Arrangements as per 24

Their Systemic Importance

Table 8: Select Findings on Funding 24

Table 9: Select Findings on Fee Structures 26

Table 10: Select Findings on New Infrastructure Development versus Existing System Upgrades 28

Table 11: Select Findings on System Development Timelines and Services Available at Launch 29

Table 12: Select Findings on External Vendor versus In-House Development 30

Table 13: Select Findings on Participant Onboarding Process 31

Table 14: Select Findings and Insights into Current Use of Messaging Standards 34

Table 15: Select Findings and Insights into Customer Authentication 36

Table 16: Select Findings and Insights into the Use of APIs in the Context of Fast Payments 38

Table 17: Select Findings on Network Connectivity 39

Table 18: Select Findings on the Clearing and Settlement Models Used for Fast Payments 42

Table 19: Select Findings on Interoperability 43

Table 20: Select Findings and Insights into Request-to-Pay Functionalities and Services 49

Table 21: Select Findings on Overlay Services 50

Table 22: Select Findings on Aliases 52

Table 23: Select Findings on End-User Pricing 56

Table 24: Select Findings on Awareness Initiatives 56

Table 25: Select Findings on Legal and Regulatory Considerations 58

Table 26: Select Findings on Credit and Liquidity Risk 59

Table 27: General Findings on Operational Risk Management 60

Table 28: Select Findings on Cyber Resilience 62

Table 29: Select Findings on Inter-Participant Disputes 63

Table 30: Select Findings on End-Customer Disputes 65

Table 31: Key Learnings from the Application of the Fast Payment Framework 68

EXHIBITS

Exhibit A1: External Advisory Experts Group 72

Exhibit A2: Contributors to Interviews and Surveys 73

Exhibit A3: Organizations That Provided Inputs and Perspectives 74

Exhibit B1: Glossary 76

iv | Considerations and Lessons for the Development and Implementation of Fast Payment Systems

Exhibit C1: Emergence of Fast Payment Arrangements over the Years 82

Exhibit C2: Key Characteristics of Fast Payment Arrangements 83

Exhibit D1: Study Approach 87

Exhibit E1: Complete List of Jurisdictions/Systems Studied—Regional Classiﬁcation 88

Exhibit F1: List of Jurisdictions Shortlisted for Desk Research 91

Exhibit F2: Geographic and Category-wise Distribution of the 25 Shortlisted Jurisdictions 92

Exhibit F3: Key Parameters Studied in the 25 Shortlisted Jurisdictions 92

Exhibit G1: Jurisdictions with Live Fast Payment Implementations Mapped by Region, Country 94

Income Level, and Gross Domestic Product

Exhibit G2: Feature List for Comparison of Jurisdictions 94

Exhibit G3: Feature Comparison across Cluster A 95

Exhibit G4: Feature Comparison across Cluster B 95

Exhibit G5: Feature Comparison across Cluster C 95

Exhibit G6: Feature Comparison across Cluster D 95

Exhibit G7: Final List of 16 Jurisdictions for the Deep Dives 96

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The project was led by Holti Banka (Financial Sector Spe-

cialist, World Bank) and Nilima Ramteke (Senior Financial

Sector Specialist, World Bank) under the overall guidance

of Harish Natarajan (Lead Financial Sector Specialist, World

Bank) and Mahesh Uttamchandani (Practice Manager, World

Bank). The team is grateful to Massimo Cirasino (Senior

Consultant, World Bank), Jose Antonio Garcia Luna (Senior

Consultant, World Bank), and Maria Teresa Chimienti (Senior

Financial Sector Specialist, World Bank) for their valuable

inputs and comments. Maimouna Gueye (Senior Financial

Sector Specialist, World Bank), Ivan Daniel Mortimer Schutts

(Senior Operations Ofﬁcer, International Finance Corpora-

tion), Marco Nicoli (Senior Financial Sector Specialist, World

Bank), and Ryan Rizaldy and Arif Ismail (both of International

Monetary Fund) provided useful comments as peer review-

ers. Ivan Daniel Mortimer Schutts (Senior Operations Ofﬁ-

cer, International Finance Corporation) provided not only

peer-review comments but also detailed written inputs for

speciﬁc aspects. The team would like to thank the exter-

nal advisory group that was formed to provide insights and

inputs for this project as well as all individuals and institu-

tions that provided written and/or verbal inputs. (A detailed

list can be found in appendix A.) The team would also like to

acknowledge Deloitte for its contributions with research and

analysis, namely Sandeep Sonpatki, Vijay Ramachandran,

Shweta Shetty, Yashna Sureka, Sangeet Deshmukh, Shazada

Allam, Karan Sharma, Pranav Sood, Guneet Chamtrath, and

Maneesh Tiwari. (A Detailed list of contributors can be found

in appendix A.) Editorial assistance was provided by Charles

Hagner, and graphic design was provided by Naylor Design,

Inc. This project would not have been possible without the

generous support of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

BACKGROUND AND CONTEXT

For more than two decades, the World Bank has guided and

supported jurisdictions as they develop a safe, reliable, and

efﬁcient National Payments System (NPS). In this context,

the World Bank has been monitoring developments in fast

payments and has undertaken a detailed study of fast pay-

ment implementations across the world. The policy toolkit

provides guidance on the aspects that authorities need to

consider when developing a Fast Payment System (FPS) and

incorporating the same in their NPS reform agenda. The tool-

kit is based on the analysis of multiple FPS implementations

across the world.

The Fast Payments Toolkit consists of the following three

components. Moreover, a dedicated website (https://fast-

payments.worldbank.org) has been created to house the

document, along with the components, and is expected to

be updated periodically to track fast payment implementa-

tions around the world.

1. Considerations and Lessons for the Development and

Implementation of Fast Payment Systems (this report/

guide)

2. Detailed analysis of FPS in a set of representative juris-

dictions

3. Focus notes on speciﬁc technical topics deemed highly

relevant for fast payments (see ﬁgure 4)

The speciﬁc tool that is developed in this guide has been

informed mainly by 16 deep-dive jurisdiction reports. These

16 jurisdictions, while not exhaustive, are quite diverse in

terms of their models/approaches to implementing and

operating their fast payment arrangement.

Therefore, the

guide is general enough to be applicable to different coun-

try circumstances.

The guide is being made publicly available along with

the 16 deep-dive reports and 16 speciﬁc technical topic

notes. Intermediate desk research on the global landscape

and the exploration of an additional 25 jurisdictions have

also informed the guide.

DEFINITIONS

Fast payments (also referred to as “instant payments,” “real-

time payments,” and “immediate payments”) are payments

where the transmission of the payment message and the

availability of ﬁnal funds to the payee occur in real time or near

real time, and as near to 24 hours a day, seven days a week

(24/7) as possible. The associated service offered by payment

service providers (PSPs) is referred to as a fast payment ser-

vice, and the underlying scheme and system is referred to as

a fast payment scheme and fast payment system.

FPSs come in various ﬂavors. Some are newly purpose-

built systems; others are part of an existing payment system

and are simply a new scheme (enhancement using the exist-

ing system) or service. Further, some have a number of fea-

2 | Considerations and Lessons for the Development and Implementation of Fast Payment Systems

tures, some of which are offered as overlay services. Hence,

to account for these differing implementation options, the

term fast payment arrangements is used in the report.

When referring to a speciﬁc system, the term FPS is used.

When referring to a speciﬁc scheme, the term fast payment

scheme is used. And when referring to a speciﬁc service, the

term fast payment service is used.

The features that characterize fast payment arrange-

ment vis-à-vis other types of payment systems are dis-

cussed in box 1.

METHODOLOGY AND KEY CONSIDERATIONS

The analysis presented in this guide has been structured on

the basis of a Fast Payment Framework, created ex profeso

and illustrated in ﬁgure 1.

Module A: Three insights are covered in this module: moti-

vation to introduce fast payments; stakeholder ecosystem

and approach to setting up a fast payment arrangement;

and funding and pricing aspects.

Module B: This module focuses on assessing the current

state of technology in aspects such as payment processing

and telecommunications. Five insights are covered in this

module: infrastructure development; technical speciﬁca-

tions; network connectivity; clearing and settlement; and

interoperability.

Module C: This module focuses on assessing customers’

needs, such as speed, payment certainty, simple and con-

venient user experience, pricing, clarity on the timing of

delivery, and integration with bank account/mobile wallet/

e-money, among others. Four speciﬁc insights are covered

in this module: payment instruments, payment types sup-

ported, and use cases/services; overlay services and aliases;

access channels; and user uptake.

Module D: This module focuses on some institutional

requirements pertaining to fast payments. Three key insights

are discussed here: legal and regulatory considerations; risk

management; and customer dispute resolution. Some of

these aspects are typically covered under the scheme rules

of a payment system. Scheme rules deﬁne the way the sys-

tem will operate and the behavior and interaction of partic-

Conceptually, the characteristic features of fast pay-

ments are real-time availability of funds to the bene-

ﬁciary and the possibility to make payments 24/7/365

or close enough, regardless of the amount and type of

beneﬁciary (as long as the latter has an account where

the funds can be credited).

Other payment systems, such as real-time gross set-

tlement (RTGS) systems, already give the possibility to

credit an end user’s account in real time. The material-

ization of this depends largely on the technical inter-

faces developed by RTGS participants between the

system and their internal core banking systems.

In contrast, most RTGS systems are not able to fulﬁll

the other feature of offering round-the-clock availability

for ordering and executing real-time payments. Indeed,

round-the-clock availability of real-time payments is a

clear differentiator of fast payment arrangements versus

other payment systems.

Beyond these core characteristics, the technology

behind many fast payment arrangements supports

the development and launch of multiple, previously

unheard of, value-added functionalities and services

for end users (payers and payees). Those new func-

tionalities promote and facilitate increased uptake and

regular usage of fast payments for multiple purposes.

This is a signiﬁcant difference between them and

RTGS systems, as most of the latter were built to cater

solely to the needs of banks—and eventually other

participating PSPs.

For operators and overseers/regulators, real-time

availability of funds to beneﬁciaries and round-the-

clock availability of systems to execute payments also

raise some unique challenges. Robust management of

operational risks, including business continuity, is more

important than ever to ensure ongoing trust in fast

payments. Moreover, possibilities for committing fraud

seem to have expanded, as there is no lag between

when a payment is initiated and when the funds are

transferred to the beneﬁciary, coupled with settlement

ﬁnality offered by most fast payment arrangements.

BOX 1 FAST PAYMENTS VERSUS OTHER TYPES OF PAYMENT SYSTEM ARRANGEMENTS

Considerations and Lessons for the Development and Implementation of Fast Payment Systems | 3

ipants. Scheme rules are deﬁned to minimize risks, maintain

integrity, and provide a common, convenient, secure, reli-

able, and seamless payment experience to customers.

Insights into the various aspects that are highly relevant for

fast payments are mapped to the various modules of the

Fast Payment Framework, and on this basis, key consider-

ations and learnings are drawn.

Overall, the analysis has clearly shown that the key levers

for the adoption and uptake of fast payments have been the

immediate availability of funds, even for small-value trans-

actions, and the catalyst role of central bank in fostering the

development of fast payment systems.

Other crucial elements that have fostered uptake include

the following:

i. Coverage and openness of the fast payment arrange-

ment, including a large variety of use cases, participation

of a wide range of PSPs, and affordable pricing

ii. Convenience and ease of access, including accessibility

through mobile phones, the use of aliases such as mobile

numbers, the use of application programming interfaces

(APIs), and common messaging standards

iii. A robust preexisting market context—namely, penetra-

tion of internet and mobile phones, quality and speed of

other payment options, and overall competitiveness of

the payments market

iv. Awareness-raising and educational campaigns for end

users by public authorities, operators, and participants

LESSONS LEARNED AND FORWARD OUTLOOK

The more detailed key ﬁndings and learnings target spe-

ciﬁc—often multiple—stakeholders and are organized

across the typical life cycle of a payment infrastructure proj-

ect, as depicted in table 1.

Conceptualize Design & Implement Go-Live & Post Implement

Module A: Structure—Covers an assessment of objectives and developing structural and pricing components in order to drive collaboration and

innovation of the fast payment arrangement

Module C: Features—Covers an assessment of customer requirements and determining payment instruments, payment types, use cases and access

channels with the goal of driving up user uptake

Module B: Speciﬁcations—Covers an assessment of technology and designing technical speciﬁcations and development components to achieve

interoperability

Module D: Legal and Governance Considerations—Covers an assessment of governance requirements and deciding legal and regulatory frame-

works, risk management practices, and dispute resolution mechanisms in order to enhance safety and security

ASSESS

Get the focus right

DESIGN

Get the concept right

LAUNCH—SCALE

Get the system to thrive

FIGURE 1: Overview of Fast Payments Framework

4 | Considerations and Lessons for the Development and Implementation of Fast Payment Systems

PROJECT CONCEPTUALIZATION STAGE

Have clarity on the objective, including motivations/drivers for

developing fast payment services in their jurisdiction.

5 Develop a plan for investing in infrastructure and recovering

cost over a period of time, and avoid focusing on achieving

proﬁtability in the short run. The central bank should

work together with stakeholders to identify the long-term

beneﬁts of the project (direct and indirect) and the broader

long-term interests of the NPS.

Obtain knowledge of fast payment arrangements in other

jurisdictions, including the key features of their operating

models and service offerings.

6 Develop a good understanding of the infrastructure

available in the broader ecosystem (for example, phone and

communication network penetration) to determine which

user needs and expectations the fast payment arrangement

will be able to meet at launch and in its early stages of

development.

As part of the design, focus on establishing a core platform

and associated services on top of which other stakeholders

can innovate and build further services.

7 Give due regard to the existing payments infrastructure

setup, including such aspects as current familiarity with real-

time payments, instruments available (for example, push

and pull), NPS integration, support of use cases, settlement

models, the accounting practices applicable to payments,

and other banking activities operating 24/7, among others.

Underpin the business case with a clear vision of the role

for the fast payment arrangement in terms of use cases and

services it can offer to PSPs and the market in general. This is

critical for developing a credible business plan and garnering

industry support.

8 Study the existing internal infrastructure of banks and other

potential PSPs and assess their ability to achieve immediate

fund transfers with certainty. Jurisdictions could consider

agreeing on minimum criteria for participation up front, in

a way that ensures that at least the major banks and some

other smaller banks and non-bank PSPs can be ready to join

by the predecided “go-live” date.

PROJECT DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION STAGE

9 Assign a top-notch project-management team.

• The relevant stakeholders should also identify personnel

with experience and competency and assign them the

responsibility of project development and implementation.

They should also be made duly accountable for the project.

• Ensure continuity of the people/team assigned to this task

to avoid delays in implementation.

16 Ensure fair, transparent, and risk-based access criteria that

do not preclude membership based on institution type.

This is critical to foster innovation and ongoing competition

in the payment ecosystem, recognizing, though, that

many smaller and mid-sized PSPs may opt for indirect

participation, given the ﬁnancial and technical requirements

for direct participation.

10 Ensure structured planning and implementation to help

mitigate implementation delays, including those related to

stakeholder onboarding. It is essential to give participants

sufﬁcient time to adapt—that is, for contract negotiation,

internal system development, and implementation.

17 Consider using APIs that have proven most useful for the

connectivity of smaller participants and of other third

parties (for example, entities that provide payment-

initiation services), and to foster standardization of APIs in

the payments market.

11 Going live with a basic service—with limited features—can be

a good strategy to get the ball rolling. The design of the fast

payment arrangement should nevertheless be ﬂexible enough

to accommodate multiple use cases/services based on dynamic

market needs (that is, the “plug and play” approach).

18 Ensure that the pricing scheme(s) for participants promotes

quick participant adoption. The joining fee, ﬁxed fees (if

any), and variable fees should not act as barriers for smaller

players. At the same time, the operator should ensure

sustainability in the medium- to long-term timeframe.

12 Consider user experience as a critical factor that needs to be

kept in mind while designing and developing a fast payment

arrangement. Focus should be placed on providing a seamless

experience across all access channels. The elements that help

enhance the customer experience include the use of aliases

and services provided by third parties (for example, payment

initiation).

19 Ensure that pricing policies for end users foster uptake in

the short term, for which public authorities may encourage

participants to offer fast payments as a low-cost (or even

zero-cost) payment service. However, in the medium term,

this will need to be reconsidered to ensure that participants

have an incentive to introduce additional services and

features.

13 Design and implement a strong governance framework for

the fast payment arrangement. All participants (banks and

non-banks) should be represented and have a say in the

decision-making. The voices of external key parties, such

as ﬁntechs and telcos, also need to be heard and given due

consideration.

20 Give due attention to the type of messaging standard

adopted. The decision to adopt a particular message

standard—proprietary or ISO—should be based on a careful

analysis of the costs and beneﬁts and factor in the need to

facilitate the interoperability of domestic payment systems

and, eventually, to enable cross-border payments. While

other possibilities exist, ISO 20022 is emerging as a leading

messaging standard for fast payments.

TABLE 1: Key Learnings

Considerations and Lessons for the Development and Implementation of Fast Payment Systems | 5

TABLE 1, continued

Finally, while many jurisdictions have implemented fast pay-

ments, their paths have varied signiﬁcantly, owing to dif-

ferences in the regulatory environment, support from the

broader ecosystem, consumer preferences, support from

the existing payments and ICT infrastructure, and existing/

competing offerings. Each jurisdiction’s uptake, experi-

ences, and success have also varied. Similarly, the ownership

and operating models have varied, and no particular model

is more likely to succeed or fail.

14 Undertake comprehensive testing before launch (operator

and participants). A fully functional central testing platform

for intra- and inter-participant testing can help identify issues

early in the implementation phase.

21 Establish a clear, documented, effective risk-management

framework to identify, measure, monitor, and manage the

various risks, including those concerning potential criminal

activity (for example, money laundering, the ﬁnancing of

terrorism, cyberattacks, and data breaches). Participants

should also be mandated by their supervisor to set up

robust internal controls for operational risks.

15 Have a comprehensive rulebook that contains all relevant

rules, parameters, standards, and controls for the operational

efﬁciency and overall soundness of the fast payment

arrangement. This also promotes a level playing ﬁeld for

participants.

22 Agree on the settlement model and measures for the

mitigation of settlement risk between operators/manager

and operator/manager and participants. The measures

should be cost efﬁcient. Key decision factors include

whether non-banks will be direct participants (for example,

settling operations on their own behalf) and the speciﬁcs

of the local ecosystem (for example, settlement services

provided by the central bank or commercial banks).

PROJECT “GO-LIVE” AND POST-IMPLEMENTATION STAGE

23 Collaborate during post-implementation to ensure that the

fast payment arrangement will be able to reach its maximum

potential over time.

27 Review risk-management frameworks periodically to

mitigate evolving requirements and threats, including cyber.

Technologies such as artiﬁcial intelligence and machine

learning can help operators/managers detect failures in

compliance and combat evolving threats.

24 Generate customer awareness in the initial years to

increase registrations and uptake. Customers often require

handholding to familiarize themselves with the new service

and its functionalities.

28 Adapt some of the oversight tools and overall approach

when it comes to fast payments, to ensure that the relevant

systems or underlying arrangements operate safely and

efﬁciently on an ongoing basis (applicable for regulators/

overseers).

25 Keep the customer registration process simple, to increase

uptake.

29 Leverage payments data to introduce innovative and

customized solutions for end users (for system operators

and system participants) without compromising data-

protection and privacy aspects.

26 Adopt a product road map approach for new use cases/

services and functionalities that shares the vision of the

owner/operator with all participants (and other relevant

stakeholders, such as telcos), ensuring that these stakeholders

will be able to adopt these changes in a timely manner.

30 Evaluate on an ongoing basis whether the system continues

to meet the evolving ecosystem needs; fosters the safety,

efﬁciency, and reliability of the NPS; and has the right

governance arrangements. Take appropriate actions based

on the evaluation.

6 | Considerations and Lessons for the Development and Implementation of Fast Payment Systems

INTRODUCTION

EMERGENCE OF FAST PAYMENTS

For what concerns payment infrastructures, in most juris-

dictions, the National Payments System (NPS) traditionally

comprised a real-time gross settlement (RTGS) system for

large-value and time-critical payments; an automated clear-

ing house (ACH) for lower-value payments (for example,

using electronic fund transfer instruments or checks); card

payment processing systems/switches; e-money clearing-

houses (some jurisdictions are merging this with card pay-

ment infrastructure and, in a few cases, with ACH systems);

and mechanisms for cross-border payments.

The global payments industry is nevertheless experienc-

ing a paradigm shift driven by technological innovation, the

changing priorities of central banks and other public author-

ities,

changes in economics, demographics, and customer

needs for faster, cheaper, and more convenient means of

making payments. As part of this evolution, a new type of

payment service, fast payments, emerged and has been

rapidly gaining track worldwide. Appendix C of this guide

provides details on the main features and evolution of, and

current trends in, fast payments.

Some of the beneﬁts of fast payments derive from their

effect on competition and potential to bolster dynamic

efﬁciency gains. Immediate access to funds, coupled with

low fees, can reduce what economists refer to as “switching

costs” and make it easier to use multiple accounts. Switch-

ing costs are barriers to changing accounts and can include

those costs that may impede clients from using different

institutions to conducting different types of transactions.

Fees, delays in access to funds, and impediments posed by

user experience or operational constraints may dissuade cli-

The Committee on Payments and Market Infrastructures

(CPMI) of the Bank for International Settlements deﬁnes

fast payments as follows:

“ Fast payments are deﬁned as payments in which the

transmission of the payment message and the avail-

ability of ﬁnal funds to the payee occur in real time or

near real time and on as near to a 24-hour and 7-day

(24/7) basis as possible.”

For the purposes of this guide, emphasis is placed on

the immediate availability of funds to the beneﬁciary

of a fast payment transaction—which can be an indi-

vidual, a ﬁrm, or a government agency—and that these

transactions can be made during an operational win-

dow during the day that is as large as possible, tending

toward 24/7 availability.

BOX 2 DEFINING FAST PAYMENTS

ents from using a different institution for a transaction, even

if they would derive other gains from doing so, such as from

higher interest rates or lower fees.

A reduction in these frictions can also have an impact on

what is referred to as “multihoming.” This relates primarily to

multisided platforms, of which retail payment systems are an

example. Clients may choose to use a single platform (for

example, an account or payment service) or may subscribe

to multiple platforms (multihoming) to interact with differ-

ent users and services or beneﬁt from differential pricing.

An example would be when clients hold an account with

a conventional retail bank as well as an e-commerce pay-

ment service provider (PSP). They may be able to transact

(or have signiﬁcant advantages) with merchants on Alib-

aba only from their Alipay account; other payment services,

such as for the receipt of salaries or to make interbank

transfers, may require an account at a retail bank.

FPSs can also enhance “platform competition” for retail

payments. Traditionally, alongside cash, card payment net-

works in most countries have dominated retail payments.

With some exceptions, credit transfer systems were not

used to make time-sensitive payments at the point of sale.

FPSs, coupled in particular with the evolution of payment

initiation and merchant services, are changing this. Open

banking arrangements are enabling new independent

providers to offer more choices to both merchants and

consumers, enabling fast payments to compete with card

networks and beginning to focus more competition on val-

ue-added services.

Fast payments have important but ambiguous effects on

multibanking.

On the one hand, if FPSs have broad net-

work reach or are accompanied by extensions in interop-

erability, in theory they can diminish the need for clients to

hold multiple payment accounts in which they hold depos-

its. Knowing they can reach many or most other transaction

counterparts quickly, or connect their account via payment

overlay services, they may choose to concentrate their funds

in a primary institution. On the other hand, reductions in

barriers to making transfers between accounts may lead

to an increase in multihoming. Consumers may be able to

choose more readily between different service providers for

different kinds of payments and other ﬁnancial services in

the knowledge that they can transfer funds between them

instantly at little or no cost. This can shift the focus of com-

petition between ﬁnancial institutions away from price and

network reach toward other features, such as interest rates

or value-added services.

The pro-competition effects of fast payments may

already be playing a role in some markets. For instance, in

the corporate world, where instant low-cost transfers have

been available for many years, multiple accounts have long

been used to “sweep” balances overnight from different

institutions into a single cash-management institution.

Similarly, in retail markets, while the speciﬁc impact of fast

payments is difﬁcult to disentangle from other forces, it

is reasonable to expect that speed and ease of transfers

diminish barriers to picking different services from differ-

ent institutions.

While the speciﬁc cause and effect may be difﬁcult to

distinguish, it seems likely that fast payments can have

beneﬁcial impacts on contestability and competition

between services. To achieve this, they should be coupled

with improved access mechanisms (for example, apps), low

fees, and a wide scope of participants or transaction coun-

terparts. The immediacy and ease with which funds can

be transferred between such accounts is likely to enhance

competition between, and uptake of, third-party services

beyond those offered by the institution at which a current

account is held.

Among others, fast payments also play a key role in

the digitization of government payments, either as critical

infrastructure in the end-to-end government’s payments

architecture or by providing incentives for the adoption

of digital payments by the end user. Fast payments have

positive direct and indirect spillovers in the digitization of

government payments when they are leveraged in the gov-

ernment’s payments architecture or when fast payments

are made available to the public on a general basis. One

direct beneﬁt of leveraging fast payments through the gov-

ernment’s payments architecture is real-time collection of

revenue, which allows the government to increase its expen-

diture capacity and efﬁciency. A similar beneﬁt is perceived

from disbursement of time-sensitive payments, such as

wages, vendor’s payments, and social-protection payments.

For the latter, in most cases, social-protection payments are

directed to vulnerable segments of the population, and for

many recipients, such payments constitute their main source

of income—hence, the relevance of leveraging payments

infrastructure that allows the delivery of ﬁnancial aid in the

expected time. Furthermore, payments made by the gov-

ernment to address emergency situations are supported

by fast payment schemes, which allow the completion of

urgent transactions in real time and the delivery of ﬁnancial

aid in a timely manner.

8 | Considerations and Lessons for the Development and Implementation of Fast Payment Systems

FIGURE 2: Global Fast Payments Landscape

FIGURE 3: Fast Payment Statistics across Select Jurisdictions (2019)

JURISDICTION SYSTEM NAME

(YEAR OF LAUNCH)

TRANSACTION VALUE AS

PERCENTAGE OF GDP

TRANSACTION VOLUME

PER CAPITA

Australia NPP (2018) 12% 10.84

Bahrain Fawri+ (2015) 4% 3.84

China IBPS (2010) 112 % 10.02

Hong Kong SAR, China FPS 29% 5.82

India UPI (2016) 15% 9.16

Nigeria NIBSS Instant Payment (2011) 81% 7. 05

Thailand PromptPay (2016) 78% 36.85

FPS (2008) 88% 36.46

Currently, several jurisdictions across the globe have imple-

mented fast payments, and several others have announced

their plans to go live.

These are illustrated in ﬁgure 2.

Many of these implementations have been propelled—if

not directly led—by central banks. The basic principle across

all the jurisdictions remains essentially the same: to provide

a fund transfer facility through which ﬁnal beneﬁciaries can

be credited in real time and that is available for making pay-

ments for as many hours as possible each day.

The growth in the contribution of fast payments has

been signiﬁcant. Figure 3 shows the yearly transaction value

processed via the fast payment arrangement in selected

jurisdiction as well as the number of fast payment transac-

tions per capita.

Live

Under development

Live-Not Full-Fledged

Note: SCT Inst and BCEAO have been considered as a single jurisdiction

Considerations and Lessons for the Development and Implementation of Fast Payment Systems | 9

10 | Considerations and Lessons for the Development and Implementation of Fast Payment Systems

ELEMENTS UNDERLYING A FAST PAYMENT

ARRANGEMENT

In practice, fast payment arrangements consist of the follow-

ing components or layers, known to form a payment system:

• The core clearing and settlement infrastructure: Some

fast payment arrangements run existing/incumbent

platforms; in other cases, a brand-new platform has

been created ex profeso for fast payments.

• The operator, which can be a private-sector, public sec-

tor entity, or based on a public-private sector model

• The scheme or rulebook that governs the relationship

between the participants, the operator, and other rele-

vant parties

• The overseer (and eventually also the regulator), which

is typically the central bank

• Participating institutions

• End-user solution(s)

• Overlay services

To account for differing implementation options, the term

fast payment arrangements is used throughout this doc-

ument. When referring to a speciﬁc system the term FPS

is used.

When referring to a speciﬁc scheme the term fast

payment scheme is used. And when referring to a speciﬁc

service, the term fast payment service is used.

All these elements are described in the following chapters

of this report on the basis of the empirical ﬁndings from the

analysis of speciﬁc FPSs. (See ﬁgure 4.)

THE FAST PAYMENTS TOOLKIT

The development and implementation of a safe, reliable,

and efﬁcient NPS is a crucial component of the World Bank’s

work in the ﬁnancial sector, given its link to ﬁnancial inclu-

sion, stability, and economic development. In its unique role

in guiding and supporting jurisdictions as they develop pay-

ments and market infrastructure, the World Bank has under-

taken a study of fast payment implementations across the

world to develop this policy toolkit for fast payment devel-

opment and implementation (hereinafter the Fast Payments

Toolkit or toolkit).

The toolkit has been designed to guide jurisdictions and

regions on the likely alternatives and models that could assist

them in their policy and implementation choices when they

embark on their own fast payment implementation journeys.

The guide, the deep-dive reports for 16 jurisdictions, and

the focus notes are being made available as part of the Fast

Payments Toolkit. (See chart 1.)

FIGURE 4: The Fast Payments Toolkit

Global landscape of jurisdictions Proﬁles of 25 jurisdictions*

Deep dive reports for

16 jurisdictions*

1. Framework for fast payments implementation

2. Options / decisions across the course of the implementation journey

3. Key insights from fast payments implementations

4. Key takeaways / recommendations

1. QR codes

2. APIs

3. Customer authentication

4. Messaging standards

5. Consumer protection

6. Dispute handling, reversal,

chargeback and refunds

7. Fraud risks and AML/CFT

8. Pricing structure

9. Proxy identiﬁers and

database

10. Access aspects

11. Cross-border payments

12. Interoperability aspects

13. Oversight aspects

14. Scheme rules

15. Future of fast payments

16. Infrastructure and

ownership aspects

Main Report

Focus Notes

FAST PAYMENTS TOOLKIT

12 | Considerations and Lessons for the Development and Implementation of Fast Payment Systems

CHART 1: Fast Payments Toolkit Illustration

COMPONENT OUTCOME

Global landscape Overview of global FPS landscape, containing information on:

• Fast payments overview

• Customer features

• Technological capabilities

• System participation

16 Deep-dive reports/case

studies

16 in-depth reports:

1. Australia: NPP

2. Bahrain: Fawri+

3. Chile: TEF

4. China: IBPS

5. European Union: SCT Inst

6. Hong Kong SAR, China: Faster Payment

System (FPS)

7. India: UPI and IMPS

8. Kenya: PesaLink

16 Focus technical notes (as

stand-alone notes)

Speciﬁc topic notes on topics of

foundational and technical relevance to assist in fast payment implementations.

9. Malaysia: RPP

10. Mexico: SPEI

11. Nigeria: NIP

12. Poland: Express Elixir

13. Singapore: FAST

14. Thailand: PromptPay

15. United Kingdom: Faster Payments

Service (FPS)

16. United States: RTP

FRAMEWORK FOR ANALYZING

FAST PAYMENT DEVELOPMENTS

As part of this guide, a framework for analyzing fast payment

developments (hereinafter the Fast Payments Framework)

has been created. This framework considers facts and expe-

riences from all jurisdictions studied, but the main inputs

have been extracted from the 16 jurisdictions in which a

deep-dive analysis was performed. These 16 jurisdictions,

while not exhaustive, are quite diverse in terms of their

models/approaches to implementing and operating their

fast payment arrangement. Indeed, the selection of these

16 jurisdictions was not random; rather, the express intent

was to get a diverse mix of countries across various geo-

graphic regions and also adequate coverage across matured

or developed and emerging economies.

Therefore, the

proposed framework is considered general enough to be

applicable to different country circumstances.

This Fast Payments Framework has two components:

phases, and thematic areas or modules.

In turn, there are three phases: (i) assess; (ii) design; and

(iii) launch and scale. These are aligned to a project devel-

opment life cycle that suits fast payments and is illustrated

in ﬁgure 5.

Then there are four broad thematic areas/modules: (a)

the structure of the fast payment arrangements; (b) busi-

ness and technical speciﬁcations and operating procedures;

regulatory, and governance considerations and risk manage-

ment. These are presented/matched under respective areas

along with additional elements in ﬁgure 6.

Figure 6 accordingly collates all these components with

the speciﬁc elements that ought to be looked at within each

of the components. The framework is further elaborated

and put into practice in section 4 of this guide.

| 13

The main elements underlying each of the three phases

are as follows:

• Assess: A detailed assessment of objectives, technology,

customer requirements, and governance requirements

is critical to set the right precedent. Some jurisdictions

set up independent consultations to arrive at the “best”

concept for their fast payment arrangement. An alterna-

tive is cooperation between the central bank and rele-

vant stakeholders using existing cooperative bodies.

• Design: Key decisions are taken across multiple param-

eters to “get the concept right.” A deep understanding

of design considerations, from the structure of the fast

payment arrangement to pricing and funding, technical

speciﬁcations, front-end functionality, risk-management

and dispute-resolution practices, and so on is essential.

FIGURE 5: A Project Development Life Cycle for

Fast Payments

14 | Considerations and Lessons for the Development and Implementation of Fast Payment Systems

• Launch and Scale: Once an arrangement goes live, the

various stakeholders can start obtaining beneﬁts, either

directly from the new arrangement or indirectly via the

competitive pressures it exerts over other service offer-

ings. Then it is critical to get the new arrangement to

thrive. The launch-and-scale phase is characterized by a

need for continuous improvements and enhancements

to keep up with technological advancements and evolv-

ing consumer needs.

As for the broad thematic areas or modules, these mainly

cover the following aspects:

a. Structure of the fast payment arrangement: Focuses

on the key drivers and objectives for considering the

development of a fast payment project and covers an

assessment of the motivations, proposed arrangements,

stakeholder community, and pricing and funding issues,

among others.

b. System speciﬁcations and operating procedures: Cov-

ers an assessment of technology and the determination

of technical speciﬁcations and system development

components.

c. Features of the fast payment arrangement: Looks at

customer requirements and determining payment instru-

ments, payment types, uses cases, and access channels

with the goal of driving up user uptake.

d. Legal, regulatory, and governance considerations and

risk management: Covers an assessment of legal and

regulatory aspects and deciding on governance require-

ments, risk-management practices, and other aspects to

enhance safety and security.

The insights obtained from the deep-dive analyses and

interviews with many other institutions are mapped to the

different modules as per the proposed framework. This

approach and the actual insights are analyzed in the next

section of this guide.

FIGURE 6: Fast Payments Framework

LIFECYCLE—FAST PAYMENTS ARRANGEMENTS

ASSESS DESIGN LAUNCH & SCALE

Objectives

Collaboration &

Innovation

FPS Stakeholders Funding Pricing

Inter-operability

System Development Settlement

Customer

Requirements

User Adoption

Aliases & Overlay

Services

Access Channels

Legal &

Governance

Considerations

Safety & SecurityLegal & Regulatory

Risk Management

Dispute Resolution &

Customer complaints

Conceptualize Design & Implement

Go-Live & Post-

Implementation

Current State

Technology

Technical Speciﬁcations &

Network Connectivity

Payment Instruments, Types

Use Cases / Services

PAINTING THE BIGGER PICTURE:

WHAT HAVE WE LEARNED?

Insights into the various aspects and elements that are

highly relevant for fast payments have been drawn from the

comprehensive analysis of 16 jurisdictions, as well as from

nearly 70 primary interviews and secondary research. These

insights have been analyzed as components under the dif-

ferent modules. (See ﬁgure 7.)

These insights are described below, along with juris-

diction-speciﬁc inputs and any trends that may have been

identiﬁed, to provide the reader with a holistic view of the

decisions/options available.

4.1 MODULE A: STRUCTURE OF A FAST PAYMENT

ARRANGEMENT

The following three insights are covered within this module:

• Motivation to introduce fast payments

• Stakeholder ecosystem and approach to setting up a

fast payment arrangement

• Funding and pricing

FIGURE 7: Components of the Different Modules

4.1.1 Motivation to Introduce Fast Payments

Jurisdictions across different parts of the world have imple-

mented fast payment arrangement (some have more than

one). The motivation for going for FPS varies across such

themes as ﬁnancial inclusion, digitization, and driving inno-

vation, among others. (See ﬁgure 8.)

The section below details the motivations to introduce

fast payments, covering the ﬁndings and insights. These are

presented under following heads: (i) stakeholder-speciﬁc

drivers; (ii) public authorities’ initiative/role (for example,

NPS overseers, government agencies, and so on); and (iii)

unique motivators.

i. Stakeholder-Speciﬁc Drivers

Perspectives on fast payments differ across stakeholders in

terms of what the drivers of fast payment implementation

are or ought to be.

In general, based on the analysis of 16 jurisdictions, it has

been observed that when the fast payment project is led by

Module A: Structure

1. Motivation to introduce

fast payments

2. Stakeholder ecosystem

and approach to

setting up fast payment

arrangement

3. Funding and pricing

Module B: Speciﬁcations

1. Development of fast

payment arrangement

2. Technical speciﬁcations

3. Network connectivity

4. Clearing and settlement

5. Interoperability

Module C: Features

1. Payment instruments,

payment types supported

and use cases/services

2. Overlay services and

aliases

3. Access channels

4. User uptake

Module D: Legal &

Governance Considerations

1. Legal and regulatory

considerations

2. Risk management

3. Dispute resolution and

customer complaints

16 | Considerations and Lessons for the Development and Implementation of Fast Payment Systems

Need for fast

payments

Market/regulator

driven

Enhance customer

experience

Drive

innovation

Digitize

payments

Financial

inclusion

FIGURE 8: Key Motivators for Introducing Fast Payments

the public sector, the agenda is driven by ﬁnancial inclusion,

payments infrastructure development, and payment digiti-

zation initiatives. (See ﬁgure 9.) Central banks have played a

major role in most of these projects.

As can be observed from the jurisdiction-speciﬁc anal-

ysis in table 2, ﬁnancial inclusion has served as a driver in

Bahrain, India, and Mexico. In contrast, when the project is

led by other stakeholders, or when the project is to enhance

the basic infrastructure and functionalities already imple-

mented, some of the drivers differ and/or are expanded—for

example, toward enhancing customer experience and con-

venience to further incentivize customer uptake.

FIGURE 9: Primary Fast Payments Implementation Drivers, as per Survey Findings

STAKEHOLDER PRIMARY FPS IMPLEMENTATION DRIVERS

Public

authorities

• Digitization of payments

• Leading innovation in the jurisdiction

• Enhancing consumer experience

Operator

• Market push (recommendation by ﬁnancial institutions, banking, and payments associations)

• Enhancing consumer experience

• Digitization of payments

• Leading innovation in the jurisdiction

Payment

service

providers

• Better customer experience

• Innovation/newer channels, use cases, and technologies

• Competitor participants’ fast payment offerings

ii. Role of Public Authorities

The majority of surveyed regulators and participants believe

that intervention and promotion of digital payment modes

by the government and/or central bank at a national level

is a critical driver for fast payment implementation.

In all but one of the jurisdictions shown in table 3, the

central bank or other public-sector entities were directly

involved in the discussions that led to the development and

implementation of fast payments. In Thailand, for example,

the government was involved from the conceptualization

stage. In Thailand, as well as in Hong Kong SAR, China, and

Malaysia, fast payments were introduced as part of a larger

program of government measures. In contrast, in Poland, the

development of fast payments was led by a technology and

infrastructure institution of the Polish banking sector. More

generally, it was found that over 75 percent of the jurisdic-

tions included in the deep dives had a push from the central

bank and/or other government agencies acting as a driver

for fast payment implementation.

FPS MOTIVATORS

Considerations and Lessons for the Development and Implementation of Fast Payment Systems | 17

Australia The Payments System Board of the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) decided to undertake a “strategic review

of Innovation in the Australian payments system” in May 2010. The purpose was to identify opportunities for

innovation in the Australian payments system. The conclusion of this review included the need for establishing fast

payments. The key strategic objectives laid out by the RBA for the New Payments Platform (NPP) were to receive

low-value payments outside normal banking hours, to send more complete remittance information with payments,

and to address payments in a simple manner.

India The overarching objectives of the Immediate Payment System (IMPS) and the Uniﬁed Payments Interface (UPI) have

been facilitating ﬁnancial inclusion and promoting digital payments. IMPS is a multichannel system that can be

accessed using mobile, ATM, internet banking, bank branches, and so on. With the basic infrastructure in place, the

Reserve Bank of India’s focus expanded toward cooperation and collaboration for enhancing customer experience

and convenience. To this end, an interoperable real-time 24/7 mobile-payment system, UPI, was launched in 2016.

Mexico The Interbank Electronic Payment System (SPEI) was introduced in the mid-2000s as Banco de México’s new RTGS

system. The objective was to process payments in real time, minimizing credit and liquidity risks. The system was

designed to offer a high level of services to users and participants, including provisions for business continuity

plans, adequate risk management, and legal certainty about a credit on the receipt account. Some years ago, it

was upgraded to offer real-time payments 24/7. To further enhance the user experience, in 2019, Banco de México

launched CoDi, which is a request-to-pay functionality that supports the use of QR codes, near-ﬁeld communication

(NFC), and messages through the internet for payments.

United States In 2014, the Clearing House (TCH) launched its Future Payments Initiative based on the recommendations from its

supervisory board, which consists of several industry leaders from ﬁnancial institutions. The aim was to develop

a strategic view of real-time payments based on an extensive study of payment needs in an increasingly digital

economy. TCH worked closely with the Federal Reserve, TCH banks, and industry associations, including the National

Automated Clearing House Association, American Bankers Association, Independent Community Bankers of America,

National Association of Federally Insured Credit Unions, and Credit Union National Association, to identify consumer

and business cases with the greatest need for fast payments that represent the best incremental value for customers.

The Future Payments Initiative considered the experience and lessons from other countries that had already

implemented fast payments. TCH also reviewed ways in which a fast payment arrangement for the United States

could maintain and improve the safety and soundness of existing payment systems.

TABLE 2: Select Findings on Motivation

TABLE 3: Select Findings on Role of Governments and Regulators

Bahrain There was a push from the government to adopt real-time transactions. The Central Bank of Bahrain consulted

with the BENEFIT Company, to provide a real-time payment solution. BENEFIT also handles POS and ATM switch

services in the country.

Hong Kong

SAR, China

With a view to driving innovation and ushering in the era of smart banking in Hong Kong SAR, China, the Hong

Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) in 2017 introduced several major initiatives in the banking sector. One was to

develop the fast payment system FPS and drive innovation by bringing e-wallets on the platform in addition

to banks.

Malaysia The Real-Time Retail Payments Platform (RPP) was created as part of a multiyear program to modernize and

future-proof Malaysia’s payments infrastructure. Pursuant to an industry-wide consultation facilitated by Bank

Negara Malaysia (BNM), PayNet built RPP to meet the emerging and future needs of the economy. In line with

the Interoperable Credit Transfer Framework issued by BNM, RPP was designed to provide fair and open access

to banks and eligible non-bank PSPs, to facilitate interoperability and seamless payments between bank

accounts and e-money accounts.

Poland The introduction of fast payments was market driven. Initially, banks were hesitant to participate in it because

they thought the existing system worked well. In this regard, the RTGS system took four to six hours to process

transactions, which was perceived to be fast enough, and there was no need for immediate payments. Krajowa

Izba Rozliczeniowa (KIR), a technology and infrastructure institution of the Polish banking sector, undertook

extensive research with end users to gauge customer needs and make them aware of the beneﬁts of introducing

fast payments. Thus, KIR built consensus among customers by administering surveys and gauging their

receptiveness toward the initiative and then pitched it to banks. While fast payments were initially viewed as a

premium product, this view has changed over time.

Thailand The National e-Payment Master Plan was created by the government with an objective to have an integrated

digital payment infrastructure. Under this master plan, the PromptPay system was created to facilitate easy, safe,

and convenient fund transfers for all—general public, businesses, and government. Initially, only bulk/batch payment

service was developed in PromptPay, and it was used to transfer government welfare disbursements. This helped

create awareness among the public about the system. In January 2017, the new credit transfer service was enabled

in PromptPay, allowing for real-time person-to-person (P2P) interbank fund transfers.

continued

18 | Considerations and Lessons for the Development and Implementation of Fast Payment Systems

iary of the central bank. As shown in table 4, the latter is

the case in China, Hong Kong SAR, China, and Malaysia.

In certain jurisdictions, such as Mexico, the central bank

owns, operates, and oversees SPEI. The operator can also

be a completely independent entity. It is also important to

note that most jurisdictions already have existing retail pay-

ment system operators (for example, for the domestic bulk

payment systems and/or payment card switch). In some

cases, these same entities also operate the fast payment

arrangement. For example, in Thailand, National Interbank

Transaction Management and Exchange (ITMX) was chosen

as PromptPay’s operator, as it already had technical capa-

bilities and was the largest payment system operator in the

country. Overall, there seems to be a slight predominance

of private-sector entities as operators of fast payment

arrangements.

ii. Participants and Access Criteria

Participation of banks and non-bank PSPs of varied cate-

gories is crucial to the success of the fast payment arrange-

ment. Furthermore, to encourage participation by banks

and non-bank PSPs, surveyed overseers and operators

believe that regulatory push/incentives are required in the

initial years following launch. Jurisdictions can have either

only direct participants or a combination of direct and

indirect participants.

Participants in a payment system can be direct or indirect.

In the case of fast payments, direct participants are typically

banks with a direct link to the underlying payment system

infrastructure and having a settlement account at the cen-

tral bank’s settlement system—if settlement occurs in central

bank money. The settlement can take place in commercial

bank money as well. Indirect participants are other ﬁnancial

institutions or other PSPs using the payment system infra-

structure either directly or via a sponsor primary participant

and leveraging the sponsor’s settlement account with the

central bank for settlement of their transactions. A few fast

payment arrangements allow participation of intermediary

PSPs that receive and transmit transfer of funds on behalf

of other participants. For example, SCT Inst in the European

Union allows intermediary banks to provide services to orig-

United Kingdom In the early 2000s, the Cruickshank Report was published, providing the foundation for the development of fast

payments in the country. The report pointed out the lack of innovation and need to upgrade the existing retail

payment systems. (For example, even if other payment systems, such as BACS, were available, cash was still the

most dominant payment instrument.) This led the government to mandate the Ofﬁce of Fair Trade to provide

recommendations for innovating the payments landscape in the United Kingdom. The ofﬁce drafted a report that

was taken to the Payment Systems Task Force, which was charged with developing fast payments to reduce the

payment cycle from three days to a single day. This led to the development of the Faster Payments Service (FPS)

in May 2005.

TABLE 3, continued

4.1.2 Fast Payment Stakeholder Ecosystem and

Approach to Setting Up a Fast Payment

Arrangement

The fast payment ecosystem typically consists of the central

bank (and, in some cases, other regulators), the operator, the

owner(s), participants, third-party providers, and end users

(that is, individuals, merchants, and government agencies).

The following four aspects have emerged as key compo-

nents of this insight and are covered in the sections below:

(i) the division of roles between the overseer, owner, and

operator; (ii) participants and access criteria; (iii) industry

body collaborations; and (iv) the systemic importance of fast

payment arrangements.

i. Division of Roles between the Overseer, Owner, and

Operator

Central banks typically play a major role as overseers and,

in some cases, also as operators (and owners) of the fast

payment arrangement.

Central banks typically play the role of overseer of payment

systems (and very often the broader NPS). The overseer role

is generally accompanied by a regulatory function. In some

cases, depending on the institutional setting, this regulatory

function may be shared with a different regulatory authority

or performed independently by the latter. A fast payment

arrangement is usually considered a critical national pay-

ment infrastructure. Therefore, the overseer puts in place a

monitoring mechanism to try to ensure that it operates in

a safe and efﬁcient manner. Toward this end, the overseer

requires the operator to have adequate measures in place to

address operational risk, liquidity risks, security, anti-mon-

ey-laundering (AML), and other relevant aspects.

Box 3 provides details on observed ownership alterna-

tives of fast payment arrangements. Additional information

on ownership and funding is provided in section 4.1.3.

The operator or scheme owner is responsible for ensur-

ing compliance with the scheme rulebook, operating pro-

cedures, and ofﬁcial regulations. The operator can be a

separate legal entity owned by participating commercial

banks and, in some cases, by the central bank on its own

or jointly with participants. The operator may be a subsid-

Considerations and Lessons for the Development and Implementation of Fast Payment Systems | 19

Both public-sector ownership (most often by the cen-

tral bank) and private-sector ownership of fast payment

arrangements are common, with an overall prevalence

of the latter. In some cases, there is co-ownership of

the central bank with commercial banks or other pri-

vate-sector entities. Moreover, the ownership structure

may change over time, often driven by the needs of

the market, the broader objectives of the owners, and

regulatory requirements. For example, some systems

have moved from public ownership to cooperative

user/membership-based organizations, and in some

cases from there to other corporate arrangements like

privately owned or publicly listed companies.

Central bank ownership of fast payment systems is

often observed in cases where the central bank also

operates some of the traditional key infrastructures for

retail payments, such as the check clearinghouse and/

or the automated clearinghouse for credit transfers and

direct debits. This may be an indication that the central

bank considers this arrangement as a natural continu-

ation of its role as operator of retail payment systems.

Other reasons for central bank ownership can include

trying to ensure universal participation of eligible pay-

ment service providers (PSPs) and/or the notion that

ownership control is critical for truly enhancing ﬁnancial

inclusion in a particular country context.

Public-sector ownership of retail payments infra-

structure may raise pricing issues which need to be

carefully considered. In some cases, the costs of devel-

oping the infrastructure are absorbed by the central

bank in pursuit of its public policy objectives. In other

cases, the central bank may be subsidizing operational

costs, and therefore pricing of services to participants

may not be reﬂecting the true costs of operating the

fast payment system. In this regard, if those subsidies

are kept beyond the short-term, central banks ought

to consider the implications for long-term competition

and efﬁciency.

Another aspect that needs to be considered is the

potential conﬂict of interest that may arise between the

central bank’s role as an operator of the retail payments

infrastructure and its role as an overseer. The central

bank should seek to avoid any impression that it might

use its role as overseer of private sector systems to

support unfairly the operation of its payment systems.

The central bank may therefore make a clear functional

and, if possible, also organizational separation of the

two functions within the central bank’s organizational

chart.

Private ownership of fast payment systems also

entails some potential concerns. When these systems

are owned solely by large participant banks closely tied

to the market, they may be less willing to open the sys-

tem and provide access to smaller banks or to non-bank

PSPs. Also, a fast payment system entirely owned by the

private sector is likely to require high upfront invest-

ment and transaction pricing consistent with a target

investment recovery period, usually medium-term. High

per transaction prices may deter participation, espe-

cially of PSPs that cater to low-income customers.

A central bank may intervene to ensure that a for-

proﬁt focus is balanced with a vision that considers the

medium- to longer-term needs and developments of

a market, fosters innovation, makes it possible for all

types of PSPs to join and achieves regular usage by

lower-income users and small and micro enterprises.

Central banks in their role as regulators/overseers

must also make sure that their interventions to ensure

broad participation in the system do not dis-incentiv-

ize future investments by shareholders. In other words,

mandating participation without giving due consider-

ation to the investment and others costs that are borne

by shareholders before they are able to realize or even

clearly foresee a reasonable proﬁt may limit future

investments to grow the business and introduce van-

guard technologies.

More generally, even in circumstances where the pri-

vate sector in a given country appears unable to come

to an agreement to develop a fast payments system and

the central bank decides to intervene to take a more

developmental role (i.e., ownership/operation), the cen-

tral bank should consider this as a starting point and,

from the outset, design the system in a manner that

would enable system participants to innovate and, even-

tually, facilitate the transfer of ownership of and opera-

tional responsibility for the system to the private sector.

Finally, regardless of the ownership model, it is highly

desirable that the owner/operator involve all relevant

BOX 3 OWNERSHIP OF FAST PAYMENT ARRANGEMENTS

continued

20 | Considerations and Lessons for the Development and Implementation of Fast Payment Systems

TABLE 4: Select Findings on the Division of Roles between Overseer, Operator, and Owners

Australia New Payments Platform Australia (NPPA) is the owner and operator of the NPP. The RBA is responsible for the

oversight and regulation of payment systems in the country and empowered to set ﬁnancial stability standards for

clearing and settlement facilities. Furthermore, the RBA is the operator of the settlement module (that is, the Fast

Settlement Service) that supports the NPP. NPPA was formed by the RBA as a result of an industry collaboration in

response to the “strategic review of Innovation in the Australian payments system.”

Chile Centro de Compensación Automatizado (CCA) is a private ACH and the owner and operator of Transferencias

en Línea (TEF), which is Chile’s fast payments. CCA is owned by three banks: Banco de Chile, Banco Santander,

and Banco de Crédito e Inversiones. These three banks have equal shareholding in CCA. Since June 1, 2019, the

Financial Market Commission (Comisión para el Mercado Financiero, or CMF) has been the lead supervisory entity

of ﬁnancial markets in Chile and also the supervisor of TEF.

China The People’s Bank of China is the owner of the Internet Banking Payment System (IBPS). It is being operated

by China National Clearing Center, which is a public institution fully owned by the People’s Bank of China and

responsible for the operation, maintenance, and management of IBPS.

European Union The European Central Bank is the overseer of the Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) Instant Credit Transfer (SCT Inst)

scheme, while the Euro Retail Payments Board fosters the integration of euro retail payments across the European

Union. The European Payments Council (EPC) is the scheme manager and responsible for performing the functions

of management and evolution of the SEPA scheme as deﬁned in the rulebook. PSPs must be connected to at least

one clearing and settlement mechanism (CSM) to receive or send payments. Following a decision by the European

Central Bank’s Governing Council, by November 2021 PSPs that have adhered to the SCT Inst scheme and are

accessible in TARGET2 must also become reachable in the TARGET Instant Payment Settlement (TIPS) service.

They will still be able to participate in another CSM in addition to TIPS, if they choose to do so. Those CSMs will

also be connected to TIPS to ensure pan-European reachability.

Hong Kong SAR,

China

Hong Kong’s FPS is owned and overseen by the HKMA, and the operator is Hong Kong Interbank Clearing Ltd., a

private company jointly owned by HKMA and the Hong Kong Association of Banks.

India The National Payment Corporation of India (NPCI) is the owner and operator of IMPS and UPI. The PSS Act of 2007

designates the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) as the authority for regulation and supervision of payment systems in

India. NPCI has been authorized by the RBI to operate IMPS and UPI.

Kenya The Central Bank of Kenya is the overseer of the fast payment arrangement PesaLink. The Kenya Bankers

Association is the owner of PesaLink but formed a separate entity called Integrated Payment Services Ltd. to

operate it.

Malaysia BNM is the overseer of payment systems in Malaysia, including the RPP. PayNet is the owner and operator of

RPP. PayNet, formed by the merger of MyClear and MEPS, operates Malaysia’s shared payment infrastructures for

wholesale and retail payment transactions. PayNet is owned jointly by BNM and 11 commercial banks.

Mexico Banco de México is the owner, operator, and overseer of SPEI. In 2019, Banco de México restructured the

Directorate of Payment Systems to Directorate General of Payment Systems and Market Infrastructures to avoid

conﬂict of interest and the duplication of human capital in these specialized roles. The central bank also created

different directorates under the general directorate to fulﬁll its role as the operator and overseer (and regulator) of

payment systems. This restructuring applies to all the payment systems operated by Banco de México.

continued

BOX 3, continued

stakeholders of a fast payment system in its governance

arrangements. For example, a special consultative body

or a consultative committee representing the interests

of the wider participant/user base (beyond the initial

shareholders) might be created for consultation on a

regular basis or in relation to particular decisions of the

organization’s Board of Directors.

A major effect of this

involvement of multiple stakeholders is to signal that

ownership is not a sine qua non condition for having a

say in the decision making of the organization. In any

case, ownership should not be necessarily considered

static; opening ownership to PSPs or other institutions

different from the initial shareholders should be evalu-

ated and eventually revised periodically.

Considerations and Lessons for the Development and Implementation of Fast Payment Systems | 21

Singapore Banking Computer Services Pvt. Ltd. operates Fast and Secure Transfers (FAST). The scheme owner for FAST is the

Singapore Clearing House Association, which comprises the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) and all the

large commercial banks.

Thailand The National ITMX is the owner and operator of PromptPay, whereas the Bank of Thailand (BOT) acts as its overseer.

National ITMX was created as part of Payment System Road Map 1 (2002–04) published by the BOT. It is a legal

entity owned by Thai banks. National ITMX was chosen as the developer and operator of PromptPay, as it already

had the existing technical capability to operate the system and was the largest payment system operator running

four payment systems (that is, ATM switch, card switch, bulk payments, and single fund transfers for branches and

ATMs) when PromptPay was announced.

United Kingdom Pay.UK acts as the operator of FPS. Bank of England and the Payment Systems Regulator oversee and regulate FPS.

As a background to this sharing of roles, in 2019 a memorandum of understanding was signed between the Bank

of England, Financial Conduct Authority, and Payment Systems Regulator to set out the roles and responsibilities of

the bodies with respect to the payment landscape.

United States TCH is the owner and operator of Real-Time Payments (RTP). TCH is a banking association and payments company

that is owned by 24 commercial banks. TCH is regulated and examined regularly by supervisory staff from the

Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, the Ofﬁce of the Comptroller of the Currency, and the Federal

Deposit Insurance Corporation.

TABLE 4, continued

inator and/or beneﬁciary banks in cases where they are not

themselves direct participants in a CSM.

Systems that were introduced around 2010 initially

started by allowing only banks to be participants. The

rationale for allowing only banks to be participants was

that banks are comprehensively regulated and subject to

stringent capital requirements and thus are considered to

be safe options for being participants in the FPS. For exam-

ple, liquidity risk with banks is usually low, as they have

access to several liquidity sources, often including intraday

lending from the central bank to settle their positions. Non-

bank PSPs in some cases do not have settlement accounts

with the central bank; hence, their direct participation was

a challenge. In these earlier systems, non-banks came in as

a second step in select jurisdiction cases (such as India and

the United Kingdom) to promote innovation, improve cus-

tomer experience, increase competitiveness of offerings,

and drive ﬁnancial inclusion.

Varying access models for participation of non-bank PSPs

across jurisdictions include the following:

• Indirect participants: They are required to sign a com-

mercial agreement with a bank that is a direct partic-

ipant to use the payments infrastructure. PromptPay

(Thailand), PesaLink (Kenya), and FPS (Hong Kong SAR,

China), among others, have adopted this model.

• Direct participants: Eligible non-bank PSPs can be di-

rect participants and fulﬁll their settlement obligations

through their own settlement account at the central

bank. System such as RPP (Malaysia) and SPEI (Mexico)

have adopted this model.

• Direct connection to infrastructure but indirect for

settlement: Non-bank PSPs can connect directly to

the infrastructure but fulﬁll their settlement obligations

through a commercial bank. In India, IMPS has adopted

this model.

Most jurisdictions studied (see table 5) do not mandate

the participation of banks but have seen a positive uptake

from them. This can be attributed to the fact that most

banks were involved from the conceptualization stage

and that banks willingly joined the resulting fast payment

arrangement. In contrast, in other jurisdictions, speciﬁc

actions have been taken to promote the participation of

banks. In Bahrain, for example, the Central Bank of Bah-

rain mandated that all banks provide inward Fawri+ trans-

actions (real-time P2P fund transfers). Additionally, some

jurisdictions introduced incentive measures to boost par-

ticipant adoption.

In any case, different regulatory requirements need to

be fulﬁlled by banks and other PSPs to qualify for direct or

indirect participation. Still, at present, a slight majority of

the jurisdictions studied allow only banks as direct partici-

pants. However, this is changing, and jurisdictions that did

not allow direct participation by non-bank PSPs in their fast

payment arrangement in the recent past are now allowing

it (for example, Singapore and probably also Kenya in the

near future).

22 | Considerations and Lessons for the Development and Implementation of Fast Payment Systems

TABLE 5: Select Findings on Participants in Fast Payment Arrangements and Access Criteria

Australia The NPP allows as full participants authorized deposit-taking institutions or restricted authorized deposit-taking

institutions with the RBA’s Exchange Settlement Accounts (ESA) membership. These authorized deposit-taking

institutions include banks, building societies, and credit unions.

The NPP has been designed to provide different pathways for entities to leverage the NPP’s functionality. Financial

institutions can either become full participants through direct membership or opt for indirect membership. They

can also become “Settlement Participants” (they can perform clearing functions on behalf of a NPP full participant)

and “Identiﬁed Institutions” (they can perform clearing and settlement functions on behalf of a NPP full participant).

The NPP also allows “Connected Institutions” to connect directly with the system. The latter are able only to

initiate payments from a customer’s account and do not provide clearing and settlement services. Connected

institutions need to meet the technical and other associated requirements.

Bahrain A directive from the Central Bank of Bahrain provides the eligibility criteria for licensed banks and non-bank PSPs to

participate, while the central bank’s rulebook provides the overall regulatory requirements, conditions and process

of licensing, and regulation and supervision of licensees that provide regulated ﬁnancial services in the kingdom.

The license application must be in the prescribed form and include the following:

• A business plan specifying the type of activities to be conducted

• Application forms for all controllers

• Application forms for all controlled functions

Hong Kong SAR,

China

A direct participant is a licensed bank in Hong Kong under the Banking Ordinance (Cap. 155 of the Laws of Hong

Kong) that also participates in the Clearing House Automated Transfer System (CHATS) of the relevant currency in

Hong Kong. An indirect participant is a stored-value facility (SVF) licensed by the HKMA under the Payment Systems

and Stored Value Facilities Ordinance. It has access to all FPS services and engages a direct participant for settling

funds in FPS.

India Banks and prepaid payment instrument licensees are allowed to participate in both IMPS and UPI. Separately, UPI

allows third-party payment initiation service providers, such as Google Pay and Amazon Pay, that connect to banks.

This has facilitated a foray of ﬁntechs into the payment system that brought greater technological know-how and

better customer experience.

Kenya Member banks of the Kenya Bankers Association are direct participants in PesaLink, while payment service

aggregators such as ﬁntechs are allowed as indirect participants. There are plans to upgrade the existing switch to

allow the latter entities to connect directly to the PesaLink infrastructure. In this regard, Integrated Payment Services

Ltd. has onboarded the vendor, and the project is expected to be completed in 2021.

Malaysia Participation in the prior FPS was limited only to banks. Pursuant to the Interoperable Credit Transfer Framework

issued by BNM, which came into effect July 1, 2018, PayNet has implemented an open-access regime where all

banks and eligible non-bank e-money issuers are allowed to participate in the RPP as direct participants. As the RPP

settles all transactions in the RTGS system, non-banks that are not direct participants in the latter may appoint a

settlement bank to settle the RPP transactions on their behalf.

Mexico All banks and non-bank ﬁnancial entities that are regulated and supervised by Banco de México or other Mexican

ﬁnancial authorities are eligible to participate in SPEI.

The access requirements are essentially the same for all

participants, thus ensuring equal treatment. Banco de México requires institutions that intend to participate in SPEI

to satisfy the operational risk-management and information-security requirements it has established. It also has a

review procedure to determine whether applicants meet the legal requirements for participation established in the

SPEI regulation.

SPEI participants are also able to participate in the overlay service CoDi if they fulﬁll a functionality certiﬁcation

and satisfy technological requirements speciﬁc to CoDi. Banks participating in SPEI that have more than 3,000

accounts and offer fund transfers through an app are also obligated to offer CoDi to their customers.

Poland Only banks participate in Express Elixir, as they have settlement accounts with the National Bank of Poland. Since non-

banks do not have access to the Sorbnet (Poland’s RTGS system) account, they do not participate in Express Elixir.

Singapore MAS has allowed non-banks to become direct participants in FAST since February 2021.

Thailand PromptPay allows only commercial banks in Thailand to become direct participants.

More speciﬁcally, to become a full participant in PromptPay, ﬁnancial institutions must meet one of the following

requirements:

• Be a commercial bank under the Commercial Banking Act of 1962

• Be a ﬁnancial institution established by speciﬁc law

Moreover, interested ﬁnancial institutions need to pay a membership fee and comply with the business rules set by

National ITMX.

Non-bank PSPs are allowed to become indirect participants through sponsor banks. Indirect participants are

required to sign a commercial agreement with a direct participant before connecting indirectly with PromptPay.

continued

Considerations and Lessons for the Development and Implementation of Fast Payment Systems | 23

iii. Industry Body Collaborations

Industry bodies can play an important facilitating role in

the development of fast payment projects.

Some jurisdictions have collaborations with industry bod-

ies, such as banking associations. Many of these associations

play a key role in creating a collaborative ecosystem by driv-

ing consensus among participant banks and therefore have

often been relevant contributors to the deployment of fast

payments. Banking associations also ensure the effective

implementation of guidelines/regulations, including those

governing pricing schemes, risk management, and dispute

resolution. This ensures the safety and resiliency of the pay-

ment systems. In some cases (see table 6, as well as the case

of Poland), industry bodies have gone beyond and actually

funded or developed the fast payment project.

IV. Systemic Importance of Fast Payment

Arrangements

Statutory deﬁnitions of systemic importance, where they

exist, may vary somewhat across jurisdictions, but, in gen-

eral, a payment system is systemically important if it has the

potential to trigger or transmit systemic disruptions. This

includes, among other things, systems that are the sole pay-

ment system in a country or the principal system in terms

of the aggregate value of payments; systems that handle

mainly time-critical, high-value payments; and systems that

settle payments used to effect settlement in other systemi-

cally important ﬁnancial market infrastructures (FMIs).

In some jurisdictions, fast payment arrangements are

considered to be or have been designated a systemically

important payment system (SIPS) by the central bank.

United Kingdom Currently, both banks and non-banks can become direct participants. While non-bank PSPs were initially not

allowed as direct participants, with the motive to promote competitiveness, a new access model was developed

in 2018 that allows non-banks to connect directly to the central infrastructure of FPS. At the same time, they need

not have a settlement account at Bank of England’s RTGS system by becoming a “Directly Connected Non-Settling

Participant.” In this case, they are required to have an agreement with a sponsor bank that settles their transactions

at the RTGS system.

United States RTP allows every federally insured depository institution in the United States to connect. These institutions can

connect with the system either directly or through third-party service providers (TPSPs). RTP participation rules

deﬁne the following four participant categories:

• Funding participant: The participant that has become a party to the RTP Prefunded Balance Account Agreement

and requests and receives disbursements from the Prefunded Balance Account to its Federal Reserve account. In

case it is a sending participant, it is required to fulﬁll prefunding obligations.

• Non-funding participant: The participant that is not a funding participant and has designated a funding agent

to act on its behalf to prefund in accordance with the RTP participation rules and RTP operating rules.

• Receiving participant: The participant that holds the receiver’s account and receives a payment message.

• Sending participant: The participant that holds the sender’s account and initiates a payment message.

Non-bank PSPs such as PayPal and Venmo use RTP. They submit transactions via their bank, just as any other

commercial user would do.

Through this designation, they become subject to the Prin-

ciples for Financial Market Infrastructures (PFMIs) published

by CPMI and the International Organization of Securities

Commissions (IOSCO).

In other cases, fast payment arrangements are designated

“prominently important payment systems” or “system-wide

important payment systems.”

In either case, only a subset

of the PFMIs becomes applicable to them. Two of the four

jurisdictions described in table 7 classify their fast payment

arrangement as systemically important. In one (Mexico),

the classiﬁcation as systemically important derives from the

RTGS system, as fast payments run on this same platform.

4.1.3 Funding and Pricing to Participants

Fast payments require sophisticated infrastructure that

translates into important investments. Fast payments also

require attention to proper and effective pricing policies.

The infrastructure underlying fast payments should be able

to handle large volumes and values of payments, execute

multiple processes within seconds, and run clearing and set-

tlement reliably with minimal errors and reconciliation issues

across all participants. This requires signiﬁcant investments

in technology and operations during the project develop-

ment phase.

In practice, the following two main types of funding

mechanisms have been observed (see table 8):

• Funding by public authorities: Public authorities, in

particular the central bank, provide full or partial fund-

ing to the fast payment arrangement and therefore are

full owners or co-owners. Examples include Australia,

TABLE 5, continued

Kenya Financial Sector Deepening, a nonproﬁt organization that supports the development of an inclusive ﬁnancial market

in Kenya, built the business case for PesaLink. It played an instrumental role throughout the development of the

system.

Thailand The National e-Payment Plan was driven by the government, although funding of PromptPay project was through

the Thai Bankers Association, which works to execute BOT policies and projects through consensus. The BOT has

provided approval to the association to establish the Payment Systems Ofﬁce, which plays an important role in

driving self-regulation among commercial banks. It also helps in interbank dispute resolutions. The Payment Systems

Ofﬁce has established a governance structure in the form of a joint steering committee that comprises members

from commercial banks in Thailand.

Mexico SPEI is the central bank’s RTGS system and therefore the core FMI in Mexico, and it is deemed a SIPS as per the

Payment Systems Law.

Singapore Payment systems in Singapore can be classiﬁed as a SIPS or as a “system-wide important payment system.” FAST is

classiﬁed as a system-wide important payment system and designated under the Payment Services Act.

Thailand The BOT has deemed the ITMX system to be a “prominently important retail payment system.” ITMX includes an

interbank retail fund transfer system, such as ATM pool, bulk payment system and the PromptPay module for fast

payments.

United Kingdom FPS is recognized by HM Treasury under part 5 of the Banking Act (2009) as a systemically important FMI and is

overseen by Bank of England.

TABLE 6: Select Findings on Industry Body Collaborations

TABLE 7: Select Findings on the Classiﬁcation of Fast Payment Arrangements as per Their Systemic Importance

TABLE 8: Select Findings on Funding

Hong Kong SAR, China, Malaysia, and Mexico. The rea-

sons for public funding include ensuring prompt im-

plementation of the fast payment arrangement and/or

keeping ﬁnal prices low or affordable for end users (of-

ten for a limited period of time), among others.

• Funding by private sector: Participants in the arrange-

ment provide full funding through ownership of the

operating entity, banking associations, or other means.

Examples include Kenya, Thailand, the United Kingdom,

and the United States (RTP).

On the other hand, the owner(s) of the fast payment

arrangement can price the services provided to participants

based on considerations such as the following:

• Generating proﬁts

• Recovering investments, covering operational expenses,

and preparing for future investment needs

• Recovering operational expenses only

The pricing strategy will depend on ownership (that is, pri-

vate ownership will generally entail seeking proﬁts or at least

fully covering costs) and whether there is some type of ini-

tial or ongoing funding from public authorities and other

operational arrangements.

In practice, the pricing structure of fast payment arrange-

ments for services provided to participants generally com-

prises a combination of the following:

Australia Twelve authorized deposit-taking institutions committed to funding the building and operation of the NPP

and became the founding members and co-owners of the operator NPPA. The RBA played a signiﬁcant role in

establishing the broad direction of the industry’s efforts and is also one of the founding members and co-owner of

NPPA.

Hong Kong SAR,

China

FPS is a HKMA-funded project.

Mexico SPEI development costs have been borne by Banco de México.

Poland Express Elixir was funded by system operator KIR, which is owned by multiple banks in Poland; the central bank is

the largest shareholder.

Thailand Funding for PromptPay was provided through the Thai Bankers Association, which coordinated with commercial

banks.

United States The cost of developing RTP has been shared by the consortium of commercial banks that own the operator TCH.

24 | Considerations and Lessons for the Development and Implementation of Fast Payment Systems

Considerations and Lessons for the Development and Implementation of Fast Payment Systems | 25

• Joining fee: Participants are required to pay a joining

fee while onboarding the system. In general, the joining

fee is structured to cover the due diligence that the op-

erator must carry out to onboard the bank or other PSP

and is usually proportional to the size of the participant.

Jurisdictions such as Hong Kong SAR, China, India, Ma-

laysia, and Thailand charge a joining fee to system par-

ticipants. In Australia, direct participants are required to

become shareholders of the operator NPPA.

• Variable or per-transaction processing fees: These are

usually structured to cover the full complement of the

operating expenses. Jurisdictions such as Australia, India,

and the United States charge a per-transaction fee to the

participants. RTP in the United States applies the same fee

to all participants with no volume discounts, no volume

commitments, and no monthly minimums. In Hong Kong,

participants are charged on a per-transaction basis, and

fees also depend on the transaction amount. In Thailand,

a variable fee is applied based on the number of monthly

transactions processed and follows a tiered approach.

• Annual/ﬁxed fee: This is often used to cover a portion

of the base operating expenses, recoup investment costs,

and build up a reserve to fund future investment costs. It

can be the only applicable fee or charged in addition to

other fees. In Australia, apart from the joining fee, an an-

nual fee is charged by the RBA for the services it provides.

(See table 9.) In Mexico, the ﬁxed annual fee is calculated

by distributing system costs among participants based on

the relative proportion of each participant’s payments.

Different strategies can be followed to determine how much

to load on ﬁxed fees versus variable fees. A higher ﬁxed fee

relative to transaction fees is beneﬁcial for participants with

higher transaction volumes, whereas lower ﬁxed fees rela-

tive to transaction fees are beneﬁcial to participants with

lower transaction volumes. Some operators might apply

a tiered structure for the ﬁxed fee based on the size and

nature of the participant. Combinations that were observed

are shown in ﬁgure 10. In certain cases, especially in com-

plex fast payment arrangements, the operator could have

additional avenues to charge fees to third-party apps, for

third-party aggregators that are connected and/or for val-

ue-added services such as data analytics and fraud scoring.

In some cases, participants also pay interchange fees (for

example, India and Thailand).

Participants usually recover the various costs they incur

for participating in the fast payment arrangement by way

of charges to their customers (that is, the end users). In

many jurisdictions, transaction fees to end users have been

capped (for example, by the overseer) to promote adoption,

limiting the avenues of revenue for the participants. This is

the case in Bahrain, Mexico, and Thailand, among others. A

few jurisdictions, including Bahrain and Malaysia, have even

waived the transaction fee up to a certain transaction-value

threshold. Table 9 provides additional details on participat-

ing fee structures and customer pricing.

For more details, refer to the special topic note on pricing

structure, which forms part of the Fast Payments Toolkit.

4.2 MODULE B: SYSTEM SPECIFICATIONS AND

OPERATING PROCEDURES

This module focuses on assessing the current state of tech-

nology in aspects like payment processing and telecom-

munications. The following ﬁve insights are covered in this

thematic area/module:

1. Infrastructure development

2. Technical speciﬁcations

3. Network connectivity

4. Clearing and settlement

5. Interoperability

JURISDICTION

JOINING

FEE

ANNUAL

FEE

VARIABLE FEE/

TRANSACTION

FEE

Australia

✔ ✔ ✔

Bahrain

✔ ✔

Chile

✔ ✔

Hong Kong

SAR, China

✔ ✔

India

✔

Kenya

✔

Malaysia

✔ ✔ ✔

Mexico

✔ ✔

Singapore

✔ ✔

Thailand

✔ ✔

USA

✔

FIGURE 10: Fee Structure in Fast Payment Arrangements

for Participants

26 | Considerations and Lessons for the Development and Implementation of Fast Payment Systems

TABLE 9: Select Findings on Fee Structures

Australia All direct participants are required to become shareholders of NPPA, which operates on a ﬁxed-cost-recovery model;

operating costs are recovered from shareholders according to their size (shareholder band). The ﬁxed-cost-recovery

model provides an incentive to direct participants to increase the volume on the platform, as the marginal cost for

additional transactions is very small, and this in turn inﬂuences the pricing offered to “Identiﬁed Institutions.” NPPA’s

ultimate aim is to move to a unit transaction cost per transaction once volumes stabilize.

A wholesale fee could also be charged to all participants, which will be the same regardless of participant size. An

application fee is also payable to NPPA for new participants, along with a dispute-resolution fee charged by NPPA.

The RBA charges only direct participants and settlement participants for the use of their ESA accounts.

The fee charged by direct participants to submembers is based on the bilateral agreement between the parties.

No guidelines have been provided by the RBA/NPPA. Transaction charges to end users depend on the commercial

decisions of participants, and no upper cap has been set by the RBA/NPPA.

Hong Kong SAR,

China

Participants are charged fees on a per-transaction basis, but the fee is also dependent on transaction amount.

Participants are also charged a clearing-house admission fee and an interchange fee. Banks and SVFs have been

given the liberty to decide the fee levied on end users.

India The fee charged by NPCI is set by the NPCI board; inter-participant charges are decided by the IMPS/UPI steering

committee; and transaction user charges are decided by the participants.

Malaysia RPP participants pay an admission fee and monthly subscription fees. To encourage adoption, PayNet had waived

both the admission fee for participants who were onboarded before December 31, 2019, and the monthly

subscription fees for the initial ﬁrst six months of participation. Additionally, PayNet applies a transaction-processing

fee that varies according to the transaction type.

In terms of customer pricing, for individuals and small and medium-sized enterprises, the transaction fee is

waived (by order of BNM) for any transfers up to RM 5,000. For transfers above RM 5,000, a transaction fee may

be applicable, although some banks are also waiving this fee to encourage adoption.

Mexico Banco de México has adopted a pricing scheme that aims to cover the full costs of developing, maintaining,

and operating SPEI without affecting its adoption adversely. Fees charged to participants reﬂect marginal zero

processing costs, to incentivize among participants an efﬁcient use of SPEI and reduce entry barriers.

More speciﬁcally, Banco de México has established a scheme in which participants pay a ﬁxed fee that allows

them to send and receive an unlimited amount of payments. The annual ﬁxed fee varies for different participants

and is calculated by distributing total costs based on the share of each participant in the total number of payments

made through the system during a speciﬁc period (the last ﬁve years). In addition, participants are required to pay

an “operations fee” that is calculated on the basis of multiple factors, such as the number of returns for which a

participant is liable, fund transfer orders done through CLS Bank, and the number of bytes retransmitted by SPEI

at a participant’s request.

Regarding charges to end users, Banco de México forbids charges for receiving payments, but it allows

participants to decide user charges for sending payments. All participants are required to register their customer

fees with Banco de México.

For payments made through the overlay CoDi, Banco de México has waived off end-user charges, including the

merchant discount rate. Participants charge no fees to the payer or payee.

Singapore FAST and PayNow operate on a cost-recovery basis. MAS does not regulate the pricing of payment services, and

banks can make their own commercial decisions.

Thailand Fees charged by National ITMX comprise a ﬁxed fee (joining fee) and a variable fee. The joining fee is based on the

following two components:

1. Size of the bank: Three tiers have been created based on size (that is, large, medium, and small). Larger banks are

required to pay a higher joining fee.

2. Number of services to which participants subscribe: Participants can choose the services availed through

PromptPay. The majority of charges are associated with fund transfer services, as it determines the amount of

investment needed to connect with PromptPay.

The variable fee is based on the number of monthly transactions submitted by a participant. This also follows a

tiered approach. Large banks usually process a higher number of transactions and are given a cheaper tier.

There is also an interchange fee between the participants for PromptPay transactions.

There are no charges to individuals for payments through digital channels such as internet banking and mobile

banking, whereas there are some nominal charges for channels such as ATMs and branches. These charges have been

regulated by the BOT and vary between zero and B 10 for individuals and between B 10 and B 15 for juristic persons.

United Kingdom The following categories of charges need to be paid by each participant:

Relevant fee for onboarding each new participant

• A monthly fee from each participant that directly connects to the system

• Volume fee to cover the anticipated annual volume

continued

Considerations and Lessons for the Development and Implementation of Fast Payment Systems | 27

TABLE 9, continued

United States RTP follows the same pricing structure for all participants, with no volume discounts, no volume commitments,

and no monthly minimums, to ensure that ﬁnancial institutions of all sizes participate on the same terms. System

participants are not required to pay joining fees while onboarding the system. Participants pay only for the

transactions they originate.

There is an inter-participant fee in the form of a “Request for Payment Incentive Fee.” Upon each successful RFP

credit transfer sent in response to a request-for-payment message, the participant that initiated the request for

payment owes the incentive fee to the participant initiating the RFP credit transfer. TCH facilitates the collection and

disbursement of these fees between the participants.

There is also a network connectivity fee, which is calculated by TCH and charged as a pass-through on a monthly

basis. Connectivity costs apply to any participant with a direct connection. In the case of a TPSP, the connectivity fee

is shared by the ﬁnancial institutions connecting through it.

Each RTP participant is free to decide the transaction charges that apply to end users.

4.2.1 Infrastructure Development

Infrastructure development is a complex process that must

be evaluated holistically. Jurisdiction-speciﬁc approaches

vary based on their existing ecosystem, customer needs, and

the supporting infrastructure.

The following aspects of infrastructure development

are covered as part of this section: (i) a new platform ver-

sus upgrading an existing one; (ii) development timelines;

(iii) choosing an external vendor partner versus leveraging

in-house capacity; and (iv) participant onboarding.

It is noted that during infrastructure development, cer-

tain amendments to existing acts have been made or new

acts and regulations have been introduced. These aspects

are discussed in Module D, as part of the insight into legal

and regulatory considerations.

i. New Platform versus Upgrading an Existing One

Most fast payment arrangements have been developed

as new infrastructures, as existing platforms were felt to

be inadequate to cater to the very dynamic needs of fast

payments.

During the preliminary desk research, it was found that

nearly 90 percent of the 25 jurisdictions examined, devel-

oped their fast payment arrangement over a new platform.

Jurisdictions make the decision based on factors such as

existing capabilities, cost implications, customer experi-

ence, and supporting infrastructure. Typically, it has been

observed that most jurisdictions evaluated the option of

building over an existing payment platform but eventually

created a new one, as their existing system could not cater

to the dynamic needs of fast payments.

Key outcomes of the analysis include the following (see

table 10 for additional details):

• Jurisdictions developed new platforms because existing

capabilities did not support the technology, security, or

infrastructural requirements of fast payments, such as

24/7 transaction processing, multiple channels, and sig-

niﬁcantly higher volume/scale of transactions. Among

others, this was the case of Australia, Bahrain, and Poland.

• Other reasons for developing a new platform included

promoting continuous innovation and leveraging the

latest technologies (for example, India and Malaysia),

and facilitating broader digitization initiatives (for ex-

ample, Hong Kong and Thailand).

• In a few cases (such as Mexico), the jurisdiction opted

for upgrading an existing platform.

ii. Development Timelines

Most jurisdictions have adopted a phased approach for

implementing their fast payment arrangement. The aver-

age implementation time of a basic fast payment func-

tionality and service is between one and three years.

The timelines for fast payment implementation depend on

such aspects as the functionalities that are intended to be

available at launch, whether the timeline has been man-

dated by public authorities, and the time taken to get par-

ticipants on board, among other factors.

Most jurisdictions have adopted a phased approach for

implementation. (See table 11.) For example, many jurisdic-

tions went live with a rather basic infrastructure enabling

P2P payments. The infrastructure implementation of a basic

28 | Considerations and Lessons for the Development and Implementation of Fast Payment Systems

fast payment functionality and service takes an average of

one to three years. However, in some cases, even the imple-

mentation of this basic functionality took much longer, as

was the case in Australia.

The phased approach is decided based on consider-

ations such as the overseer mandating participation, system

readiness, participant readiness, and even customer readi-

ness. Mandating that banks with a large customer base par-

ticipate (at least in receive mode) can play an important role

in achieving critical mass.

Over the years, the operators subsequently introduced

upgrades and additional functionalities in terms of pay-

ment types, use cases, and channels. A few operators have

also opened their basic infrastructure for third-party pro-

viders to introduce more innovative payment solutions in

the market.

Australia The NPP was built as a new platform to create a thriving environment for innovation (that is, to have the mechanism

for more business services to exist on top of the platform).

At the time of infrastructure development, the RBA and the industry considered upgrading the existing direct-entry

system, instead of building a new platform from scratch. However, it was concluded that the direct-entry system

would not be the right starting point and that an entirely new platform was needed, as this would be the least

disruptive approach to both participating institutions and businesses and would allow those businesses that had a

need for new services to access them.

Bahrain The Electronic Fund Transfer System (EFTS) was built as a new platform, as it was envisaged that the existing

RTGS system would be unable to support a large volume of transactions. EFTS supports Fawri+ for real-time P2P

payments, Fawri for deferred payments, and Fawateer for bill payments.

India UPI was built as a new platform. UPI offers an architecture framework and a set of standard speciﬁcations for

application programming interfaces (APIs) to facilitate online payments. UPI evolved as a payment platform driving

open and interoperable payment standards driven at the front end using mobile devices for P2P and person-to-

merchant services.

UPI has made buying and selling through ﬁntech app solutions easier, for both e-commerce providers and

consumers. This has created a huge demand in the ﬁntech industry, as UPI has opened a host of opportunities for

start-ups and e-commerce players to come up with innovative solutions that elevate the customer experience.

Malaysia Instead of enhancing the prior Instant Transfer System, which operated on the legacy ATM/card switch and ISO 8583

messaging standard, the RPP was built as a new platform to provide a more open and scalable platform on which

better overlay services could be developed. The objective was to develop an agile system that supports a richer

messaging standard (ISO 20022) that could be improved continuously as the nature of the payments landscape

changes.

Mexico SPEI was developed in-house by Banco de México to handle all transactions—both high- and low-value

transactions—and provide the desired service levels for large volumes. Although SPEI was a new platform when

launched in 2004, Banco de México wanted to ensure a seamless transition for participants, so it reutilized the

front-end components of the previous RTGS system (that is, SPEUA). Operating hours were extended to 24/7 in

2015. In 2019, Banco de México launched CoDi (in the form of a request-to-pay functionality) to enhance the user

experience for retail payments.

Poland KIR already operated Elixir (a conventional payment platform) that enjoyed high adoption. However, for fast

payments, KIR decided to develop a new platform (Express Elixir), as it believed the nature of these payments is

quite different. For example, the protocols of conventional payment platforms cannot be used for instant payments

due to the different response times or data sizes of the latter. Parameters such as security, liquidity, and settlement

mechanism also work differently.

TABLE 10: Select Findings on New Infrastructure Development versus Existing System Upgrades

iii. External Vendor Partner versus Leveraging

In-House Capacity

The advantages and disadvantages of having an external

vendor versus leveraging in-house development vary by

jurisdiction. A majority of the jurisdictions analyzed in this

study opted for an external vendor.

The main beneﬁt of onboarding a vendor partner seems to

be that they already have prebuilt, tested solutions. These

can be customized and leveraged.

Jurisdictions that decide to bring in an external vendor

typically go through a request-for-proposal process for ven-

dor shortlisting and onboarding. Some of the key selection

criteria for vendors include prior experience implementing

fast payments or other payment systems, implementa-

tion timelines, the ability to customize to the jurisdiction’s

requirement, and an experienced team and agile delivery

methods, among others.

In some jurisdictions, external

Considerations and Lessons for the Development and Implementation of Fast Payment Systems | 29

TABLE 11: Select Findings on System Development Timelines and Services Available at Launch

continued

JURISDICTION

YEAR OF

LAUNCH

TIME TO

IMPLEMENT SERVICES MADE AVAILABLE AT LAUNCH REMARKS

Australia (NPP) 2018 Six years The NPP went live with use cases such as

P2P payments, merchant payments, and

bill payments. In 2019, NPPA published

a road map with plans to roll out the

“Mandated Payments Services,” which will

enable use cases such as request to pay,

future-dated payments, and bulk payments.

All participating ﬁnancial institutions are

required to implement this capability by

December 2021. Thus, it is anticipated that

ﬁnancial institutions will begin to roll out

these services in early 2022.

The implementation of the NPP took

approximately six years and was preceded by

a two-year “strategic review of innovation”

by the RBA. The initial target to launch the

NPP was 2016. After the launch of the NPP,

a few major banks were slow to make the

new system available to their customers due

to issues with internal systems and service

providers.

Bahrain

(Fawri+)

2015 Two years Fawri+ supports P2P payments. The

request-to-pay transactions can be made

through BeneﬁtPay, the national e-wallet

payment system. Fawateer supports bill

payments.

The banks experienced delays updating their

systems, processes, and infrastructures.

China (IBPS) 2010 9-12

months

IBPS supports multiple use cases/services,

such as P2P payments, bill payments, and

recurring payments (credit card repayment,

loan repayment).

In November 2009, the development

process of IBPS started. In August 2010,

technical preparation, system veriﬁcation,

and other critical processes were completed.

The ﬁrst group of participating institutions

went online for trial operation on August

31, 2010. In December 2010, the second

group of participating institutions entered

into operation, while the third group did

so in January 2011, thereby completing the

nationwide launch of IBPS.

European

Union (SCT

Inst)

2017 One year SCT Inst supports multiple use cases, such

as merchant and bill payments and bulk

and future-dated payments.

The EPC’s SEPA request-to-pay scheme has

been developed, and the adherence process

for PSPs has started.

Hong Kong

SAR, China

(FPS)

2018 One year FPS supports merchant payments, request

to pay using QR codes, bulk/batch

payments, and bill payments.

India (IMPS

and UPI)

IMPS—

2010

Less than

12 months

IMPS went live with use cases such as

P2P payments, merchant payments, bill

payments, and bulk/batch Payments.

IMPS allowed inclusion of non-banks (prepaid

payment instruments) as participants

in 2011. It also extended support for channels

such as internet banking and ATMs as

adoption of the mobile-banking channel

was then low.

UPI—

2016

Less than

12 months

UPI went live with use cases such as

P2P payments, merchant payments, bill

payments, bulk payments, and request

to pay. Future-dated payments were

launched under UPI 2.0 in 2018. UPI also

extended support for use cases such as IPO

subscription, signed QR, invoice in the box,

and foreign inward remittances.

Prior to rollout of UPI, NPCI conducted a

pilot launch with 21 member banks.

Kenya

(PesaLink)

2017 Two years,

six months

PesaLink supports bill payments and

bulk payments as use cases. There are

discussions to roll out request-to-pay use

case.

It was necessary to take buy-in from all

participating banks that posed a challenge

during implementation.

Malaysia (RPP) 2018 One year Currently, RPP supports P2P and merchant

payments.

New use cases—that is, request to pay,

consent (e-mandates), real-time debit,

and cross-border payments—are under

development.

30 | Considerations and Lessons for the Development and Implementation of Fast Payment Systems

TABLE 11, continued

JURISDICTION

YEAR OF

LAUNCH

TIME TO

IMPLEMENT SERVICES MADE AVAILABLE AT LAUNCH REMARKS

Mexico (SPEI) 2004 Two

years, four

months

Initially, it facilitated P2P payments and

bulk/batch payments. The overlay service

CoDi, which enabled request-to-pay

functionality, was developed in 16 months

and was launched in September 2019. CoDi

complements other use cases, such as

merchant payments and bill payments.

SPEI has expanded its operating hours

(currently 24/7) and participation criteria

to meet the growing needs of the Mexican

payments market.

Poland

(Express Elixir)

2012 One year,

six months

Express Elixir currently supports merchant

payments, request to pay, and bill

payments. It plans to provide bulk and

batch payments in the future

Thailand

(PromptPay)

2017 One year,

six months

The credit transfer service was launched in

January 2017. Interbank bill payment service

was enabled on November 2017. Request-

to-pay functionality (PayAlert) was enabled

in March 2018. The e-donation service was

launched in July 2018.

Initially, PromptPay was supposed to go live in

November 2016. Due to technical issues, it was

delayed by two months. Since then, more use

cases, additional payment types, and access

channels have been enabled.

United

Kingdom

(FPS)

2008 Three years FPS supports forward-dated payment,

bill payment, standing orders, and bulk

payments use case. In 2020, a request-to-

pay functionality and conﬁrmation of payee

was launched.

United States

(RTP)

2017 Two years,

six months

RTP system went live with use cases such

as P2P payments, request to pay (called

“request for payment”), bulk payments,

merchant payments, and bill payments.

It took 12 months to deﬁne the system

requirements in collaboration with market

participants. Additionally, it took 12 months for

system development and six months for testing

and to onboard the initial six participants.

vendors are also contracted to operate and maintain the

system for a period.

Table 12 presents ﬁndings on the choices made by select

jurisdictions in this area. While the majority of jurisdictions

analyzed opted for an external vendor to develop a new

platform, some still went for an in-house development by

the central bank (for example, Mexico) or the existing opera-

tor of a retail payment system (for example, Thailand).

iv. Participant Onboarding

Many operators of fast payment arrangements have

already deﬁned comprehensive and well-structured on-

boarding processes for participants.

As shown in table 13, most operators in the jurisdictions

analyzed have deﬁned the requirements and processes for

participant onboarding. In general, the following main steps

TABLE 12: Select Findings on External Vendor versus In-House Development

Australia The industry committee contracted SWIFT to build the NPP’s basic infrastructure. SWIFT is also responsible for

operating the system. Additionally, the industry realized early on that it was important to have an initial consumer-

oriented “convenience” service at launch for the platform to have traction. Thus, BPay was selected as the vendor

to design the ﬁrst overlay service (that is, Osko, the customer-oriented convenience service).

Malaysia RPP was built by a shortlisted vendor—ACI. This company was chosen from other applicants, as their solution was

agile and could be conﬁgured easily.

Mexico SPEI’s development was done using the in-house capability of Banco de México. As SPEI is the most important

payment system, Banco de México consciously decided not to hire an external vendor. Additional factors for

in-house development included development cost and considerations regarding the proprietary communication

protocol used by Banco de México.

United Kingdom The entire platform was built from scratch. An invitation to tender was circulated to ﬁve bidders. The successful

joint bid resulted in Voca and LINK establishing a joint venture company called Immediate Payments Ltd.

United States TCH partnered with Vocalink to develop RTP. A request for proposals was issued for vendor selection, and three

service providers responded to TCH. After the selection process laid out by TCH, Vocalink was onboarded to

develop the system in December 2015.

Considerations and Lessons for the Development and Implementation of Fast Payment Systems | 31

in the onboarding process were identiﬁed through the deep

dives:

• Interested entities have to communicate their intention

of joining the fast payment arrangement to the operator

and the central bank (or, when applicable, to another

public authority acting as the regulator and/or overseer).

• The operator provides initial membership documen-

tation to the applicants. Upon submission of the par-

ticipation application and supporting documents, the

operator accepts the application if all eligibility require-

ments have been satisﬁed. A membership fee (or equiv-

alent) is often due at this time.

• Prospective participants are required to establish a

secure connection with the core infrastructure to ex-

change payment and nonpayment messages with the

operator and other participants. All prospective par-

ticipants then have to go through extensive testing/

certiﬁcation to verify that they meet the technical re-

quirements to connect to the system and to be able to

operate satisfactorily. In some countries, the operator

also requires an external auditor to conduct an audit of

the participant before going live.

• Upon successful completion of the testing/certiﬁcation,

prospective participants have to enter into an agree-

ment/contract with the operator by which they agree

to observe and abide by the rules and operating proce-

dures laid out by the central bank and the operator it-

self. A common operating procedure across the globe is

the continued availability of a participant’s fast payment

gateway from the point of going live.

Australia The NPP has designed a comprehensive and well-structured onboarding process for participants. Major steps

during the onboarding process are as follows:

• Application process: NPPA provides initial membership documentation. The applicant provides completed

participation application and supporting documents.

• Acceptance of participant application: NPPA accepts application if all eligibility requirements have been satisﬁed

and determines the applicant’s proportionate share of investment. (All direct applicants are required to become

shareholders of NPPA.)

• Plan and build: The participant develops the project plan and builds the system as per the technical design.

• Certiﬁcation and onboarding: The participant is required to meet test requirements (system/buddy testing).

Once all testing and certiﬁcation is completed, the participant is onboarded

Bahrain For participation in EFTS, participants need to fulﬁll the following technical requirements, and testing is done prior

to onboarding:

• Documentation (participants need to enter a contract with BENEFIT), and technical requirement documents are

provided.

• Participants also need to adopt the standard ISO 20022 messaging format.

• Prior to going live with the system, participants must complete the certiﬁcation cycle. This includes initial testing

with EFTS simulators as per predeﬁned test scripts.

European Union Applicants are required to submit to the EPC an executed undertaking and original adherence agreement, along

with supporting documentation. As per the internal rules speciﬁed by EPC, an application date is speciﬁed when

an applicant becomes a participant.

Hong Kong SAR,

China

The onboarding process consists of the following:

• Enrollment with HKMA for Hong Kong dollar-denominated (HKD) fast payments and/or Bank of China (Hong

Kong) Ltd. for renminbi (RMB) fast payments.

• Signing of conﬁrmation letters agreeing to observe and abide by the HKD FPS rules and RMB FPS rules,

respectively, as well as relevant operating procedures upon completion of enrollment.

• After the completion of the onboarding process, Hong Kong Interbank Clearing Ltd. conducts testing with the

intended participants to ensure they are technically ready.

Kenya Participants must follow Integrated Payment Services standards along with a rigorous testing process. An external

auditor conducts an audit of the participant before going live.

Mexico For participation in SPEI, interested entities must communicate their intention to Banco de México. After this, the

entity must complete the following:

• Certiﬁcation testing to verify the technical requirements to operate in SPEI

• Operational risk-management and information-security requirements as established by Banco de México

• Documentation (participants must enter into a contract with Banco de México)

TABLE 13: Select Findings on Participant Onboarding Process

continued

32 | Considerations and Lessons for the Development and Implementation of Fast Payment Systems

Singapore Every participant has a comprehensive onboarding process in place. All prospective participants must go through

an extensive industry testing before going live. The testing comprises the following three key stages:

• Pretest: The focus is on making sure that the system and connectivity are stable before proceeding to the next

step.

• Industry test: This is the main testing stage that covers both functional and nonfunctional test cases.

• Production acceptance test: Controlled live cutover. Transactions are processed using pre-identiﬁed accounts

before opening the FPS to all customers of the participant.

Thailand For participation in PromptPay, interested entities need to pay the membership fee and must comply with the

business rules set by National ITMX. Other major steps include the following:

• Certiﬁcation testing to verify the technical requirements to operate in PromptPay

• Undergo technical assessment

• Documentation (participants must enter into a master agreement with National ITMX)

United Kingdom Pay.UK undertakes risk assurance to consider the risks relating to the intended operation of a new participant

applicant for entry to FPS. Participants need to provide self-certiﬁcation for assurance. It covers the following

aspects:

• Sufﬁcient controls will be in place and working for all risks that could affect FPS processing, operations, or service

from the point of going live

• Their compliance with the FPS scheme rules from the point of going live

• The continued availability of their FPS gateway from the point of going live

United States For participation in RTP, an interested entity must communicate its intention to TCH. After this, the prospective

participant must undergo the following:

• Certiﬁcation testing to verify the technical requirements for handling both payment and nonpayment messages

• Documentation (participants must enter into a participation agreement with TCH)

TPSPs also have to certify all the entities connecting through it or the core banking solution (in the case of large

TPSPs).

TABLE 13, continued

4.2.2 Technical Speciﬁcations

The following sections detail the ﬁndings and insights into

the following select technical speciﬁcations that are most

relevant for fast payments: (i) messaging standards; (ii) cus-

tomer authentication; and (iii) APIs.

i. Messaging Standards

The ISO 20022 messaging standard is becoming the global

benchmark for fast payments. Many operators that are still

using other standards have expressed a desire to migrate

to ISO 20022. Cost emerged as a key aspect delaying or

even impeding this migration.

Messaging formats are standards for electronic data

exchange between institutions participating in a payment

system relating to several message categories, such as

orders, invoices, customs documents, remittance advices,

and payments.

Uniform messaging standards are critical

to standardize payment ﬂows with an increasing number of

cross-border transactions and the advent of multiple pay-

ment systems. More speciﬁcally, messaging standards gen-

erally facilitate the following:

• Identiﬁcation of senders and receivers

• Key attributes of a payment transaction, such as curren-

cy, amount, and value date

• Additional information alongside settlement data and

format to enable the onward transmission and process-

ing of transactions

The main messaging standards for domestic payment trans-

fers include ISO 8583, SWIFT MT Standards, and ISO 20022,

among others.

Desk research and the deep-dive analyses conducted for

this Fast Payments Toolkit showed that ISO 20022 and ISO

8583 are currently the major messaging standards adopted

by operators. A few have adopted XML-based proprietary

messaging formats or proprietary messaging tools. (See ﬁg-

ure 11.)

The main insights obtained in this area from the deep

dives and select jurisdiction analyses (see table 14) are the

following: (i) Operators are looking at adopting messaging

standards that have controls and procedures in place (a) to

protect message data from unauthorized disclosure and

ﬁnancial crime, (b) that help ensure the accuracy, complete-

ness, and validity of messages and their delivery, and (c) that

meet service availability requirements. In this context, many

operators have migrated or intend to migrate to ISO 20022.

(ii) The cost of upgrading messaging standards entails a

signiﬁcant investment in resources and technology by the

operators of the FPS and its participants.

Considerations and Lessons for the Development and Implementation of Fast Payment Systems | 33

The International Organization for Standardization (ISO),

an international standard-setting body, has deﬁned

various standards for facilitating the ﬂow of messages

related to payments/ﬁnancial transactions. These stan-

dards have evolved due to the dynamic nature of pay-

ments and technological advancements.

The ISO 8583 messaging standard was designed for

high-volume, low-latency payment instructions. It is pre-

dominantly used for card payments (ATMs and point-of-

sale terminals). Messages do not contain invoices and

beneﬁciary information that are not required for card

payments. Over the years, some payment systems have

modelled clearing and settlement functions using ISO

8583. One unique feature of this standard is that it was

designed to support pull payments, and for this reason,

it still has a huge role in transactions that are based on

the auto-debit mechanism, particularly merchant pay-

ments where the merchant is driving the collection. Sim-

ilarly, it can be used for direct debits. However, it offers

limited capability for information exchange and has an

unstructured format for exchanging the data. Due to this

limitation, system participants may be unable to provide

customized offerings to their client base.

ISO 20022 provides ﬂexibility, as user institutions can

modify payment messages over time based on evolv-

ing requirements. It also facilitates structured, well-de-

ﬁned, and data-rich information exchanges. ISO 20022

is the ﬁrst messaging standard that has gone beyond

information exchange and allows the standardization of

messaging components, for which it is emerging as the

global benchmark for real-time payments. Many opera-

tors that are still using ISO 8583 have expressed a desire

to migrate to ISO 20022.

During migration to ISO 20022, it is important to

deﬁne business requirements, clearing and settlement

conﬁrmations, and reporting mechanisms. Therefore, it

is critical to have a clear deﬁnition of market practices.

The ﬁnancial institutions also have different automation

capacity and time-to-market requirements. Addition-

ally, it is also important to have a road map that deﬁnes

how information would be shared between ﬁnancial

institutions after migration to a new standard.

BOX 4 MESSAGING STANDARDS FOR PAYMENTS/FINANCIAL TRANSACTIONS

1984

1987

1990

1995

2004

ISO 7775

ISO 9992-1

ISO 15022

ISO 20022

ISO 8583

JURISDICTION

ISO

20022 ISO 8583 PROPRIETARY

Australia

✔

Bahrain

✔

Chile

✔

China

✔

Hong Kong

SAR, China

✔

India

✔

(IMPS)

✔

(XML-UPI)

Kenya

✔

Malaysia

✔

FIGURE 11: Messaging Standards Adopted

JURISDICTION

ISO

20022 ISO 8583 PROPRIETARY

Mexico

✔

(Binary)

Nigeria

✔

(XML)

Poland

✔

Singapore

✔

Thailand

✔

USA

✔

1 India’s IMPS is planning to migrate to XML format

2 Kenya’s PesaLink is planning to migrate to ISO 20022

3 UK’s NPA (new system under development) will use ISO 20022

34 | Considerations and Lessons for the Development and Implementation of Fast Payment Systems

For more details, refer to the focus note on messaging

standards, which forms part of the Fast Payments Toolkit.

ii. Customer Authentication

Operators and participants typically apply the same cus-

tomer-authentication standards to users of fast payments

as they do to users who perform transactions via other

payment systems.

Authentication is the means to ascertain a customer’s

identity as the rightful initiator of a payment transaction.

Looking at this more generically, it is the process of veri-

fying the identity of a user, process, or device, often as a

prerequisite to allowing access to resources in an informa-

tion system.

Customer speciﬁcations across fast payment

arrangements are typically based on regulations issued by

central banks. Globally, there is a push toward using more

robust customer authentication to reduce fraud and make

fast payments more secure—with a focus on payments that

TABLE 14: Select Findings and Insights into Current Use of Messaging Standards

Australia The NPP adopted the ISO 20022 messaging standard, as it is ﬂexible and extensible and therefore enables richer

and more complete remittance information (280 characters) to be sent with a payment than other systems (for

instance, the 18 characters currently available for direct-entry payments). It also envisioned a day where there might

be enough fast payment arrangements in the world with ISO 20022 messaging capabilities. This would enable the

linking of domestic fast payment arrangements through ISO 20022 capabilities, which could effectively replace

correspondent banking.

Bahrain Adopted ISO 20022, as it was the most widely used messaging format for fast payments, and countries were

developing their system on this messaging standard.

European Union SCT Inst adopted ISO 20022, as it has been adopted widely throughout the European Union (it has been adopted

for SEPA credit transfers and direct debits) and worldwide and would therefore provide easier integration with other

fast payment arrangements for cross-border payments.

Hong Kong SAR,

China

ISO 20022 was adopted because it provides a rich data format and allows the use of standardized Chinese

characters, thus meeting participants’ need to carry different kinds of payments through the FPS.

India IMPS adopted ISO 8583, as support for this standard was available with many banks at that time and speed to

market was the priority for NPCI.

UPI adopted XML-based proprietary messaging standard primarily because of the ﬂexibility, ease of reading, and

scalability it offered. It was felt that the ﬂexibility provided by ISO was limited. For example, data elements such as

tag length could not be custom-deﬁned as per requirement. The payload was much higher in ISO than in native

XML. Native XML protocol has provided the ﬂexibility to have message-level acknowledgement, which has proved

useful for message-level delivery and sanctity. Native XML protocols have allowed UPI to provide lots of innovative

services—for example, check transaction status and validation of payment address in a short period. Hence, the

view was that by adopting a proprietary XML format, changes would be lesser and quicker to implement.

Mexico SPEI uses a propriety messaging standard developed by Banco de México. This protocol was established to make

the exchange of information efﬁcient and includes security checks that validate the authenticity of the participant

that generates instructions.

An assessment was undertaken by Banco de México to compare ISO 20022 with this

proprietary standard, and it was found that the weight/size ratio between the standards is 7:1. Banco de México

also considers that its proprietary standard is very efﬁcient and has no plans for migrating to ISO 20022. SPEI

participants have also expressed no desire to migrate to an international standard.

Thailand Most commercial bank systems and ATM networks use ISO 8583, whereas the PromptPay fast payment solution is

based on ISO 20022. To resolve this issue, an adaptor was developed to translate messages from ISO 8583 to ISO

20022 and vice versa.

United States ISO 20022 was chosen, as it enables a rich and consistent ﬂow of information. Further, the use of ISO 20022

enables multinational ﬁnancial institutions and corporations to utilize one message standard across all their

payment-related activities. The use of ISO 20022 also positions RTP to support cross-border commerce and

interoperability with other schemes, as real-time payments evolve in the global marketplace.

are initiated remotely. However, strong customer authentica-

tion (SCA) may hinder a seamless customer experience. Box

5 describes SCA as conceptualized in the European Union’s

revised Payment Services Directive (PSD2), along with other

issues on customer authentication.

SCA requirements and the need to balance these with a

seamless customer experience are bringing major changes

in security guidelines and operations. For example, as more

account information and payment options are centralized

on a single device used by consumers, the later are expected

to have greater control and convenience.

The main insights into customer authentication stem-

ming from the analysis of select jurisdictions are discussed

in table 15. A general trend is that speciﬁc customer-au-

thentication requirements are issued by the ﬁnancial insti-

tutions that participate in the fast payment arrangement,

rather than by the operator of the latter or the regulator.

Some regulators do issue general guidelines to participants

in connection with these requirements.

Considerations and Lessons for the Development and Implementation of Fast Payment Systems | 35

Payment authentication and authorization include the

steps of a transaction where a customer conﬁrms who

they claim to be (authentication) and is granted permis-

sion for the transfer (authorization).

Given that most

fast payment arrangements have settlement ﬁnality, and

that a transaction, once processed, cannot be reversed,

customer authentication becomes critical. The use of

biometrics in sender authentication is also becoming

increasingly common. Whether a transaction is initiated

by the payer or payee, authentication typically takes

place at the payer’s end. For a pull payment, the initia-

tor of the payment (payee) does not authenticate itself,

and the customer authentication takes place at the pay-

er’s end, using one or more factors of authentication.

In SCT Inst, strong customer-authentication (SCA)

guidelines are mandated as part of the revised Payment

Services Directive (PSD2). The core principle is to reduce

payment fraud with minimal impact on the customer

experience—that is, without introducing too much fric-

tion into the payment process.

SCA is an authentica-

tion process that validates the identity of the user of a

payment service or of the payment transaction. More

speciﬁcally, SCA indicates whether the use of a payment

instrument is authorized.

The European Central Bank

has developed draft regulatory technical standards

specifying the following: the requirements of SCA; the

exemptions from the application of SCA; the require-

ments that security measures have to comply with to

protect the conﬁdentiality and integrity of the payment

service users’ personalized security credentials; and the

requirements for common and secure open standards

of communication between account-servicing payment

service providers (ASPSPs), payment-initiation service

providers, account-information service providers, pay-

ers, payees, and other PSPs.

The proposed guidelines are key to achieve the

objectives of PSD2 and introduce new requirements for

authenticating online payments. PSD2 requires PSPs to

apply SCA when a payer initiates an electronic payment

transaction. PSPs include banks and other providers.

SCA applies to all customer-initiated online payments

across Europe. The main objectives of SCA are to min-

imize fraud, to create a more secure environment for

online payments, to protect the conﬁdentiality of the

user’s ﬁnancial data, including personal data, and to

add extra layers of protection by authenticating pay-

ments with additional identifying factors. The SCA

check requires the following: possession (that is, “some-

thing you have,” such as a card or phone), inherence

(“something you are,” such as a ﬁngerprint, an iris scan,

or your voice), and knowledge (“something you know,”

such as a PIN, password, or piece of memorable infor-

mation).

The following two additional elements of SCA are

also sometimes leveraged for multifactor authentica-

tion:

• “ Somewhere you are” (location), which is common-

ly detected by a user’s internet protocol address

• “ Something you do” (behavior), least commonly

used, in which actions such as gestures or touches

(for example, on a picture) are observed to prove

identities

The main challenge with implementing SCA require-

ments while maintaining a seamless and consistent

user experience is largely determined by the ability of a

ﬁrm (ﬁnancial institution and ASPSP) to take advantage

of all available PSD2 SCA exemptions. In particular, to

take advantage of the Transaction Risk Analysis Exemp-

tion, ASPSPs will need not only to adopt advanced and

effective capabilities to detect and report payment

fraud that are able to determine, in real time, whether

a particular transaction presents a low risk of fraud but

also to consistently maintain overall fraud below levels

predeﬁned by the regulatory technical standards.

Countries such as Bahrain, India and Mexico use

multifactor authentication techniques for fast pay-

ment transactions. The speciﬁcations across schemes

are based on regulations by central banks. Globally,

there is a push toward using SCA to reduce fraud and

make online payments more secure. However, strong

multifactor customer authentication may hamper

seamless customer experience, and it is critical for

organizations to strengthen authentication mecha-

nisms while paying adequate attention to maintaining

customer experience.

BOX 5 CUSTOMER AUTHENTICATION IN THE EUROPEAN UNION

36 | Considerations and Lessons for the Development and Implementation of Fast Payment Systems

For more details, refer to the focus note on customer

authentication, which forms part of the Fast Payments Toolkit.

iii. Application Programming Interfaces

Public authorities and operators worldwide believe that

APIs are already revolutionizing the fast payment space,

and that innovative solutions will continue to emerge

through them.

APIs boost interoperability by providing easy access to fast

payment arrangements and other aspects of banking, such

as account details, lending, and other use cases. APIs also

open the opportunity to create several interactions between

stakeholders in the payment ecosystem (including third-

party application providers) and consumers: from support-

ing the ability to initiate payments to assisting e-commerce

transactions and other payment experiences, among many

other applications. Box 6 provides details on APIs and their

relevance for fast payments.

TABLE 15: Select Findings and Insights into Customer Authentication

Australia There are no speciﬁc customer-authentication standards for making a NPP payment, as these payments are initiated

by logging into the internet and mobile-banking application of a participating ﬁnancial institution. This means

that NPP payments are subject to the same fraud and security protections—including customer-authentication

standards—that participating entities use for all of their internet and mobile-banking transactions (that is, two-factor

authentication).

Bahrain The central bank mandated banks to have SCA and authorization. Customers need to log in to their mobile or

internet banking access channel and enter the beneﬁciary IBAN, which contains 22 alphanumeric characters, to

complete the transaction process.

Hong Kong SAR,

China

HKMA has issued general guidelines to banks for customer authentication. Since 2018, all banks and SVFs have to

ensure two-factor authentication. FPS does not impose any additional customer-authentication measures.

India IMPS uses two-factor authentication. The factors are the following:

• Mobile number and mobile PIN for mobile transactions

• Card and ATM PIN for ATM channel

• User ID and internet banking password/transaction password for internet banking channel

For UPI, one-click, two-factor authentication is used. Device binding is used as the ﬁrst factor, and the UPI

PIN is used as the second factor. The mobile number is used for authenticating the ﬁrst transaction, and the

device ﬁngerprint through the device is binding for subsequent transactions. While the system supports using

biometrics (Aadhaar) as the second factor, it has not been implemented yet. Risk is further reduced by dividing

the authentication requirements between the PSP and issuer bank: the ﬁrst factor is validated by the PSP, and the

second factor is validated by the remitter bank.

Mexico To send an SPEI transfer through electronic channels, end customers have to use two-factor authentication. All

SPEI participants are required to provide secure electronic channels and two-factor authentication schemes

to their customers, according to regulatory guidelines from the National Banking and Securities Commission

(Comisión Nacional Bancaria y de Valores or CNBV) and Banco de México.

These authorities are considering the

harmonization of customer-authentication standards, as these currently vary based on the nature of the participant

(that is, bank vs. non-bank).

United Kingdom The Financial Conduct Authority, in consultation with the European Banking Authority, has mandated banks to

implement SCA to enhance the security of payments and limit fraud. The implementation will span from September

14, 2019, to December 31, 2020, and the Financial Conduct Authority will continue to monitor the extent to which

participants meet the expectation to provide any alternative means of authorization.

APIs are revolutionizing the fast payment space, and

in most jurisdictions, operators and public authorities are

clearly aware of this. (See country-speciﬁc insights and

ﬁndings in table 16.) Fast payment operators generally

deﬁne the API framework (for example, the main attributes

that an API must possess to be used in connection with

the system). While regulation is important to help ecosys-

tems move toward maturity, it is also important to allow

market forces to act as drivers to encourage innovation,

ﬂexibility, and change. In this regard, evidence shows that,

in some jurisdictions, APIs for payments were part of a

broader ﬁnancial-services evolution to drive innovation

across all aspects of banking. In other jurisdictions, APIs for

payments were speciﬁcally developed/mandated. Further-

more, many jurisdictions are approaching APIs in stages

across other aspects of banking—that is, account details,

lending, and other use cases.

Considerations and Lessons for the Development and Implementation of Fast Payment Systems | 37

An API provides access to service functionality and

data within an application or a database. APIs can be

used as a building block for the development of new

interactions with humans, other applications, or smart

devices.

In the context of web applications, the term

APIs generally refers to JavaScript APIs in browsers. Of

the various API types, standard communication protocol

(SOAP), Representational State Transfer (REST), Graph

Query Language (QL), gRPC, Thrift, and REST are used

most commonly, as they offer greater ﬂexibility (by sup-

porting multiple data formats and call types) and can be

understood easily.

APIs makes it easier for external applications to

access speciﬁc services. Open banking, through the

use of APIs, serves as a catalyst for fast payments by

supporting the integration of more and more ﬁnancial

institutions. Standardized APIs enable inventive ways for

providers to extend their digital capabilities and cater to

the varied needs of customers across market segments

while remaining cost efﬁcient.

The functionalities being made available through

APIs include merchant payments, transaction history,

business-to-business payments, e-commerce pay-

ments, authentication, account balance, bill payments,

proﬁle management, P2P payments, and reversals.

Product categories of open APIs in the digital ﬁnan-

cial services space include consent/identity, ecosystem

expansion, data, and money movement APIs.

Key driv-

ers for API innovation and growth are the demand for

newer products that ﬁntechs wish to cater to and banks

increasingly trying to compete in the ﬁntech playing

ﬁeld. The following are some of the common APIs used

in the payments space:

• APIs for participants to connect to a payment sys-

tem (for example, to the fast payment arrangement)

• APIs that enable direct participants to connect to

the central infrastructure via third-party providers

• Bank APIs that allow indirect participants or cus-

tomers to use the bank’s interface

• Payment/account-initiation APIs

• Open banking APIs that allow third-party apps to

interact with the bank and to initiate payments over

the API

• Other adjacent APIs, such as conﬁrmation of payee,

which is used to validate the recipient information

before initiating the faster payment

• Request to pay

• APIs for information reconciliation and monitoring

• APIs used in the settlement process for connection

to the central bank

• Account aggregators

APIs help businesses and consumers access fast pay-

ments and initiate payments at any time and from any

location. There is potential for APIs to be used (or are

already being used) for communication between dif-

ferent players in the fast payment ecosystem, such as

between payer and payer bank, payer bank and third-

party players, and beneﬁciary bank and merchant,

among others.

As APIs are used more and more, and considering

the beneﬁts of using APIs, there is a case to be made

for API standardization.

API standardization promotes

trustworthiness and reliability. Standardization of APIs

for functions such as payments or the submission of

reports (to the regulator) can reduce duplication of

functionality and lead to cost optimization by promot-

ing reuse.

API standardization, apart from others have

the following beneﬁts:

• Allows technology to be leveraged more effectively

and enhance customer experience while maintain-

ing security

• Simpliﬁes development and implementation of ca-

pabilities, lowers costs, and reduces project devel-

opment life cycle

• APIs contribute toward the reduction of fraud by

facilitating quick communication with less friction

• APIs can help meet customer expectations by en-

abling value-added services and driving innovation

in the payments space

BOX 6 APPLICATION PROGRAMMING INTERFACES

38 | Considerations and Lessons for the Development and Implementation of Fast Payment Systems

For more details, refer to the focus note on APIs, which

forms part of the Fast Payments Toolkit.

4.2.3 Network Connectivity

Strong and secure network connectivity is a necessary

condition for the sound operation of the different compo-

nents of a fast payment technical infrastructure.

As mentioned earlier, during the onboarding process, par-

ticipants are required to establish a secure connection with

the core technical infrastructure. This technical connection

allows participants to exchange payment and nonpayment

messages with the operator and with other participants.

The operator transmits, reconciles, conﬁrms, and submits

instructions for inter-participant settlement. The operator

can also provide additional support services, such as the fol-

lowing:

• Translation between messaging formats

• Deﬁning and handling of error responses

• Additional fraud detection and money-laundering

transaction-monitoring services

• Calculation of switch fees and interparty fees

• Reporting and providing of dashboards to participants

and possibly the regulator

Stakeholders need to determine the messaging protocol

for the communications between participants and the fast

payment infrastructure and to establish a secure connection

with the infrastructure using alternatives such as through

the following:

• A proprietary communication network

• The internet

• Existing messaging system such as SWIFT or ATM switch

• Third-party APIs

Jurisdiction analysis (see table 17) shows that as expe-

rience is gained operating fast payment infrastructures,

some jurisdictions have made a distinct separation between

the technical connection and settlement of funds, so that

participants can connect to the system under a variety of

approaches. In this model, participants can designate a TPSP

to send and receive payment and nonpayment messages.

It was also found that for most arrangements the access

framework also enables smaller ﬁnancial institutions (gen-

erally lacking the necessary technical capability) to connect

easily to the system, also through APIs, as in the case of the

United Kingdom. Participants can also appoint an agent

ﬁnancial institution to fulﬁll their settlement obligations.

TABLE 16: Select Findings and Insights into the Use of APIs in the Context of Fast Payments

Australia The NPP API framework deﬁnes the key technical approach and mandatory data attributes for NPP APIs, aligned

to ISO 20022. It is designed to support interoperability and standardization. APIs play an important role in helping

innovators and third parties to use the NPP’s capabilities. While NPPA does not mandate the use of this framework,

it encourages NPP participants, TPSPs, and software developers to refer to this framework or build further upon it

when developing API solutions for NPP transactions.

India There are standardized APIs only for UPI payments. UPI provides ﬂexibility to support extensive APIs because it

uses a proprietary XML-based messaging format. Due to this, the adoption of APIs has been encouraging by banks

and third-party application providers. APIs are extended by banks or NPCI for either connecting to PSPs/UPI for

transactions or other value-added services, such as checking transaction status and retrieving transaction details.

More recently, APIs are also being used for customer account aggregation for business use cases.

Mexico Limited APIs are provided by Banco de México. SPEI allows the use of limited-purpose APIs for value-added services

such as checking transaction status and retrieving transaction details. CoDi, the overlay request-to-pay service, also

runs on an array of APIs that are open to all SPEI participants. Furthermore, Banco de México is considering allowing

access to third-party open APIs.

United Kingdom Under the framework developed by the Open Banking Implementation Entity (OBIE), three types of licenses are

granted: account-information service provider, payment-initiation service provider (PISP), and card-based payment

instrument issuer. Payment initiation, account aggregation, and card-based conformation of funds, among other

services, are provided through these. The scope of the PISP includes domestic, international, schedule future dated,

and standing order payments.

The open-banking framework covers the technical and nontechnical elements, such as customer experience

guidelines, operational guidelines (to track and monitor APIs developed by banks), the dispute-management

process, the liability framework, the TPP accreditation process, a conformance testing tool, dynamic client

registration, an API monitoring tool, and security speciﬁcations.

Considerations and Lessons for the Development and Implementation of Fast Payment Systems | 39

TABLE 17: Select Findings on Network Connectivity

Australia The NPP is a distributed switch of individual “payment access gateways” that route and exchange ﬁnancial

messages between each other. It also allows “Connected Institutions” to connect directly with the system. These

institutions are able to initiate payments only from a customer account and do not provide clearing and settlement

services. “Connected Institutions” need to meet the technical and other associated requirements for setting up a

payment access gateway in their own environment. Financial institutions can also have indirect membership, solely

to perform either clearing or both clearing and settlement on behalf of a directly connected NPP full participant.

India When IMPS was launched, it was based on the existing National Financial Switch (that is, the switch for ATM

transactions) operated by NPCI. The National Financial Switch was the core technological infrastructure supporting

NPCI services. Gradually, IMPS operations were shifted to its own switch (called the Bharat Switch). Although the

Bharat Switch was developed by an external vendor, NPCI owns the source code.

UPI has its own central switch through which participants establish connection to the infrastructure. A key to

the ubiquity of UPI has been participation of third-party application providers. These are typically large technology

companies/merchants/aggregators/ﬁntechs that connect to banks and provide UPI services to end users. Such

services may include the onboarding of both customers and merchants by PSPs for transfers and/or merchant

payment transactions, respectively.

1. Connectivity for third parties can be segregated on the basis of architecture:

• Bank architecture–dependent model

• Single PSP model

• Multibank model (NPCI has mandated third-party application providers processing more than 5 percent of

UPI’s monthly volume to follow this model)

• Service app model

• Web/mobile app-based collect

• QR/intent-based approach

2. Bank architecture–independent model (third party can connect to NPCI UPI central switch with limited

functionality)

Mexico SPEI uses an open-communication protocol that was speciﬁcally designed and does not require any speciﬁc

architecture, programming language, or operating system. Banco de México provides participants with the protocol

and all technical characteristics, so participants can choose between developing their own software for connecting

their internal systems to SPEI or hiring a technical provider for this purpose.

United Kingdom Participants can connect to FPS using the two following alternatives:

• Through physical cables

• Using third-party APIs

If a participant connects through physical cables, it incurs costs, such as those for setting up the data center, the

physical cables, and establishing the cross-linkage connection. Typically, it costs between $300,000 and $1 million

to connect to the system using a physical network. There are additional expenses, such as a due-diligence cost for

an audit at the data center to maintain data security.

In contrast, if the participant opts to connect through third-party APIs, the above costs are reduced. Some players

(for example, Form 3 and Payport) have connected to the central infrastructure using physical cables and provide

technical support to other participants using APIs. The connectivity approach is suitable for small PSPs, as it reduces

the onboarding time while allowing them to connect directly.

Directly connected settling participants are directly connected to the central infrastructure of FPS and can carry

out their own settlement, while directly connected non-settling participants are directly connected to the central

infrastructure but require the former for settlement. Indirect agencies rely on direct participants for connection and

settlement.

United States RTP has made a distinct separation between the technical connection and settlement of funds. This allows

participants to connect directly with the system but fulﬁll settlement obligations through other ﬁnancial

institutions. Alternatively, the participants can designate a TPSP to act on their behalf as agent to send and receive

transmissions of payment messages, payment message responses, and nonpayment messages, using the TPSP’s

technical connection.

40 | Considerations and Lessons for the Development and Implementation of Fast Payment Systems

4.2.4 Clearing and Settlement

Clearing and settlement are core functions for ensuring

a swift, safe, and seamless ﬂow of funds from one par-

ticipant to another. Different models for clearing and

settlement exist in practice. The choice depends on sev-

eral country- and system-speciﬁc considerations. While

deferred net settlement is prevalent at present, real-time

settlement models are becoming more common in new

fast payment implementations.

Three types of inter-participant clearing models were

observed as part of the study (see ﬁgure 12 and table 18):

• Hub approach: A third-party organization (for example,

a clearinghouse) acts as a hub handling the clearing be-

tween the participants and manages the downstream

settlement with the central bank. The participants pre-

fund the account or pledge collateral, and the clear-

inghouse performs real-time clearing and provides up-

dates to the participants. The hub also sends settlement

instructions to the central bank’s RTGS system, where

the actual movement of funds occurs. Jurisdictions that

have adopted a hub approach include India, Singapore

and the United Kingdom.

• RTGS-based approach: The RTGS system supports clear-

ing and undertakes settlement of fast payment transac-

tions. The RTGS system does not validate payment in-

structions received as part of the arrangement, and any

failure of payment results in the return of the payment

instruction to the originating participant. This approach

has been adopted by Mexico and the United States.

• Distributed clearing: Validation and conﬁrmation of

payment instructions are carried out by the participat-

ing bank. Clearing is carried out in real time on a 24/7

basis. Subsequently, the payer bank instigates the settle-

ment instruction to the central bank, which is processed

on a real-time basis. Australia follows the distributed

clearing approach.

Regarding settlement, the choice of a settlement model

has important consequences on safety and efﬁciency. The

two major payment settlement models for fast payments as

observed in this study are (i) deferred net settlement and (ii)

real-time settlement.

Deferred net settlement -(DNS): In a DNS model, the

settlement of inter-participant obligations occurs on a net

basis at some later time, at the end of a predeﬁned cycle

either once or multiple times during a day. This model is

more efﬁcient, as it reduces the liquidity needs. However,

a DNS system has its inherent risk, as the buildup of net

debit positions may give rise to credit risk if not properly

managed by appropriate risk-mitigation measures such as

debit caps, guarantee funds, prefunding, collateral arrange-

ments, and so on.

Real-time settlement: In a real-time settlement model,

there is continuous settlement of funds on an order-by-or-

der basis. In this model, a fast payment transaction will be

completed only if the relevant originating participant has

adequate balances in its settlement account with the central

bank (or other entity acting as the settlement agent). Credit

risk between participants is therefore eliminated, and real-

time settlement enables immediate ﬁnality of all payments.

FIGURE 12: Observed Clearing Models

Hub

Approach

RTGS

Approach

Distributed

Clearing

Approach

iii

BANK A

CENTRAL BANK

REAL TIME 24x7x365

CENTRAL BANK

THIRD PARTY

CENTRAL BANK

BANK B BANK A BANK B BANK A BANK B

CLEARING

Mirror A/Cs

RTGS SettlementRTGS Settlement

RTGS Settlement

Considerations and Lessons for the Development and Implementation of Fast Payment Systems | 41

However, demands on liquidity in this model are higher, and

additional tools are generally required to manage liquidity

risk. The latter may include access to the intraday credit

facility from the central bank that is available for the RTGS

system, though this facility is typically restricted to banks.

There is also the issue that the RTGS system may be regularly

closed for some hours during the day, in which case, a fast

payment arrangement using this settlement model would

face obvious difﬁculties to achieve real-time ﬁnality. Juris-

dictions are observed to be increasing the operating hours

for RTGS; some jurisdictions are making the RTGS available

on a 24x7 basis.

Figure 13 shows the actual settlement models chosen

by jurisdictions for fast payments. A DNS model has been

adopted by 11 of the 16 jurisdictions studied. Neverthe-

less, the broader analysis of the more than 50 jurisdictions

showed that real-time settlement is witnessing increased

uptake, especially for new fast payment implementations.

Another trend that was observed in several jurisdictions

(see table 18) is the adoption of prefunding for the fast pay-

ment arrangement, as in Poland and the United States. Pre-

funding in this case means that PSPs are required to place

cash deposits in a segregated escrow account (or equivalent)

to cover their expected transactions. Through prefunding,

payment orders can be processed in real time, with no credit

or liquidity risks. However, prefunding carries a cost, such as

interest loss on the respective funds and opportunity costs.

Finally, in all the jurisdictions studied, the central bank is

involved in the settlement of inter-participant positions. Final

settlement occurs in the RTGS system or RTGS-equivalent

account maintained with the central bank of the country.

The rationale for adopting DNS or real-time settlement

for FPS is based on market arrangements already in place

for other retail payment systems. Whether the FPS is to be

operated by the central bank itself, the system design and

access to the RTGS, and whether the RTGS will be available

on a 24x7 basis are also factors to consider when adopting a

particular model for settlement. The beneﬁt of DNS is liquid-

ity saving due to netting, whereas continuous availability

of funds is required for settlement in a real-time model.

The timing of inter-PSP settlement in a DNS arrangement

varies across jurisdictions. DNS generates credit exposures

between the PSPs, as the PSP credits the funds in the

account of its customer before receiving the funds from the

PSP of the payer, an implicit credit and a consequent credit

risk. The credit and liquidity risk in DNS may exacerbate if

not managed and mitigated. Some of the measures that

are implemented to mitigate the risk associated with DNS

are (i) limits on the maximum value of individual fast pay-

ments that can be processed; (ii) loss-sharing agreements

that detail, ex ante, how the surviving participants would

cover the loss created by a defaulting participant; (iii) limits

on the maximum net debit or credit positions that can be

established between participants, or on the maximum gross

aggregate positions; (iv) collateralization of the debit posi-

tions, either with securities or cash collateral, to ensure that

resources are available to support settlement; and (v) the

prefunding of positions by individual participants, by means

JURISDICTION

DEFERRED NET

SETTLEMENT

REAL TIME

SETTLEMENT

Australia

✔

Bahrain

✔

Chile

✔

China

✔

Hong Kong

SAR, China

✔

India

✔

Kenya

✔

FIGURE 13: Participant Settlement Models Adopted for Fast Payment Arrangements

JURISDICTION

DEFERRED NET

SETTLEMENT

REAL TIME

SETTLEMENT

Malaysia

✔

Mexico

✔

(Hybrid)

Nigeria

✔

Poland

✔

Singapore

✔

Thailand

✔

USA

✔

42 | Considerations and Lessons for the Development and Implementation of Fast Payment Systems

TABLE 18: Select Findings on the Clearing and Settlement Models Used for Fast Payments

Australia The NPP uses a real-time settlement model with a distributed clearing system. This has been the norm in Australia

for many years. This clearing approach was chosen over a hub model because distributed clearing provides

resilience—that is, if one node goes down, the other nodes can continue to be operational.

Chile Final inter-participant settlement is performed on a DNS basis. Participants in TEF can choose either to clear

transactions through a private clearinghouse (that is, Combanc) and perform ﬁnal settlement via the central bank’s

RTGS system at the end of the day or to settle their obligations directly in RTGS.

European Union For SCT Inst, PSPs must be connected to at least one CSM to receive or send payments. They can choose between

pan-European providers such as TIPS or RT1 or regional providers such as STET, Equens Worldline, CEC, Iberpay, and

others.

Transactions processed through TIPS are settled immediately in central bank money. ACHs offering SCT Inst

services settle in their own books, although settlement is backed by funds held in a central bank account. In other

words, the CSM’s account at the central bank is used to support settlement in the CSM’s books.

In July 2020, European Central Bank’s Governing Council decided that all PSPs that have joined SCT Inst and are

reachable in the central bank’s RTGS system, as well as all ACHs offering SCT Inst services, would have to join TIPS,

to ensure full reachability among scheme participants.

Following the implementation of these measures, it will still

be possible to settle transactions internally in a private CSM, but the funds backing these transactions will be held in

TIPS, and cross-CSM transactions will be settled in TIPS.

Hong Kong SAR,

China

FPS uses real-time settlement across the books of the HKMA (for Hong Kong dollars) and Bank of China Hong

Kong (for renminbi) as long as sufﬁcient funds are in the FPS ledger accounts of the originating participant. Each

settlement participant has a settlement account (including a CHATS ledger account and an FPS ledger account)

with HKMA in accordance with the conditions for the operation of the settlement account, whereas each clearing

participant keeps an account with a settlement participant. Settlements are irrevocable and enjoy immediate

ﬁnality.

India Settlement service in IMPS and UPI is provided by NPCI (by virtue of its “Type D” RTGS membership) using a DNS

model. Settlement occurs in the RBI’s RTGS system. Participant settlement positions are passed as “Multilateral Net

Settlement Batches” using the Net Settlement Interface. While the approach and process remain similar, IMPS and

UPI settlements were separated by NPCI within the ﬁrst year of UPI’s launch because the net obligations had to

arrive separately for the two systems in line with legal and regulatory requirements. The RTGS system, operated by

the RBI, has been available around the clock on all days since December 2020.

Settlement for IMPS and UPI now takes place six times a day 365 days a year with the RTGS system now being

available on all days. NPCI is planning to extend the number of settlement cycles to eight in the near future.

DNS was chosen owing to its a priori appropriateness for systems handling substantial volumes. Lower liquidity

requirements were also deemed crucial. As per the RBI’s directions, clearinghouses (such as NPCI) need to publish

the time of arrival at the net settlement position for members to ensure adequate funds availability. Also, the time

between arriving at the net settlement position and the actual posting of this position should be as short as possible.

Mexico SPEI has adopted a hybrid real-time settlement system for payments. It uses a multilateral offsetting algorithm

running in quick successions (every three seconds or a conﬁgurable number of payments) to clear and settle

transactions. The algorithm selects those transactions that can be settled based on available balances in the

participants’ settlement accounts and clears and settles in batch mode. The transactions that cannot be settled

because of a lack of liquidity remain in the queue, except for CoDi transfers. At the start of operations, participants

transfer funds from their accounts at Banco de México’s Account Holders Service System (SIAC) to their SPEI

account. At the end of the day, positive balances in SPEI are credited to banks’ current accounts in SIAC or to a

concentration account within the system for participants without a SIAC account.

Poland Express Elixir has adopted a prefunding model where all participating banks deposit funds in a ﬁduciary account

maintained by the National Bank of Poland, whose balance determines whether a participant may submit payment

orders. On this basis, each participant has a deﬁned limit of transactions, and transactions are executed only up to

that limit. If the limit for sent orders is exceeded, the payment order is rejected immediately.

United States Settlement in RTP is done using a real-time settlement model through a fully prefunded account that is jointly

owned by all the participating ﬁnancial institutions in the Federal Reserve. All payments are prefunded by the

sending participant into the joint account. RTP veriﬁes and reserves settlement capacity by the sending participant

before forwarding the payment to the receiving participant, eliminating the risk of settlement failure. In case the

sending participant has an insufﬁcient prefunded position to cover a payment, the core infrastructure will reject

the payment. Overdrafts or negative prefunded positions are also not permitted in the RTP system. The use of a

prefunded model eliminates the settlement risk and enables immediate ﬁnality of all payments.

Considerations and Lessons for the Development and Implementation of Fast Payment Systems | 43

of cash coupled with operational controls that keep posi-

tions from exceeding prefunded amounts. In contrast, indi-

vidual fast payments involve the provision of irrevocable and

unconditional funds by the payee’s PSP to the payee. The

technological capability and capacity of the RTGS to settle

FPS in real time is also one of the factors to consider when

deciding on the settlement model to be adopted. Real-time

settlement implies that the PSP credits the funds to its cus-

tomer only after settlement between PSPs has taken place.

As a result, this settlement model avoids credit risk between

participating PSPs and the need for having risk-mitigation

measures to mitigate credit risk. The consequence, how-

ever, is that PSPs continuously require sufﬁcient liquidity to

ensure the settlement of fast payments.

4.2.5 Interoperability

Interoperability among payment instruments and arrange-

ments—including fast payments—is a crucial feature of

the NPS.

Some jurisdictions are already working on enabling

retail cross-border payments via their fast payment

arrangements.

Interoperability in the context of fast payments is enabled

by a set of technical, process, and operational standards.

Common standards create a common language between

banks and other PSPs for processing transactions and facil-

itate a seamless and efﬁcient ﬂow of information. Having

a common standard across the whole payment ecosystem

can also facilitate the integration of fast payments into

other components of the NPS. Interoperability can also exist

between PSPs, between payment instruments, and for such

use cases as cross-border payments.

Table 19 provides details on interoperability as per the

ﬁndings of the study. Perhaps the main aspect that emerges

from this table is that the participation of non-banks in fast

payment arrangements paves the way for interoperability

between banks and non-bank PSPs. Through this participa-

tion, be it direct or indirect, most of the systems that were

analyzed already support bank account-to-wallet transac-

tions and vice versa.

Some jurisdictions are also working on enabling retail

cross-border payments via their fast payment arrange-

ments. For example, in Australia, the NPP infrastructure

and associated rules framework have been enhanced

and extended to support the domestic leg of an inbound

cross-border payment with the creation of the scheme-ag-

nostic business service International Funds Transfer Instruc-

tion. This enables correspondent banks to send these

payments to the ultimate beneﬁciary or customer over the

NPP as the ﬁnal leg of the cross-border payment process.

In the European Union, SCT Inst One Leg (Out) transactions

for international transactions beyond the European Union

are currently under development. The EPC has granted

licenses to some non-eurozone countries, allowing them to

use the building blocks of the scheme for non-euro trans-

actions. In Kenya, banks have integrated with international

money-transfer operators to facilitate inward remittances

through PesaLink. In the case of Singapore and Thailand,

Australia Currently, the NPP does not support account-to-wallet transactions and vice versa. However, these transactions may

be facilitated through over-the-top services provided by overlay service providers in the future. NPP payments can

be made only by logging into the internet and/or mobile-banking application of a participating ﬁnancial institution

and authorizing a payment. The NPP enables transfers between accounts at different participating ﬁnancial

institutions, including between banks and non-banks.

China Credit transfers, direct debits, and e-wallets are supported as payment instruments. IBPS supports account-to-wallet

transactions and vice versa.

India IMPS supports account-to-wallet transactions and vice versa. Such interoperability was supported by handling

ﬁelds such as account identiﬁers with either an account number or a wallet number based on the instrument. Other

aspects that were considered include differences in rules, such as permissible transaction limits or threshold balance

requirements for prepaid payment instruments (PPIs). The RBI has allowed PPI issuers to give the holders of full-KYC

PPIs (that is, PPIs that are compliant with know-your-customer requirements) interoperability through authorized

card networks (for PPIs in the form of cards) and UPI (for PPIs in the form of electronic wallets).

Malaysia Both banks and eligible non-bank PSPs (including wallet providers) participate in RPP. The RPP platform promotes

interoperability and facilitates seamless payments between accounts maintained with banks (bank accounts) and

non-bank participants (e-money accounts).

Mexico SPEI allows direct participation by all regulated ﬁnancial institutions. This allows interoperability between all

participant banks and non-bank PSPs (that is, transfers between banks and non-banks).

Nigeria NIBSS Instant Payment (NIP) allows both banks and mobile-money operators to participate in its system as direct

participants, and transactions between the two are interoperable.

Thailand Credit transfers and e-wallets are supported as payment instruments. PromptPay supports account-to-wallet

transactions and vice versa.

TABLE 19: Select Findings on Interoperability

44 | Considerations and Lessons for the Development and Implementation of Fast Payment Systems

The key difference between a domestic payment sys-

tem and a cross-border payment arrangement is that a

cross-border arrangement does not fall under a single

set of laws and regulations. In practice, most cross-bor-

der payments today are processed using a proliferation

of bilateral agreements between institutions, often

leveraging international messaging networks for com-

munication (but not for payment processing).

A number of industry players have launched new

services or partnerships to improve the speed, transpar-

ency, and cost of cross-border payments through the

innovative use of traditional systems or services or by

leveraging new technology, such as distributed ledger

technology. Some of these different approaches and

examples are summarized below:

• SWIFT has launched global payment innovation

(gpi) Instant, a new service for real-time cross-bor-

der payments and transfers. SWIFT gpi Instant car-

ried out pilots with Australia’s NPP for payments

between Australia and China; Singapore’s FAST,

which involved 17 banks across seven countries

(that is, Australia, Canada, China, Luxembourg, the

Netherlands, Singapore, and Thailand); and banks

and TIPS in Europe. The new service is being rolled

out initially in the British market and Lloyds Banking

Group is the ﬁrst to go live. The gpi Instant ser-

vice works by connecting SWIFT gpi with real-time

domestic infrastructure. It enables banks to use ex-

isting infrastructure to provide better service 24/7,

with faster speeds, clarity on fees, and predictability

about when an end beneﬁciary’s account will be

credited.

• International card networks such as Visa and Mas-

tercard have also pursued opportunities to leverage

their infrastructures to improve cross-border pay-

ments. Visa’s B2B Connect platform

is an API-based

non-card network that uses distributed ledger tech-

nology to settle large-value transactions between ﬁ-

nancial institutions in the Visa network. B2B Connect

provides a single, multilateral network that incorpo-

rates not only payments messaging but also ID-au-

thentication and security features to allow banks to

exchange cross-border payments on a same-day or

next-day basis. Mastercard has recently announced

a partnership with the international money-transfer

start-up TransferGo to develop the near-real-time

exchange of cross-border payments for consumers

and businesses.

The initiative will leverage Master-

card Send and TransferGo’s remittance network to

allow customers to circumvent legacy correspon-

dent banking networks to speed the processing of

cross-border payments.

• The two largest global remittance providers have

been active in developing partnerships to speed

up cross-border transaction processing. In October

2020, Western Union announced real-time payout

capabilities in 80 countries,

while MoneyGram has

partnered with institutions such as Visa to enable

fast payments between certain corridors. More re-

cent entrants in the international remittance space,

such as Wise (formerly TransferWise), have also seen

success in recent years by providing international

transfers at lower cost and faster speed than legacy

remittance providers, including the ability for cus-

tomers to compare the cost of international transfers

between Wise and other PSPs (including ﬁntechs, re-

mittance providers, and ﬁnancial institutions).

• Ripple has developed a network based on distrib-

uted ledger technology for cross-border payments.

The RippleNet network allows ﬁnancial institutions to

send and receive international payments from a single

prefunded account. RippleNet allows for ﬁat-to-ﬁat

BOX 7 CROSS-BORDER ASPECTS

continued

the MAS and BOT linked PayNow and PromptPay in 2021.

Challenges identiﬁed include aligning with regulations,

complying with KYC/AML guidelines, risk control, and

robust data security measures.

The main challenges identiﬁed in enabling real-time

cross-border payments include agreeing on a common

messaging standard and devising a viable clearing and

settlement model, including rules for foreign currency

exchange. Box 7 provides a deeper discussion of aspects

related to integrating fast payment arrangements across

borders.

For more details, refer to the focus notes on interopera-

bility aspects and on cross-border aspects, which form part

of the Fast Payments Toolkit.

Considerations and Lessons for the Development and Implementation of Fast Payment Systems | 45

transactions as well as the use of the XRP digital cur-

rency to bridge between different jurisdictions.

The G-20 has published a road map to enhance cross-

border payments ahead of the G-20’s October 2020

meeting.

The Financial Stability Board’s road map

includes ﬁve focus areas, four of which are centered

on enhancements to current cross-border payment

arrangements and improvements that can be made to

existing payment systems that can enhance the speed,

cost, transparency, and service levels experienced by

consumers and businesses when sending or receiving

international payments, as well as potential changes

that may be needed for regulatory and supervisory

frameworks. The ﬁfth focus area looks at the potential

for the development of new payment infrastructures

and arrangements.

As with domestic payment systems, prior to the

deployment of a new cross-border linkage or multilat-

eral cross-border payment system, all relevant stake-

holders should have a ﬁrm understanding of the goals,

use cases, and target audience. The relevant authorities

should analyze the following aspects: (i) determine key

use cases/goal of FPS for cross-border FPS; (ii) assess

existing payment systems for cross-border use; (iii)

assess existing legal/regulatory frameworks; (iv) identify

participating markets and participants in the fast pay-

ment arrangement; (v) determine an appropriate gov-

ernance structure; (vi) determine key functionality and

technical speciﬁcations; (vii) develop scheme rules and

operational guidelines; (viii) develop tender speciﬁca-

tions and assessment criteria (if applicable); (ix) assess

tender responses and select a technology provider (if

applicable); and (x) test and implement the cross-bor-

der arrangement.

A cross-border fast payment arrangement will require

cooperation between ﬁnancial institutions and national

authorities from multiple jurisdictions. This international

cooperation is absolutely vital.

B O X 7, continued

4.3 MODULE C: FEATURES OF FAST PAYMENT

ARRANGEMENTS

This module focuses on assessing customers’ needs, such

as speed, payment certainty, a simple and convenient

user experience, pricing, clarity on the timing of delivery,

and integration with bank account/mobile wallet/e-money,

among others. The following four speciﬁc insights are cov-

ered in this module:

1. Payment instruments, payment types supported, and

use cases/services

2. Overlay services and aliases

3. Access channels

4. User uptake

4.3.1 Payment Instruments, Payment Types

Supported, and Use Cases/Services

The availability of key use cases, such as P2P and per-

son-to-business (P2B, or merchant and bill payments), is

critical for fast payment uptake and growth. While P2P

payments have been the genesis of many fast payment

arrangements, P2B payments—including through request

to pay—are accelerating generalized adoption.

For what concerns payment instruments, all fast payment

arrangements studied support credit transfers, and some

also support direct debits and e-money as payment instru-

ments. (See ﬁgure 14.) Direct debits are currently supported

in China, Hong Kong SAR, China,

India, Nigeria, and Sin-

gapore, among others, and they are being developed in

Australia and Malaysia. E-money payment instruments are

supported in Chile, Hong Kong, India, Malaysia, Mexico,

Nigeria, Thailand, and the United States.

Push and pull instruments are an alternate classiﬁcation

of payment instruments. (See characteristics in ﬁgure 15.)

Push-payment instruments include credit transfers and

e-money, while pull-payment instruments include checks

and direct debits. Credit and debit cards are conceptually a

pull transaction.

All fast payment arrangements studied have adopted a

credit-push methodology that requires the payer to specify

the account number (or proxy identity where aliases exist)

of the payee in the payment message. This ensures that the

payer controls the transactions that are initiated via her/his

account. A few, including Bahrain, India, Poland, Thailand,

and the United Kingdom, have also adopted credit pull. In

cases such as Mexico’s SPEI, the request-to-pay functionality

is implemented as a credit push, as the movement of funds

is initiated by the payer once it gives authorization to pro-

ceed with the request.

46 | Considerations and Lessons for the Development and Implementation of Fast Payment Systems

Furthermore, the adoption of fast payments depends

largely on the type of payment types and use cases/

additional services provided by it. Arrangements supporting

more payment types and use cases witnessed higher uptake

and overall growth compared to arrangements with limited

offerings.

Regarding payment types, these include payments

between and among individuals, businesses, and govern-

ments. Every payment type can be segmented into cat-

egories, depending on the direction of the ﬂow of the

transaction. (See ﬁgure 16.)

JURISDICTION

CREDIT

TRANSFER

DIRECT

DEBIT E-MONEY

Australia

✔

Bahrain

✔

Chile

✔ ✔

China

✔ ✔

✔

Hong Kong

SAR, China

✔ ✔ ✔

India

✔ ✔ ✔

Kenya

✔

FIGURE 14: Payment Instruments Supported by Fast Payment Arrangements

JURISDICTION

CREDIT

TRANSFER

DIRECT

DEBIT E-MONEY

Malaysia

✔ ✔

Mexico

✔ ✔

Nigeria

✔ ✔ ✔

Poland

✔

Singapore

✔ ✔

Thailand

✔ ✔

✔

USA

✔ ✔

FIGURE 15: Transaction and Message Flow for Push and Pull Payments

Flow chart for push transactions

PAYMENT MESSAGE DIRECTION

MONEY FLOW DIRECTION

Payment

System

Payer bank

Payer PayeePayee bank

Flow chart for pull transactions

PAYMENT MESSAGE DIRECTION

MONEY FLOW DIRECTION

Payment

System

Payee bank

Payee PayerPayer bank

FIGURE 16: Payment Types

PAYER

PAYEE CONSUMER BUSINESS GOVERNMENT

Consumer P2P P2B P2G

Business B2P B2B B2G

Government G2P G2B G2G

Considerations and Lessons for the Development and Implementation of Fast Payment Systems | 47

FIGURE 16: Payment Types

FIGURE 17: Use Cases Supported by Fast Payment Arrangements

JURISDICTION P2P

MERCHANT

PAYMENT

BILL

PAYMENT

REQUEST

TO PAY

BULK

PAYMENT

FUTURE-DATED

PAYMENT

Australia

✔ ✔ ✔

Bahrain

✔ ✔ ✔ ✔

Chile

✔ ✔ ✔ ✔

China

✔ ✔ ✔

✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔

Hong Kong

SAR, China

✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔

India

✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔

Kenya

✔ ✔ ✔

Malaysia

✔ ✔

Mexico

✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔

Nigeria

✔ ✔ ✔

Poland

✔ ✔ ✔ ✔

Singapore

✔ ✔ ✔

Thailand

✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔

USA

✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔

1 In Australia, use cases such as Request to Pay, Future Payments and Bulk Payments are under development

2 In Bahrain, Request to Pay is supported by BeneﬁtPay and Bill Payments by Fawateer

3 In EU, Request To Pay is under development4In India, UPI also supports Non-Financial Transactions, Initial Public Offering

Subscription, and Foreign Inward Remittance

5 In Malaysia, new services, i.e. Request To Pay, Consent (e-Mandates), Real-Time Debit and Cross-Border Payments are under

development

6 In Thailand, PromptPay also supports e-Donation

In turn, use cases/services are speciﬁc situations in which

a payment product or service could potentially be used,

such as for bill payments and merchant payments. Actual

uses cases supported by fast payment arrangements in the

studied jurisdictions are illustrated in ﬁgure 17.

The P2P payment type and use cases associated with it

have been the genesis of many fast payment arrangements.

As customers grew used to fast payments, they became

more comfortable making merchant, bill, and government

payments via this same platform. Furthermore, to increase

merchant and bill payments, operators and participants in

jurisdictions such as Hong Kong SAR, China, India, and Thai-

land have also provided incentives in the form of cashback

offers, discounts, and coupons.

In any case, an important lesson is that large-scale adop-

tion of P2P payments has been a cornerstone for the adop-

tion of other payment types.

During the study, it was found that operators have

adopted two main methods of introducing payment types

and use cases.

48 | Considerations and Lessons for the Development and Implementation of Fast Payment Systems

• In certain jurisdictions, operators have deﬁned the var-

ious payment types and associated use cases based on

their understanding of the market. These were intro-

duced in one go or in phases. For example, PromptPay

in Thailand started only with inter-bank credit transfers.

After its launch, support for several use cases/services,

such as cross-bank bill payments, request to pay, and

e-donations, were introduced in a phased manner.

• A few jurisdictions adopted a different method: The op-

erator introduced the fast payment arrangement and let

various market players decide on various use cases. Exam-

ples include SCT Inst in the European Union, Mexico, Po-

land, and the United Kingdom. For example, operators in

Mexico and Poland were of the view that market players

are in the best position to determine the use cases suit-

able for the local market and that their responsibility is to

provide a robust underlying infrastructure that is ﬂexible

enough to support various innovative use cases.

Australia and Thailand provide examples of fast payments

enabling business and government payment types and their

associated use cases/services. In Australia, the NPP enables

businesses to extend usage to accept merchant payments.

Additionally, the NPP has published its own QR code stan-

dard for both dynamic and static QR codes that merchants

can use. In 2019, NPPA published a road map with plans to

roll out the Mandated Payments Services, which is the core

capability to enable use cases such as request to pay, bulk/

batch payments, and scheduled future payments. The devel-

opment of this capability will involve considerable effort to

implement, requiring changes to existing back-ofﬁce pro-

cesses and systems. All participating ﬁnancial institutions are

required to implement this capability by December 2021.

In Thailand, merchant payments are allowed in PromptPay

through the request-to-pay functionality and via QR codes.

After the launch of standardized Thai QR codes, support

for QR payment was enabled by launching MyPromptQR in

September 2019. Furthermore, government agencies in the

country are processing social-assistance cash transfers and

tax refunds through PromptPay, which has resulted in signif-

icant increases in user registration in PromptPay.

Finally, one of the most noteworthy features in many fast

payment arrangements is the availability of a request-to-pay

functionality, as it offers a wide range of use cases across

consumers and businesses. Request to pay also offers an

effective alternative to card payments and traditional direct

debits. Box 8 provides more details on the essentials of a

request functionality.

Further, table 20 provides details on select ﬁndings on

the request-to-pay functionality in fast payments studied for

this guide. One key issue that emerged from the analysis of

the jurisdictions in this table is that request to pay increases

convenience to payers by eliminating the need to input mul-

tiple information details. Through this, recipients (in partic-

ular, merchants) can efﬁciently and seamlessly notify payers

of the underling payment obligation so the payers can take

action, but payers retain full control over the actual payment

process (that is, the actual ﬂow of funds).

In essence, a request-to-pay functionality enables a

payee to make a request for the initiation of a pay-

ment by a payer. The payee and payer may be persons,

businesses, or any other payment account holders. The

essential steps in a request-to-pay process are the fol-

lowing:

• A request is made by the payee.

• The payer is provided with information on the

amount, the purpose of the transaction, and payee

information.

• The payer decides to approve or decline the re-

quest, resulting in the authorization (or refusal) of

the payment.

• Upon approval of the payment request, the pay-

er’s PSP is instructed to execute a payment to the

payee.

Some of the standard use cases associated with request

to pay include P2P payments, e-billing/invoicing,

e-commerce payments, and point-of-sale payments.

Jurisdictions such as India, Thailand, the United King-

dom, and the United States, offer request-to-pay

services as an underlying functionality of their fast pay-

ment arrangement, whereas other jurisdictions, such as

Mexico, have introduced this functionality as an overlay

service.

BOX 8 REQUEST TO PAY IN FAST PAYMENT ARRANGEMENTS

Considerations and Lessons for the Development and Implementation of Fast Payment Systems | 49

TABLE 20: Select Findings and Insights into Request-to-Pay Functionalities and Services

India The UPI system supports request to pay, through which a user can request a payment using the UPI ID or saved

contacts. After this, the payer has to authorize the payment to complete the transaction. Payers can deﬁne minimum

and maximum validity time (or a default is set). An alert is also sent to payers before the collect request expires.

Incrementally, certain security measures are added, including the following:

• An option for customers to block UPI IDs to restrict future requests

• Validation of core banking name

• Standardized SMS for payers

• Option to save requests (marked as ”safe”)

• Velocity checks are performed, and there is a cap on transactions that can be initiated each day and week.

Kenya Currently, PesaLink is upgrading its capabilities. Once completed, it will support new use cases, such request to pay,

which will be instrumented as a pull-payment facility.

Mexico Banco de México introduced a standardized request-to-pay functionality through the overlay service CoDi. It was

designed to simplify and homogenize the experience of requesting a payment or answering a request to pay by

payers. It has complemented such use cases/services as bill payments and merchant payments.

In practice, CoDi’s introduction has resolved the problem of inputting a lot of information. Security elements

in CoDi are embedded in the request-to-pay message. Once a message is received, a payer will be redirected to

her/his banking app and to the last step of the sending process of a traditional SPEI transfer order, in which all the

information of the recipient account is already pre-populated and only a ﬁnal validation is required. Banco de México

has mandated banking institutions that offer a mobile-phone application and have more than 3,000 accounts to

provide the CoDi services.

Thailand The request-to-pay functionality PayAlert was enabled in March 2018 as an underlying functionality of PromptPay.

The service allows vendors and businesses to send notiﬁcations to consumers to request payments. It consists of the

following two steps:

• Notiﬁcation: Retailers/online sellers send messages along with their PromptPay IDs to buyers to request payments.

• Payment: Buyers/payers receive messages via bank channels such as mobile banking and choose to conﬁrm

payments.

United Kingdom In 2020, the request-to-pay functionality was launched, and “Conﬁrmation of Payee” was also launched during the

same period. It enables banks to verify the credentials of payees before processing transactions.

United States RTP supports request-to-pay services. This functionality provides payees with an effective method to initiate a

potential transaction, while also combatting fraud and allowing the payer to maintain control over the payment ﬂow.

(For example, the payer is provided with the necessary pre-populated information to authorize the payment, and

only the payer can initiate the actual ﬂow of funds.)

4.3.2 Overlay Services and Aliases

Overlay services and aliases have proved critical for increas-

ing the velocity of uptake of fast payments and therefore

have been or are being developed in most jurisdictions.

Overlay services enable support for access channels such as

QR codes and additional use cases such as request to pay,

schedule future payments, reconciliation, and aliases. With

the help of overlay services, customers can typically make

payments via mobile devices through user-friendly applica-

tions and aliases, thus enhancing customer experience.

Table 21 describes the experience of selected jurisdic-

tions with overlay services. Most of them introduced overlay

services as a follow-up, after the fast payment arrangement

went live. Certain jurisdictions’ offerings, such as Malaysia’s

DuitNow, Poland’s BLIK, and the United Kingdom’s Paym,

are explicitly called out as overlay services. In the case of

Mexico, overlay is owned by the operator, whereas in Aus-

tralia and Poland, they are operated by separate entities. Yet

in other cases, such as Singapore, the owner of the overlay

service is a separate entity, but the entity operating them is

the fast payment operator.

Aliases are regarded as a subcategory of overlay services

and entail the use of mobile numbers, email IDs, and so on

as proxy addresses for customer account numbers, allowing

end users to make transactions without needing to know

the speciﬁc account number of the payee, which is typically

hard to remember. Some fast payment arrangements even

offer proxy look-up for customer convenience. The simplic-

ity associated with aliases has also been a major driver for

widespread adoption of fast payments.

Payment system operators need to establish proxy data-

bases to facilitate alias mapping. Globally, operators have

adopted the following two main approaches for develop-

ing their proxy databases: (i) A centralized database: The

mapping of the proxy identiﬁer to accounts takes place

through a central repository. A central database offers the

most straightforward implementation of the proxy service.

(ii) A decentralized database: An authentication message is

sent to the beneﬁciary bank or other PSP to map the proxy

identiﬁer to the ﬁnal beneﬁciary’s account. Box 9 provides

a more detailed discussion on the use of aliases for fast

payments.

50 | Considerations and Lessons for the Development and Implementation of Fast Payment Systems

TABLE 21: Select Findings on Overlay Services

Australia Osko, owned and operated by Bpay, a separate entity, is an overlay service on the NPP. It is a consumer-oriented

“convenience” service that works together with banks and other ﬁnancial institutions to enable NPP payments using

existing online banking. More than 70 entities have rolled out Osko, and approximately 80 percent of transactions

through the NPP are actually Osko-related transactions.

Entities implemented Osko so they could easily route direct credit/entry transactions via Osko without changing

the customer experience. This ensures common messaging, which allows end users to understand the service

irrespective of which PSP they use. Osko payments can be used for person-to-person, person-to-business, business-

to-person, and business-to-business payments.

Malaysia DuitNow allows customers to send money instantly on a 24/7 basis to mobile numbers, National Registration ID Card

(NRIC) numbers, passport numbers, or business registration numbers. DuitNow supports future-dated and recurring

transfers.

Mexico In 2019, Banco de México launched CoDi as an overlay service that added a request-to-pay functionality over the

SPEI rail. CoDi also facilitates payments through proximity-based channels such as QR codes and NFC.

Poland The Express Elixir system supports only bank account numbers to make fast payments. BLIK, an overlay service

provider, uses Express Elixir’s core capabilities to enable users to make real-time P2P transfers. BLIK enables the use

of a mobile number as an alias.

Singapore PayNow, the overlay service, is owned by the Association of Banks in Singapore, which is a separate entity from the

owner and operator of FAST. PayNow acts as an initiating interface of payments in FAST for retail customers of nine

participating banks.

Proxy identiﬁers or aliases are unique identiﬁers that

allow individuals and the business sector to transact

in a seamless manner without needing to know the

beneﬁciary’s bank account details (such as bank name,

bank account number, or branch code).

The simplicity

associated with aliases has been a major driver for their

widespread adoption, as a bank account number (10

digits long or longer) is difﬁcult to remember. A proxy

service can also help prevent bank account information

theft, reverse look-up attacks, and automated skim-

ming of customer information. Proxy identiﬁers should

be easy to remember, easy to share without risk, and

interoperable.

Apart from these parameters, cost and infrastructure

requirements need to be evaluated when choosing the

proxy identiﬁers. Implementation costs for a proxy ser-

vice depend on its construction, capacity requirements,

and data storage requirements. The most common

proxy identiﬁers used in payment systems are mobile-

phone numbers, email addresses, national ID numbers,

corporate registration numbers, and payment scheme/

service speciﬁc proxy identiﬁers.

Payment systems generally offer proxy look-up ser-

vice as a key offering to enhance the customer conve-

nience. PayPal and Apple Pay, among many others, are

also offering customers a choice to use proxy identiﬁers

(mobile numbers or email addresses) as a substitute to

card numbers while making payments.

Proxy identiﬁers can be stored on centralized or

decentralized databases that are encrypted and used

for proxy identiﬁer or alias mapping. Participants should

also have suitable veriﬁcation processes in place when

customers are registering an alias. Proxy identiﬁers can

be veriﬁed through several methods, such as biomet-

rics (when smartphone capabilities are available), and

via SMS and the veriﬁcation of one-time passwords

(when biometrics are not available). The use of biomet-

ric authentication provides superior security. The choice

of a proxy database varies across different payment sys-

tems based on the regulatory environment, competition,

and prevalent market practices in a particular jurisdic-

tion. In Australia, a centralized database was put in place,

as it had a centralized regulatory authority along with a

single payment system operator, while in the European

Union’s SCT Inst, where multiple countries are involved,

it is quite difﬁcult to establish a centralized database.

When choosing a proxy identiﬁer, making it easy to

remember is important from a customer perspective,

as the intention is to simplify the payments experience.

The uniqueness of a proxy identiﬁer is important from a

technical perspective so that the payment system accu-

rately identiﬁes where to send the payment or request

BOX 9 ALIASES FOR FAST PAYMENTS

Considerations and Lessons for the Development and Implementation of Fast Payment Systems | 51

By far, mobile-phone numbers are the most common

form of alias. Furthermore, in most cases, the use of aliases is

not enabled by the operators of fast payment arrangements

but by the participants in those arrangements, often via an

overlay service, as shown in table 22.

For more details, refer to the focus note on proxy data-

bases and aliases, which forms part of the Fast Payments

Toolkit.

4.3.3 Access Channels

Internet and mobile banking are the dominant channels in

fast payments, although many arrangements still support

transactions through branches.

Newer access channels, such as QR codes, are becom-

ing signiﬁcant drivers of fast payment adoption from both

a participant and regulator perspective.

Further, jurisdictions where ﬁnancial inclusion has been

a driver for the launch of fast payments have also enabled

the USSD channel to overcome the barrier of smartphone

and data requirements.

for payment. If the capability is introduced as a core

functionality, there is more ﬂexibility in how the capa-

bility can be used. While launching the proxy service,

strong customer-veriﬁcation standards need to be put

in place to prevent the registration of fraudulent aliases.

It is also critical to ensure that necessary controls are in

place to prevent cybersecurity breaches and to estab-

lish independent testing of endpoints to ensure that

controls are working as intended in all channels.

It is important to establish data-security and privacy

measures while launching a proxy service. In addition,

PSPs need to obtain consent from customers to use a

particular proxy identiﬁer. Payment system operators

also need to put in place rules regarding fraud risk

management and liability and to ensure that register-

ing parties have suitable veriﬁcation processes in place

when customers are registering an alias.

BOX 9, continued

Mobile phone number

Corporate registration number (Business ID)

Scheme speciﬁc proxy identiﬁer

Bank Account / Passport / National Identity Document / Driving License

Proxy identiﬁers

Base identiﬁers

Email address National identity number

Access channels refer to the modes used by customers to

initiate fast payment transactions. Among others, access

channels include branches, ATMs, self-service kiosks, mobile

banking, internet banking, and QR codes. Figure 18 illus-

trates the various access channels and their current rele-

vance for fast payments from a global perspective, while

ﬁgure 19 shows the channels supported by the actual fast

payment arrangements analyzed as part of the deep dives.

Although fast payments can be made through bank

branches/ATMs, these traditional channels are not preferred

by customers in most countries; instead, digital channels

such as internet banking and mobile banking are primarily

used. QR codes are increasingly emerging as key channels,

especially for P2B use cases, and adoption is widespread in

jurisdictions such as China and India, among others.

The following access channels are further discussed

below: (i) QR codes, (ii) NFC, (iii) Unstructured Supplemen-

tary Service Data (USSD), and (iv) agents.

52 | Considerations and Lessons for the Development and Implementation of Fast Payment Systems

Australia PayID is the addressing service that enables users, through their ﬁnancial institution, to link their account to a simple,

easy-to-remember, unique identiﬁer. The types of PayID are an email address, phone number, Australian Business

Number, Australian Company Number, Australian Registered Body Number, or Australian Registered Scheme Number.

However, the type of PayIDs available vary from institution to institution. The majority offers only a phone number,

email address, Australian Business Number, or an organization identiﬁer, such as the company’s name.

PayIDs can be registered and managed only by participating ﬁnancial institutions with encrypted account details.

This service also provides conﬁrmation of the payee’s account name when a PayID is entered, which reduces the risk

of misdirecting a payment compared with using an account number to address a payment.

PayID has a secure central database to store all PayID information and is operated by SWIFT as part of the NPP

platform. PayID sits in the infrastructure of the NPP. (That is, it is a part of the core capability of the platform and is an

enabler that can be used by any overlay service.). However, NPPA does not have access to personal information in the

addressing service. Only participants in the NPP have access to PayID information.

India IMPS allowed a mobile number and mobile-money identiﬁer (MMID) as aliases. MMID faced challenges during its

initial years, as it is difﬁcult to remember due to its structure. Subsequently, the MMID format was simpliﬁed. Learnings

were incorporated in UPI by introducing a simpliﬁed UPI ID and its seamless creation process.

UPI uses a virtual payment address (VPA) that acts as a unique identiﬁer and is independent of a bank account

number and other details. Users can set their custom VPAs, which can then be used to send or receive funds. It is in

the format of username@handle or username@bank or username@upi. In the VPA, “username” refers to the username

that customers can set in the UPI app, whereas “handle,” “bank,” and “upi” are the identiﬁers of banks or third-party

applications and are called “handles.” Addresses with the sufﬁx “@UPI” act as global identiﬁers, for which address

resolution is performed at the UPI’s end. UPI ID data is mapped at the PSP’s end for address resolution.

Malaysia The DuitNow service was launched as part of RPP in December 2018. It enables a payer to make a seamless transfer

simply by inputting the recipient’s common identiﬁer (DuitNow ID), which is linked to the recipient’s account. The

DuitNow ID that is supported under the DuitNow service includes the recipient’s mobile-phone number, NRIC

number, passport number, and business registration number.

Mexico SPEI allows a mobile number as an alias or proxy to complete payments. This is done in a decentralized database,

as customers have to link their mobile numbers with their PSP. To complete a transaction, customers have to input a

mobile number together with the PSP name. The central bank is considering including the national ID number as an

alias in the future.

Poland The overlay service BLIK supports the mobile number as an alias.

Singapore PayNow, the overlay service, enables retail customers to move Singapore dollar funds from one bank to another in

Singapore through FAST by using only their mobile number or Singapore NRIC/FIN. PayNow also allows recipients to use

the Unique Entity Number, the standard ID number of a business entity registered in Singapore, as a proxy address.

Thailand PromptPay uses proxies such as the national ID, mobile numbers, corporate registration numbers (tax ID number),

merchant ID, or e-wallet ID. Alias mapping is decentralized in PromptPay. Banks are required to map a customer’s ID

with the bank account number. Customers can use as an alias only a mobile number registered with a bank account.

United States RTP does not support the use of aliases or proxies for payments. There are no plans to launch RTP’s own social alias/

proxy service because the market is already well served and existing alias/proxy services might transition to RTP

payments to clear and settle transactions.

Nevertheless, the RTP network allows third parties to enable alias or proxy payments. For example, PayPal and

Venmo already use the RTP network for transfers to their client banks or credit union accounts using aliases. TCH has

also entered into partnerships with Zelle to provide settlement services.

FIGURE 18: Access Channels and Their Relevance for Fast Payments

TABLE 22: Select Findings on Aliases

Branch

Internet/Mobile Banking

Terminals

(ATMs, Kiosks)

Advanced contactless and

checkout channels (QR,

NFC, Bluetooth)

Agent Networks

Unstructured

Supplementary

Service Data (USSD)

Considerations and Lessons for the Development and Implementation of Fast Payment Systems | 53

i. QR Codes

Recent advances in the payments landscape have been

toward channels that support contactless and seamless

checkout experiences, such as QR codes. These are becom-

ing increasingly common, among both merchants and cus-

tomers. As part of the desk research, it was found that over

50 percent of fast payments in 25 jurisdictions examined,

support QR codes as an access channel. QR codes are clas-

siﬁed based on two broad dimensions: the type of infor-

mation (static or dynamic) and the presenter of the code

(merchant or consumer).

The cost for smaller merchants to accept digital payments

has come down with QR codes. The initial cost for accep-

tance infrastructure for card payments through point-of-sale

JURISDICTION

INTERNET MOBILE

BANKING

BRANCH

BANKING

ADVANCED

CHANNELS

TERMINALS

(ATMS KIOSKS) USSD

AGENT

NETWORKS

Australia

✔

(QR Code)

Bahrain

✔ ✔

✔

(QR Code)

Chile

✔

China

✔ ✔

✔

(QR Code)

✔ ✔

✔

(QR Code)

✔

Hong Kong

SAR, China

✔

(QR Code)

India

✔ ✔

✔

(QR Code, NFC)

✔ ✔ ✔

Kenya

✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔

Malaysia

✔ ✔

✔

(QR Code)

✔

Mexico

✔ ✔

✔

(QR Code, NFC)

✔

Nigeria

✔ ✔

✔

(POS)

✔ ✔ ✔

Poland

✔ ✔

Singapore

✔ ✔

✔

(QR Code)

✔

Thailand

✔ ✔

✔

(QR Code)

✔

✔ ✔ ✔

USA

✔ ✔ ✔

1 QR code under development

FIGURE 19: Access Channels Supported by Fast Payment Arrangements

machines for merchants is usually over $100, whereas the

cost for QR code payment infrastructure (QR code sticker)

can be as little as $1. The ongoing maintenance expense for

static QR codes is limited and basically comprises reprint-

ing the sticker in the event of wear and tear. Moreover, QR

codes provide the ﬂexibility to invoke various other periph-

eral services, such as redirecting to a merchant’s website or

running promotional campaigns. Hence, these additional

features also foster customer adoption of QR codes, owing

to an enhanced customer experience.

Public authorities around the world observed the success

in select Asian jurisdictions and are working toward advanc-

ing QR payments to promote ﬁnancial inclusion. For exam-

ple, central banks in emerging markets such as Ghana have

54 | Considerations and Lessons for the Development and Implementation of Fast Payment Systems

recently announced the launch of the Universal QR Code

and Proxy Pay platforms, in their quest to increase the usage

of digital payments.

In India, further to innovations in the QR code space,

Google Pay has also enabled Audio QR (Tez) for payments.

Certain jurisdictions, such as Mexico, enable QR code–based

payments through their overlay service. In Poland, standards

for presenting data via QR code were issued for the wider

payment ecosystem. However, a speciﬁc set of standards

for QR codes was not rolled out with the introduction of

Express Elixir or in the overlay BLIK, because QR codes have

not received much traction as a channel in the Polish market.

Nevertheless, the operator of Express Elixir built the platform

so that payments via QR codes can be enabled easily in the

future, should the need arise.

QR codes can also facilitate interoperability when they

are standardized. Jurisdictions such as Australia, Bah-

rain, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Thailand have based

their standard on EMVCo’s merchant presented QR speci-

ﬁcations, as these are being adopted by a growing num-

ber of operators and participants. In India, the Bharat QR

and UPI QR are interoperable, and customers can pay

as per their will, regardless of the app they are using.

This has countered the inconvenience associated with mul-

tiple QR codes for different wallets for both the merchant

and the customer.

Merchant generates and displays QR code based on merchant details

Consumer scans QR code using a mobile application to initiate the transaction, with CDCVM if required

Mobile application sends the transaction initiation request to the Network

The Network processes the transaction and informs the Merchant and the Consumer of the transaction outcome

Displays

transaction

result

Scan

NETWORK

MOBILE TRANSACTION POI MERCHANT

ISSUER

PAYMENT NETWORK

ACQUIRER

Displays

transaction

result

Point of Initiation (POI)

generates QRC based

on merchant details

Transaction outcome

Transaction initiation

FIGURE 20: QR Code Payment Process

Dynamic merchant presented

Consumer presented

Scan

Auth request

with EMV data

Auth response

Decode QR and

extract chip data

Transaction

result

MOBILE

APPLICATION

QR Code

Reader

POI

MERCHANT

ACQUIRER ISSUER

PAYMENT

NETWORK

Considerations and Lessons for the Development and Implementation of Fast Payment Systems | 55

For more details, refer to the focus note on QR code stan-

dards, which forms part of the Fast Payments Toolkit.

ii. Near-Field Communication

NFC is a proximity-based access channel that allows the

transfer of payment messages and data wirelessly through

smartphones and other devices. It is widely used for facil-

itating merchant payments at NFC-enabled terminals. For

example, fast payment arrangements in China, India,

and Mexico (for the CoDi overlay service) support NFC as an

access channel.

iii. Unstructured Supplementary Service Data

USSD is a common technology for communication between

GSM handsets and the back-end computer systems of

mobile-network operators. It can be used on any phone,

including feature phones. USSD is among the easiest and

most affordable technologies to deploy, especially for

mobile-network operators, because there are no additional

merchant or customer hardware requirements apart from

mobile phones.

In India, to facilitate transactions for non-smartphone

and non-internet users, an interoperable platform based on

USSD has been developed connecting all mobile-network

operators. This was envisioned as an initiative of the ﬁnan-

cial-inclusion agenda to reach out to the digitally excluded.

USSD allows customers to check bank balances, view mini-

statements, and initiate fund transfers through their fea-

ture phones. Challenges were observed before the launch,

as many stakeholders from the telecom industry had to be

onboarded, and aspects related to revenue sharing had to

be ironed out. User adoption of this channel has faced chal-

lenges over the years as well. Reasons range from limited

user awareness, customer charges, frequent session time-

outs/higher failure rates, and uneven user experience.

iv. Agent Networks

Agent networks are a channel that allows an assisted form of

banking (typically found in emerging and developing econ-

omies) in which non-bank entities facilitate customer bank-

ing transactions. Agent networks are utilized to initiate fast

payments in jurisdictions such as India, Kenya, and Nigeria.

In India, customers can make payments through an

agent who acts as a trustworthy middle layer to guide a

transaction. A key use case has been domestic migrant

remittances, where the customers are not digitally savvy

enough to make payments on their own, and risk sensitivity

is also high because remittances involve a major portion of

their income.

4.3.4 User Uptake

Low end-user prices, ease of use, and multiple use cases

appear to be the main drivers of user uptake.

Jurisdictions have seen a range of growth drivers for fast

payment uptake by end users, such as user experience,

low user prices, convenience, and pushes from the govern-

ment and the central bank, among others. The availability

of use cases is also critical: the P2P use case has been the

major driver of user uptake so far, while the person-to-busi-

ness (P2B) use case is also growing rapidly. As per survey

responses, different stakeholders perceive different drivers

to be key to the adoption of fast payments. This is illustrated

in ﬁgure 21.

Two key drivers are discussed below: end-user pricing

and awareness campaigns.

i. End-User Pricing

Low end-user prices and transaction costs, as well as ease of

access to initiate payments (for example, via digital channels

such as the internet and, especially, mobile banking), have

also been critical for end-user uptake.

FIGURE 21: Primary FPS Adoption Drivers as per Survey Findings

STAKEHOLDER PRIMARY GROWTH DRIVERS FOR FAST PAYMENT ADOPTION

Central bank/

other regulator

• Interoperability among payment instruments and systems

• Lower cost over other payment modes

• Availability of key use cases—that is, P2P, P2B, and bill payments

• Initiatives for encouraging merchant acceptance of fast payments

Operator

• Availability of key use cases—that is, P2P, P2B, and bill payments

• Government intervention and promotion of digital payments at a national level

• Banking and digital penetration in the jurisdiction

Participant

• Availability of key use cases—that is, P2P, P2B, and bill payments

• Banking and digital penetration in the jurisdiction

• Initiatives for encouraging merchant acceptance of fast payments

56 | Considerations and Lessons for the Development and Implementation of Fast Payment Systems

Regarding pricing, not long ago, end users in some juris-

dictions had to pay extra for fast payments, as these were

considered a premium service. As shown in the jurisdiction

analysis in table 23, it is clear that increased competition

played an important role in reducing prices, as operators

and PSPs look to acquire end users and merchants to use the

innovative use cases/services. Further, some central banks

have issued guidelines either reducing or waiving end-user

costs/merchant fees associated with fast payment transac-

tions. India is an outlier in the area of pricing, as various

incentives have been introduced for certain users (instead of

making further direct reductions of end-user fees).

ii. Awareness Initiatives

Awareness initiatives—including marketing campaigns driven

by operators themselves or individual participants, awareness

drives, public announcements, and social-media marketing—

have generally been successful at promoting user uptake. As

shown in table 24, most jurisdiction-speciﬁc experiences in

this area have included the production and dissemination

TABLE 23: Select Findings on End-User Pricing

TABLE 24: Select Findings on Awareness Initiatives

Australia The fee charged to customers for fast payments was only marginally higher than that charged for overnight

payments. Additionally, Osko was implemented so that banks could easily route direct credit/entry transactions via

Osko without changing the customer experience signiﬁcantly. This helped increase adoption by making it seamless

for the customers.

India A referral bonus scheme for individuals was introduced wherein existing users of the Bharat Interface for Money

(BHIM) UPI app are incentivized to onboard new users. A bonus is paid to both referrer and referee. A cashback

scheme for merchants was also introduced to incentivize merchants for receiving payments on the BHIM UPI

app. Merchant cashback is paid out on completion of a minimum of 50 credit transactions, of which at least

20 transactions are from valid unique UPI users. TPSPs are also providing incentives, such as cashbacks and

promotional vouchers, for using their applications for UPI payments.

Kenya During the initial months of COVID-19, the central bank mandated all the participants to waive end-user charges

for three months. This led to a surge in transactions during the period.

Malaysia BNM has mandated that the transaction fee be waived for individuals and small and medium-sized enterprises for

transfers up to RM 5,000.

Mexico Transactions via the overlay CoDi (that is, request to pay) are free of charge for both the payer and the payee. (If

the latter is a merchant, then the merchant discount rate is zero.)

Thailand In March 2018, PromptPay decided to waive charges for transactions through electronic channels. Moreover,

competition within the banking sector has also played an important role driving the adoption of PromptPay. For

example, banks have provided cashbacks on using the cross-bank bill payment service to customers.

Singapore Retailers are not charged, and charges were waived also for corporations, to boost adoption at the time of launch.

Australia NPPA ran an above-the-line advertising campaign for a limited time introducing PayID, the platform’s aliasing service.

As a scheme, marketing is a core function for BPay, and it provides ﬂyers, digital media, brochures, and outdoor

advertisements, and it also provides co-branded material to each ﬁnancial institution. BPay launched a marketing

campaign for Osko that included a variety of digital and physical channels.

Bahrain BENEFIT worked on national promotional campaigns to raise awareness and adoption of BeneﬁtPay transactions.

Hong Kong SAR,

China

HKMA undertook a range of measures to popularize FPS before its launch, including advertisements that detailed

its beneﬁts to users. HKMA developed a series of educational and promotional materials, such as announcements

for broadcast on television and radio, as well as videos and electronic banners for digital platforms. HKMA also

participated in trade fairs to promote the FPS with small and medium-sized enterprises and corporations.

India Multiple promotional campaigns were launched by all ecosystem participants, including NPCI. For example, “UPI

Chalega”—a UPI awareness campaign—was launched by NPCI in association with the participants.

Kenya During the launch of PesaLink, Integrated Payment Services Ltd. invested in marketing activities to persuade

customers to make payments through PesaLink.

Malaysia Consumers were educated via social-media and print channels. While the participants were responsible for

communicating to their customers, PayNet, as the operator, also performs customer education and usage

campaigns. Additionally, BNM undertakes outreach initiatives to foster greater public awareness and conﬁdence in

the usage of e-payments.

Singapore MAS worked closely with the Association of Banks in Singapore from April to July 2020 to launch an active campaign

to promote PayNow and PayNow Corporate. The initiative also included a media campaign and consumer outreach

efforts to raise public awareness of these e-payment solutions.

Considerations and Lessons for the Development and Implementation of Fast Payment Systems | 57

of educational and promotional materials before the initial

launch of fast payments. In some cases, this was done not by

the operator alone but by the various participants (individu-

ally or through industry organizations).

4.4 MODULE D: LEGAL AND REGULATORY

CONSIDERATIONS, RISK MANAGEMENT,

AND CUSTOMER DISPUTE RESOLUTION

This module focuses on some institutional requirements

pertaining to fast payments. The following three key insights

are discussed here:

i. Legal and regulatory considerations

ii. Risk management

iii. Customer dispute resolution

The legal and regulatory framework provides the sound

legal footing for operations of FPS. The scheme rules pro-

vide the operational clarity of a payment system. Each FPS,

designed and developed by an individual central bank/

operator, has its own scheme rules. Scheme rules deﬁne the

way the system will operate and the behavior and interac-

tion of participants. Scheme rules are deﬁned to minimize

risks, maintain integrity, and provide a common, conve-

nient, secure, reliable, and seamless payment experience to

customers. Framing rules, standards, and guidelines with a

certain degree of ﬂexibility helps make implementation and

subsequent upgrades easy. For example, to facilitate interop-

erability, scheme rules could deﬁne a high-level framework

that bridges differences across solutions and addresses only

areas that are essential for interoperability. Deﬁning scheme

rules while also supporting geography-speciﬁc rules and

regulations brings variation and uniqueness to each imple-

mentation.

Every scheme has its own set of unique rules, applica-

ble to all scheme participants. These rules specify the mini-

mum requirement framework applicable to all members for

operating while upholding the safety, security, soundness,

integrity, and interoperability of the FPS. Scheme rules are

deﬁned and modiﬁed by schemes to support the use and

advancement of services. Several factors need to be consid-

ered while deﬁning scheme rules for an FPS. These range

from the way different participants interact and the mes-

saging formats they would use to communicate to the type

of transactions that would be offered to customers and the

settlement between the different participants.

A more detailed discussion on scheme rules in the context

of fast payments can be found in the respective focus note

that is part of the toolkit.

4.4.1 Legal and Regulatory Considerations

A sound regulatory and legal backing and high gover-

nance standards are critical aspects for a fast payment

arrangement to operate safely and efﬁciently and to thrive.

A robust legal and regulatory framework promotes innova-

tion in payments while at the same time ensuring the secu-

rity and safety of the payment arrangements. The key pieces

of legislation that are applicable to fast payments typically

include the domestic regulations and laws pertaining to pay-

ment systems and services, banking, and the central bank,

although some peripheral regulations or laws are applicable

in some cases, such as those related to open banking, digital

ID, KYC guidelines, and consumer protection.

Due to the instant nature of fast payments, the legal

framework needs to provide legal protections on such issues

as the moment in which payments are ﬁnal and when the

funds are legally transferred from sender to receiver.

The

legal framework should also provide a sound basis for pro-

tecting the netting and settlement arrangements.

Table 25 shows that, in practice, these provisions were

generally not created for fast payments ex profeso but

already existed for the RTGS system and/or other systems

that are designated as systemically important by the central

bank. In such cases, the key task has been to ensure their

applicability also to the fast payment arrangement.

Moreover, operators in most of the jurisdictions assessed

as part of this guide have published a detailed scheme

rulebook (or system rules) as well as detailed procedures.

The scheme rules and detailed operating procedures shall

address the various categories of participants (that is, direct

participants, indirect participants, and overlay service pro-

vides, if applicable) and clearly indicate which of them apply

to what kind of participant.

4.4.2 Risk Management

Fast payment arrangements are exposed to the same core

risks as other payment systems.

During the deep-dive analysis, it was observed that most

fast payment operators have adopted an enterprise-wide

risk-management framework to manage all identiﬁed risks.

Others have opted to focus on payment system–speciﬁc risks

and, on this basis, built their risk-management framework.

The sections below detail risk management, covering the

following speciﬁc risks and areas: (i) credit and liquidity risks;

(ii) operational risk; (iii) compliance with AML and combat-

ting the ﬁnancing of terrorism (CFT) guidelines; and (iv) des-

ignating fast payment arrangements as SIPS.

58 | Considerations and Lessons for the Development and Implementation of Fast Payment Systems

i. Credit and Liquidity Risk

Credit and liquidity risks vary across fast payment arrange-

ments depending on the settlement model adopted. Of

the seven participants that responded to this part of the

survey, four believe that managing these risks is more chal-

lenging in fast payments than in other payment systems.

The choice of settlement model brings certain implications

for stakeholders in the payments ecosystem when it comes

to managing credit and liquidity risks. The main aspects and

risk implications (and the need of risk mitigators) of a DNS

model or a real-time settlement model were discussed in

that section. This section covers issues that are particular

to fast payment arrangements and provides details on how

operators in the different jurisdictions studied are managing

these risks. (See table 26.)

A signiﬁcant difference between fast payments and other

types of payment systems is that the liquidity needs extend

beyond normal business hours, due to operations being

performed 24/7. This is relevant for fast payment arrange-

ments that use either a real-time settlement model or a

DNS model. In the ﬁrst case, participants may be unable to

access certain liquidity sources (for example, central bank

credit, interbank loans, and so on). In DNS models, liquidity

risk may arise if inter-PSP settlement cycles are to be exe-

Hong Kong SAR,

China

The Clearing and Settlement Systems Ordinance came into effect in November 2004. It governs payments in

Hong Kong. However, in 2015, this ordinance was amended and retitled as the Payment Systems and Stored Value

Facilities Ordinance to introduce a regulatory regime for SVFs. The latter are participants in FPS.

India Under the Payment and Settlement Systems Act of 2007, the RBI took the following two actions:

• Created the Board for Regulation and Supervision of Payment and Settlement Systems Regulations

• Issued the Payment and Settlement Systems Regulations

NPCI is regulated by the RBI and governed by the board, comprising representatives from member banks as well as

independent directors.

Mexico The legal and regulatory framework supporting SPEI activities is comprised of Banco de México’s Organic Law

and the Payments Systems Law. Circular No. 13/2017, Circular 14/2017 (SPEI Rules), and the SPEI Operating Manual

complete SPEI’s legal basis.

Under the SPEI Regulation, the settlement of transfer orders takes place through a clearing process in accordance

with the Payment Systems Law. Once SPEI settles a transfer order and sends the corresponding settlement notice

to both the issuer and the receiver, the order is considered accepted for all purposes. It also covers the netting

arrangements (as SPEI uses hybrid settlement). Other key topics covered by the SPEI Regulation include access

requirements and the fee framework.

United Kingdom The Financial Service (Banking Reform) Act of 2013 led to the formation of the Payment Systems Regulator. HM

Treasury designated eight payment systems, including FPS, to be regulated by the Payment Systems Regulator for

the purposes of part 5 of the aforementioned act.

United States The legal framework supporting RTP activities comprises the RTP operating rules and RTP participating rules, along

with existing payments laws, wherever applicable. The RTP operating rules have been drafted to deﬁne the rights

and responsibilities of participants and TCH with respect to RTP.

Among other topics, the participation rules address general eligibility requirements, the process for connecting

to RTP through a TPSP, and requirements in the event of a change of name, form of organization, or control of a

participant.

TABLE 25: Select Findings on Legal and Regulatory Considerations

cuted outside normal business hours in an effort to avoid

building up large net debit positions. Even if settlement is

executed in working hours in the next working day, during

non-working hours participants in an arrangement using

DNS that applies risk-mitigation techniques may be unable,

for example, to post additional collateral to continue send-

ing payment orders without these being rejected.

In practice, as shown in table 26, the facilities that sup-

port the management of credit and liquidity risks depend

on multiple elements particular to each jurisdiction, starting

from whether a DNS settlement model or a real-time settle-

ment model has been adopted. The sophistication of each

jurisdiction’s ﬁnancial infrastructure and ﬁnancial markets

also determines the type(s) of risk-management arrange-

ments that can be put in place.

ii. Operational Risk

System reliability, cyber resilience, and containment of

fraud are among the critical operational risk considerations

for operators of platforms that process fast payments.

As per CPMI-IOSCO, operational risk is the risk that deﬁcien-

cies in information systems or internal processes, human

errors, management failures, or disruptions from external

events will result in the reduction, deterioration, or break-

Considerations and Lessons for the Development and Implementation of Fast Payment Systems | 59

TABLE 26: Select Findings on Credit and Liquidity Risk

Australia The RBA launched a new automated liquidity-management tool that is built into RITS while developing the Fast

Settlement Service (FSS). Through this tool, institutions are able to adjust the amount of funds available in the FSS and

RITS allocations of their ESA at the RBA by setting upper and lower “trigger points” on their FSS allocation and ensure

that funds are available for both NPP and RITS transactions. The RBA also offers standing facilities, such as intraday

repurchase agreements (repos), as well as “open” repos, to direct and settlement participants that settle FSS payments

outside business hours and on weekends/public holidays.

The RBA is not exposed to any credit risk from the settlement

of NPP payments in the FSS. NPP payments are settled using the member’s FSS allocation, which cannot be overdrawn.

However, RITS settlement hours are between 7:30 a.m. and 10:00 p.m. on business days, while the FSS settles NPP

transactions 24/7. To address this, all ESA funds are transferred to the FSS allocation when RITS is not operating. The

RBA’s existing standing facilities can also be used to assist with liquidity management, by making additional ESA funds

available on prespeciﬁed terms.

Hong Kong

SAR, China

To manage credit risk, a sweeping mechanism is in place in CHATS and FPS to support liquidity transfers between

Hong Kong dollar-denominated (HKD) CHATS ledger accounts and HKD FPS ledger accounts during CHATS operating

hours. To facilitate banks’ liquidity management for settling FPS transactions once HKD CHATS is closed, banks are

allowed to borrow HKD funds from the HKMA, by entering into sale and repurchase transactions. HKMA accepts only

high-quality securities to minimize credit exposures.

There is no loss-sharing arrangement in FPS. In case of a failed settlement, the defaulting party will be fully liable for

the failed payment. Each participant has a responsibility to ensure that it has enough liquidity to fulﬁll its payments in

a timely and orderly manner. Default procedures are in place and regularly drilled to minimize the impact of a default

on the system and participants.

India NPCI has introduced the concept of a net debit cap, wherein limits are allotted to participants in IMPS and UPI as per

the Settlement Guarantee Mechanism Policy. The net debit position is calculated after each transaction to minimize

risk, and transactions are declined once the limit is 100 percent utilized. Net debit cap limits are reinstated for every

settlement cycle except on speciﬁed holidays, as and when decided by the RBI for RTGS services.

NPCI has also constituted a settlement guarantee fund comprising pledged cash collaterals and pooling of

funds by way of committed lines of credit. In the event of a temporary failure, the amount is replenished by the

defaulting member bank(s). In the event of permanent failure of a member bank(s), the net obligation of the

default member bank(s) shall be borne by the surviving member banks that have participated on that day in that

cycle. The recovered amount from the surviving member banks is used to replenish the funds utilized from the

settlement guarantee fund to meet the settlement.

Mexico In SPEI, there is no credit risk between participants, as SPEI does not establish procedures for participants to

extend credit among themselves. Banco de México mitigates liquidity risks through the following two mechanisms:

• Obtaining credit up to the value of assets that are deposited with Banco de México

• Depositing liquid securities issued by the federal government, the Institute for the Protection of Bank Savings, and

Banco de México itself under a repurchase agreement

SPEI operates 24/7 and begins and ends its operations for value date purposes at 6:00 p.m. To achieve 24/7

operations, Banco de México implemented a mechanism to provide liquidity to participants after 6:00 p.m. The

mechanism works as follows: every banking day, at 6:00 p.m., SPEI closes Day T, and Banco de México transfers the

balance from participants’ SPEI accounts to their SIAC (general ledger) accounts. A few seconds later, SPEI opens with

zero balances. Banco de México then extends fully collateralized credit to participant banks in their SPEI accounts

according to each bank’s standing instructions, and payment exchange resumes. The credit is registered

in participant banks’ SIAC accounts when the latter opens at 7:00 p.m. (which is considered T+1).

Individual payments are capped at Mex$8,000 ($400) outside banking hours.

United

Kingdom

The United Kingdom follows a net sender cap mechanism to control settlement risk. This cap is the maximum

amount that participants are allowed to send having netted off the value received from the value sent at that time. To

eliminate settlement risk, each participant is also required to hold a cash sum equal to the value of the net sender cap

in a separate Reserves Collateralization Account.

United States Settlement risk is eliminated in RTP by using fully prefunded real-time settlement. TCH has a sole discretion to

determine the prefunding requirement for the following:

• Sending participant that is a funding participant in the system

• Sending participant that is a non-funding participant but has a current prefunded position (participants with a

funding obligation)

• Each funding provider

During Fedwire operating hours, participants with funding obligations and funding providers are required to monitor

their current prefunded position and provide supplemental funding to the Prefunded Balance Account if the current

prefunded position falls below the prefunded requirements. During non-Fedwire hours, supplemental funding is

provided in advance to ensure that the funding provider’s or participant’s current prefunded position is sufﬁcient to

cover its anticipated payment origination activity.

Funding providers and participants with funding obligations may have arrangements with each other to transfer

liquidity through RTP Payments if their current prefunded position becomes low during non-Fedwire hours. Such

liquidity transfers must be reported to TCH within 10 banking days following the day on which the liquidity transfer

occurred, using procedures speciﬁed by TCH.

60 | Considerations and Lessons for the Development and Implementation of Fast Payment Systems

down of services provided by an FMI.

Operational failures

can damage an FMI’s reputation or perceived reliability, lead

to legal consequences, and result in ﬁnancial losses incurred

by the FMI, participants, and other parties. In certain cases,

operational failures can also be a source of systemic risk.

Based on these considerations, as per principle 17 of the

CPMI-IOSCO PFMIs, operators/managers should establish a

robust framework to manage operational risks with appro-

priate systems, policies, procedures, and controls.

Some of the main aspects that are analyzed under oper-

ational risk include operational reliability, scalability, physical

and information security, business continuity, and interde-

pendencies with other payment and settlement systems.

In this sense, aspects such as cyber resilience and combat-

ting fraud are part of overall operational risk management.

General ﬁndings and insights into operational risk manage-

ment are described in table 27. Fraud and cyber resilience

issues are discussed in more detail later as part of this same

section. As per table 27, it is clear that operational risk con-

tainment continues to be a top-of-mind issue for opera-

tors, regulators, and participants, and such proven tools as

business-continuity procedures are already standard across

fast payment arrangements. Operators are also increasing

requirements for participants to control operational risk,

including fraud. These requirements are often mandated by

overseers/regulators.

Australia NPPA’s Incident Management Framework deﬁnes response/service-level agreements for identiﬁed risk/event types.

Participants are required to have 24/7 operational support teams and resourcing to respond to alerts or incidents.

Financial institutions that offer PayID payments are required to have controls in place to monitor, detect, and shut

down any attempts to misuse the PayID service. This includes technical capabilities, such as automated lockouts,

when usual activity is detected.

Participants are required to have real-time fraud-protection and detection controls and capabilities, including

KYC and AML controls and policies in place at the time of onboarding. NPP payments are subject to the same

fraud and security protections that ﬁnancial institutions use for all their internet and mobile-banking transactions.

Bahrain Directives on EFTS from the Central Bank of Bahrain require BENEFIT and participating banks to have

comprehensive information-security policies, standards, practices, measures, and controls to ensure the

conﬁdentiality, integrity, and availability of information/data processed or held to deliver EFTS services to customers.

European Union For SEPA’s SCT Inst scheme, comprehensive guidelines on fraud reporting have been drafted under PSD2

regulations. The EPC has a risk-management annexure that is disclosed only to participants and contains the

mechanism for handling operational and fraud-risk activities.

Hong Kong SAR,

China

In terms of the day-to-day operational risks associated with FPS, system operation is monitored continuously in

terms of transaction volume, response time, whether service levels are met, system health, and so on. An instant-

response procedure in case of a system/operational incident has also been developed. Business-continuity and

contingency plans are also in place.

India NPCI has constituted a Risk-Management Committee that reviews and approves the risk-management framework

and policies proposed by the management team.

The operational risk-management framework includes key elements such as the measurement, monitoring,

reporting, identiﬁcation, evaluation, and control of risk. NPCI also performs operational risk-assessment procedures

when new systems, activities, and processes are introduced or undertaken. The procedural guidelines are published

and contain various risk guidelines along with deﬁnitions of the roles and responsibilities of each participant in the

ecosystem (sponsor, submember, PSP, and so on).

Mexico Banco de México has an automated risk-management tool for mitigating operational risks in SPEI. There is constant

monitoring through timers, and when SPEI is not able to meet the desired service level, a back-up system is

activated to ensure business continuity.

Poland No centralized guidelines have been issued for a risk-management framework by the regulator, the National Bank of

Poland, or KIR. Nevertheless, all payment systems have to adhere to international best standards as described under

the CPMI-IOSCO PFMIs and all other relevant guidelines mandated by the European Central Bank.

Singapore MAS has issued PSN03 Notice on Reporting of Suspicious Activities and Incidents of Fraud,

which comprises

guidelines for licensees, operators, and settlement institutions with regards to fraud-risk management.

United Kingdom Conﬁrmation of Payee is a name-checking service that has been identiﬁed by the Payment Systems Regulator

and the payments industry as an important tool to help prevent authorized push-payment scams and accidentally

misdirected payments. The service checks whether the name of the account to which a payer is sending money

matches the name that the payer has entered.

TABLE 27: General Findings on Operational Risk Management

continued

Considerations and Lessons for the Development and Implementation of Fast Payment Systems | 61

Fraud is generally deﬁned as an act or omission that is

intended to cause wrongful gain for one person and wrong-

ful loss for another, either by concealing facts or otherwise.

While fast payments provide several clear beneﬁts, they also

generate vulnerabilities. (See ﬁgure 22.) The rapidly growing

number of transactions also makes the operations related to

exception management more intense.

In 2018, the CPMI published the report Reducing the Risk

of Wholesale Payments Fraud Related to Endpoint Secu-

rity.

This toolkit targets primarily wholesale payments. Nev-

ertheless, its elements are broad enough that they can be

applied as well to fast payment arrangements.

For more details on fraud and fraud management, in

addition to the CPMI report, refer to the special topic note

on fraud and AML/CFT, which forms part of the Fast Pay-

ments Toolkit.

Cyber resilience is an integral part of operational risk

management for all payment systems and other FMIs. It

has gained signiﬁcant prominence in recent years due to

incidents involving malware infections, hacking, and so

on. According, CPMI-IOSCO in 2016 published Guidance

on Cyber Resilience for Financial Market Infrastructures.

Under this guidance, ﬁve primary risk-management catego-

ries (governance, identiﬁcation, protection, detection, and

response and recovery) and three overarching components

(testing, situational awareness, and learning and evolving)

should be addressed by operators/management across an

FMI’s cyber resilience framework.

Several jurisdictions have adopted measures that comply

with these guidelines, as shown in table 28. One import-

ant ﬁnding of the jurisdictions analyzed here is that there

does not seem to be a fast payment-speciﬁc angle to cyber

resilience or, in some cases, the corresponding measures (for

example, launching a cyber resilience committee or imple-

menting cyber resilience-monitoring tools) have broader

applicability than solely to fast payment arrangements (for

example, to all payment systems, and even for the banking

system as a whole).

United States TCH applies an operational risk-management framework to RTP. This framework includes signiﬁcant resources

devoted to system reliability and resiliency, security (for example, physical, operational, and network security),

incident response, overall risk management, and comprehensive business-continuity plans.

TCH has also established a tiered approach to fraud prevention and mitigation, as not all ﬁnancial institutions

participate in real-time payments at the same level. All participating ﬁnancial institutions are required to do the

following:

• Comply with guidelines from the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council as applied through prudential

regulator examination

• Report fraudulent behavior to TCH and/or the sending ﬁnancial institutions

• React to alerts from the centralized activity-monitoring utility

Apart from these, there are additional compliance requirements for ﬁnancial institutions that support RTP and

permit third-party payments. In addition to the centralized fraud monitoring, TCH has the ability to limit RTP

activities of participating institutions that violate system rules and risk-management requirements.

TABLE 27, continued

iii. AML/CFT Compliance

With real-time payments, there are growing concerns about

a potential increase in ﬁnancial crimes such as money laun-

dering and the ﬁnancing of terrorism. This is because fast

payment arrangements shorten the payment processing

time and, with this, also decrease the ex ante time dedicated

to AML/CFT analysis and fraud detection. In other words,

in just a few seconds, system participants need to perform

AML/CFT checks to ensure a secure payment environment

for both customers and ﬁnancial institutions.

As a result, participants processing real-time payments

need to optimize their AML/CFT screening and fraud-detec-

tion processes while efﬁciently managing client-related risk.

To ﬁll this gap, an increasing number of third-party provid-

ers are offering real-time payment fraud-detection software

that enables the AML/CFT checks and sanctions screening

processes to be carried out within seconds by using cut-

ting-edge technologies such as artiﬁcial intelligence and

machine learning.

In most of the jurisdictions studied for this guide, public

authorities have not issued guidelines for KYC/AML policies

with speciﬁc applicability to fast payment arrangements.

Participants are required to comply with the general KYC/

AML guidelines issued by public authorities for banking/

ﬁnancial services.

For more details, refer to the focus note on fraud and

AML/CFT, which forms part of the Fast Payments Toolkit.

4.4.3 Dispute Resolution and Customer Complaints

Addressing disputes and customer complaints in a robust

and expeditious manner enhances the public’s trust in fast

payments.

Disputes are common irrespective of the type of pay-

ment method and system. Laws and rules that handle such

disputes tend to differ by payment mechanism as well as

jurisdiction.

62 | Considerations and Lessons for the Development and Implementation of Fast Payment Systems

SPEED

SETTLEMENT

FINALITY ALIASES

HIGHER

TRANSACTION LIMIT

DATA-RICH

TRANSACTIONS

Beneﬁts

• Facilitate

transaction

completion in

real time and

ensures near-

cash experience

for end

customers

• Transactions

through fast

payments systems

are irrevocable

in nature.

This provision

protects ﬁnancial

institutions from

potential defaults

• Enables ease-of-

payments and

provides customer

convenience

• With evolution of fast

payment systems,

daily transaction limit

for payments would

eventually increase

• With widespread adoption

of messaging standard like

ISO 20022 that facilitates

better reconciliation,

improves interoperability,

business automation and

enriched reporting. It will

also enable businesses to

better match customer

payments to invoices,

oversee their collections,

predict cash ﬂows,

and track cross-border

payments

Potential

considerations

• Gives ﬁnancial

institutions

scant time

to monitor

activities

• Certainty of

immediate

availability of

funds

• With use of

aliases and proxy

identiﬁers in real

time payments, it

also presents security

concerns around

identity frauds

• The increased limit

would present cyber

criminals lucrative

opportunities for

frauds and ﬁnancial

crimes

• This might also increase

the risk of exposure to

malwares that could be

embedded in payment

attachments or links

FIGURE 22: Beneﬁts and Potential Sources of Fraud Associated with Real-Time Payments

Australia NPPA has appointed an external security consultant as corporate IT security advisor who provides external guidance

regarding cybersecurity and conducts an annual IT security audit.

Hong Kong SAR,

China

The Cybersecurity Fortiﬁcation Initiative was implemented in December 2016 to raise the cyber resilience of

Hong Kong’s banking system. The initiative is underpinned by the following two pillars:

• The Cyber Resilience Assessment Framework is a risk-based framework for authorized institutions to assess

their own risk proﬁles and benchmark the level of defense and resilience that would be required to accord

appropriate protection against a cyberattack.

• The Professional Development Programme is a localized certiﬁcation scheme and training program for

cybersecurity professionals, structured to train and nurture cybersecurity practitioners in the banking and IT

industries and to enhance their cybersecurity awareness and technical abilities to conduct cyber resilience

assessments and simulation testing

Furthermore, the Cyber Intelligence Sharing Platform provides an effective infrastructure for sharing intelligence on

cyberattacks. The timeliness of receiving alerts or warnings from a commonly shared intelligence platform can help

the banking sector as a whole to prepare for possible cyberattacks

India NPCI’s Risk-Management Committee carries out periodic reviews of the various technological and cybersecurity-

related developments. It also oversees the security incidents, information, cybersecurity assessments, and security-

monitoring activities carried out by the Information Security Division.

NPCI has also adopted measures that comply with CPMI-IOSCO guidance.

Mexico To ensure the cyber resilience of SPEI, Banco de México has adopted measures that comply fully with the guidelines

issued by CPMI-IOSCO.

Singapore MAS makes it mandatory for ﬁnancial institutions to comply with the following requirements:

Establish and implement robust security for IT systems

• Ensure that updates are applied to address system security ﬂaws in a timely manner

• Deploy security devices to restrict unauthorized network trafﬁc

• Implement measures to mitigate the risk of malware infection

• Secure the use of system accounts with special privileges to prevent unauthorized access

• Strengthen user authentication for critical systems as well as systems used to access customer information

Thailand National ITMX has acquired the Intelligence Threat Management Service of UIH, an external cybersecurity vendor,

for the monitoring, communication, and possible remediation of external threats, such as zero-day attacks,

advanced persistent threats, and exploits.

Further, National ITMX has also adopted measures that comply with CPMI-IOSCO guidelines.

United Kingdom A cybersecurity framework has been adopted that helps to identify and protect from cyberattacks.

TABLE 28: Select Findings on Cyber Resilience

Considerations and Lessons for the Development and Implementation of Fast Payment Systems | 63

Fast payments generally achieve settlement ﬁnality

immediately, and transactions become irrevocable and irre-

versible. Therefore, in general, account-based fast payments

tend to be guaranteed funds with very limited instances of

dispute rights. Nevertheless, some jurisdictions have carved

out instances where the payer is entitled to a refund for

fraudulent transactions, and the fraud payment risk is borne

by either the payer’s or the payee’s ﬁnancial institution.

Other fast payment operators are beginning to deﬁne dis-

pute-management requirements. These range from “light

Australia In Australia, Regulations for NPP provide a detailed mechanism for dispute resolution, including the following items:

Deﬁnition of dispute: This deﬁnes both the different parties between which a dispute can arise, and which

disputes are eligible to be referred for resolution.

• Commencement of proceedings: This details the different scenarios under which dispute-resolution proceedings

may be commenced by either the NPPA or the aggrieved participant (including submembers).

• Resolution of disputes: This states that a dispute can be referred to the NPP Operating Committee or NPP board

either for resolution or directly for arbitration. In addition, it sets out the various criteria and conditions for the

same.

• Fees and costs: There are numerous fees and costs associated with dispute resolution, and these are detailed in

the regulations. NPPA is to be reimbursed for all costs and expenses incurred by it in resolving a dispute.

Chile Participants are encouraged to settle inter-participant disputes bilaterally and formulate their own guidelines for

the same.

India NPCI has a dedicated dispute-resolution system—the Bharat Clearing and Settlement System—for resolution

of IMPS disputes. In BCS-IMPS, all disputes are settled in every settlement cycle. Similarly, the Uniﬁed Real-Time

Clearing and Settlement—which is a back-ofﬁce system for UPI—validates and processes the disputes raised by

members. The adjustments are performed along with the previous business day’s approved transactions. Member

banks are required to perform reconciliation daily and raise adjustments, if needed. Member banks are also advised

to handle the reconciliation operations on all days, irrespective of Sundays and other public holidays, and to have a

round-the-clock help desk. In case the participant is not satisﬁed with the decision of the NPCI’s dedicated panel,

the dispute shall be referred to the RBI.

The following interbank dispute and adjustment scenarios have been identiﬁed:

• Beneﬁciary timed-out transaction:

- Customer account is credited, but response got timed out (beneﬁciary to NPCI)

- Customer account is not credited, and response got timed out (beneﬁciary to NPCI)

- Customer account is not credited, and response got timed out (beneﬁciary to NPCI)—After reconciliation, it is

found that the customer account cannot be credited because of a closed account, an inexistent account, and

so on.

• Chargeback: In case of a wrong or incorrect beneﬁciary account.

• Chargeback acceptance/representment: Chargeback acceptance is the only conﬁrmation; there will not be any

fund movement between the beneﬁciary and remitter.

• Pre-arbitration, pre-arbitration acceptance, and pre-arbitration rejection

• Arbitration

• Transaction credit conﬁrmation: This option is provided only to notify the remitter bank that a customer account

has been credited either online or by initiating manual credit. This will avoid raising chargeback by remitter

bank.

• Returns: Beneﬁciary bank can return the funds to the remitting bank where the beneﬁciary bank is not able to

credit their customer’s account.

European Union As per the SCT Inst scheme rulebook, a dispute-resolution committee is responsible for investigating complaints

from participants, including the dispute-resolution and appeal processes. Under the new rule published by the EPC

in 2020, this committee replaced the former Compliance and Adherence and Appeals Committee.

Mexico Guidelines on compensation of damages have been issued in SPEI rules and SPEI participant agreements. By using

digital signatures for all transactions, SPEI’s programming protocol ensures the authenticity of the information and

that the issuer cannot repudiate payments once they have been sent. Furthermore, participants are connected

to SPEI through a private network that uses encrypted communications. As the payment orders sent by the

participants are pre-signed, this acts is a mechanism to avoid the interbank disputes.

touch” models where payment inquiries are processed by

the operator without speciﬁc rules or decisioning to more

robust models with formal dispute requirements.

The section below discusses inter-participant disputes as

well as end-customer disputes.

i. Inter-Participant Disputes

This refers to the resolution of disputes between participants

in fast payment arrangements, typically arising out of non-

compliance with system regulations. Table 29 shows that to

TABLE 29: Select Findings on Inter-Participant Disputes

continued

64 | Considerations and Lessons for the Development and Implementation of Fast Payment Systems

resolve disputes between the participants effectively, some

system operators have put in place and publicized a dedi-

cated dispute-resolution mechanism to ensure effective and

time-bound resolution of these differences. This appears to

be more common when the operator is the central bank. In

other cases, there is no centralized dispute-resolution func-

tion/arrangement; participants are only urged to settle their

disputes bilaterally.

For more details, refer to the focus note on dispute han-

dling, refunds, reversals, and chargebacks, which forms part

of the Fast Payment Toolkit.

ii. Customer Disputes

An effective complaint-handling process is fundamental for

enhancing the customer experience and building trust in

fast payments.

A range of safeguards, such as SCA and having a list of

preapproved beneﬁciaries, can limit the number of disputes.

Despite these safeguards, disputes may arise. Given that

the transfer of funds takes place in real time, implementing

refunds, reversals, and chargebacks in fast payments is more

challenging than it is with card payments. Providing settle-

ment ﬁnality further reduces incidents of refunds, reversals,

and chargebacks.

Nigeria As per the Central Bank of Nigeria, each scheme shall establish its dispute-resolution mechanism to serve as an

additional mechanism that will help participants resolve disputes in a timely and cost-effective manner. Disputes

that arise between or across schemes may be referred through the director of the Payments System Management

Department of the central bank to the Payment Initiative Coordinating Committee for resolution.

Poland Participants are encouraged to settle inter-participant disputes bilaterally and formulate their own guidelines for

the same.

Singapore Participants are encouraged to settle inter-participant disputes bilaterally and formulate their own guidelines for

the same.

Thailand The National ITMX has a dedicated dispute-resolution mechanism that is followed by all the parties if there are any

disagreements between the member banks. National ITMX also has a dedicated web portal service for member

banks for interbank dispute resolution. No additional fee is charged by National ITMX for the dispute-resolution

process.

United Kingdom In 2016, speciﬁc guidelines were issued for the bank error recovery process in which a bank has duplicated a ﬁle

and sent some payment error. There are also guidelines for when complete ﬁles get duplicated, and timelines are

provided for all FPS participants to ensure that the funds are refunded to the originating bank.

United States RTP operating rules incorporate existing law (that is, the Electronic Fund Transfer Act, regulation E, and

Uniform Commercial Code, article 4A) that sets forth a well-established framework regarding banks’ liability for

unauthorized transactions from their customers’ accounts, as well as speciﬁc requirements regarding the resolution

of errors from consumer accounts. This structure simpliﬁes the account-holding ﬁnancial institution’s dispute-

investigation processes and minimize the need for a detailed set of interbank dispute-resolution rule.

TCH does not act as a party to any dispute between participants regarding liability for erroneous or

unauthorized RTP payments. Such determination is left to the participants through any available dispute-

resolution and/or judicial process.

TABLE 29, continued

In cases where a dispute is ﬁled and it is recognized by

the concerned parties that the transfer of funds was indeed

erroneous or fraudulent, one of the following subsequent

grievance-resolution mechanisms can be used:

• The beneﬁciary makes a reverse transaction to the initial

payer as per the predeﬁned process set out by the fast

payment operator, the participant, or TPSP.

• The payer can notify the issuing bank about the errone-

ous or fraudulent transaction, and the issuing bank can

raise a chargeback request on behalf of the payer.

As per table 30, the most common case is that customer

disputes are handled by the participants with their cus-

tomers directly, with no involvement by the operator or

the payments overseer/regulator. However, some overseers/

regulators have issued minimum requirements in this area

(for example, Hong Kong SAR, China, Mexico, and Thailand).

Moreover, in some cases, a ﬁnancial ombudsman can assist

customers with their disputes.

For more details, refer to the focus note on dispute han-

dling, refunds, reversals, and chargebacks, which forms part

of the Fast Payment Toolkit.

Considerations and Lessons for the Development and Implementation of Fast Payment Systems | 65

Australia In case of any complaints related to NPP transactions, the ﬁrst point of contact for customers is the associated

ﬁnancial institutions.

• If an account has been compromised or funds have been taken from a user’s account without his/her

authorization, the user is required to contact his/her ﬁnancial institution immediately.

• If the user thinks someone has fraudulently used his/her information to create a PayID, the user should contact

his/her bank immediately, and the bank will help launch an investigation.

In addition, the Australian Financial Complaints Authority independently assists consumers and small businesses to

make and resolve complaints about ﬁnancial ﬁrms.

Bahrain A directive from the Central Bank of Bahrain mandates that Fawri+ transactions are real time and irrevocable. Thus,

there are no speciﬁc guidelines for dispute resolution.

BENEFIT as an operator has customer-service and call centers to register customer complaints.

Chile No centralized guidelines have been issued by either the regulator or the system operator for the resolution of

customer complaints.

European Union For the SCT Inst scheme, no centralized guidelines have been issued by either the regulator or the system operator

for the resolution of customer complaints.

Hong Kong SAR,

China

The HKMA has detailed a set of procedures to be followed by banks and SVFs when a customer complains of a

transaction being processed to a wrong recipient.

India Customer complaints need to be resolved bilaterally between the participants within the timelines stipulated by

the RBI and NPCI. Moreover, in the case of UPI, it is mandatory to provide an option to raise complaints on the UPI-

enabled app.

In 2019, the RBI introduced an Ombudsman Scheme for Digital Transactions. It is an expeditious and cost-free

apex-level mechanism for the resolution of complaints regarding digital transactions undertaken by customers.

The Ombudsman for Digital Transactions is a senior ofﬁcial appointed by the RBI to resolve customer complaints

against payment system participants. To resolve a grievance, the complainant ﬁrst has to approach the system

participant concerned. If the system participant does not reply within one month after receipt of the complaint,

if it rejects the complaint, or if the complainant is not satisﬁed with the reply given, the complainant can ﬁle the

complaint with the Ombudsman for Digital Transactions. Recently, NPCI launched Uniﬁed Dispute Resolution in

UPI to provide faster online dispute resolution.

Mexico SPEI rules establish guidelines on the service level for the end customers. Fraud-based disputes are handled directly

by the SPEI participants with their customers.

Banco de México has introduced the SPEI Information Module, which enables customers to monitor the status

of their payments. This information module allows customers, for example, to ﬁnd out whether the payment was

returned for some reason or whether it was never made. With this information, users can check with their bank to

ﬁnd out more details on the status of payment.

Poland Express Elixir participants are encouraged to formulate their own customer complaint-resolution procedures.

Customer also have the option to seek a legal remedy under the Polish Chamber of Commerce if guidelines

stipulated by the participants do not provide for impartial resolution of complaints.

Singapore Customer complaint registration and resolution (including fraud reporting) is handled directly between the FAST

participant and its customers.

Thailand The BOT has prescribed consumer-protection measures for PSPs, such as the speciﬁcation of the terms and

conditions in service-level agreements for digital payment services, problem-solving procedures for service users,

business rules, dispute-resolution agreement, and the compensation for damages.

United Kingdom In case of an unauthorized transaction, a customer needs to report it to her/his ﬁnancial institution. As the

next step, the ﬁnancial institution starts the investigation within two days of the complaint. When the ﬁnancial

institution ﬁnds clear evidence of a genuine mistake, then a request is initiated to the receiving ﬁnancial institution.

If the recipient does not dispute the claim, the amount is returned within 20 days of the complaint. If the ﬁnancial

institutions are unable to provide solutions for the disputes, the customer can report to Financial Ombudsman

Service to resolve the dispute.

United States There are no centralized guidelines for resolution of customer complaints. RTP operating rules nevertheless

oblige the sending ﬁnancial institutions to put in place policies and procedures for handling customer claims

for unauthorized transfers and funds sent in error. Receiving ﬁnancial institutions must also have policies and

procedures to respond to requests to reclaim funds sent in error.

TABLE 30: Select Findings on End-Customer Disputes

KEY LEARNINGS AND FORWARD OUTLOOK

The Fast Payments Toolkit, of which this guide is an integral

part, is intended to provide guidance to jurisdictions con-

sidering developing/upgrading their FPSs and, through the

various analyses included in the toolkit, eventually to assist

them when making policy and implementation choices. The

guide was informed mainly by the 16 deep-dive jurisdiction

reports, which in turn were integrated from more than 70

interviews with a variety of stakeholders across the ecosys-

tem (overseers, operators, and participants). The main ﬁnd-

ings and learnings are discussed in this chapter.

Overall, the analysis demonstrated that the key levers for

the adoption and uptake of fast payments are the immedi-

ate availability of funds, even for very small-value transac-

tions, and central banks that play a leading role either as the

developers and operators of fast payment arrangements or

as catalysts for their development by the private sector (and

subsequently as overseers). Other important elements that

foster uptake include the following:

i. Coverage and openness of the fast payment arrange-

ment, including a wide range of use cases, participation

of a wide range of PSPs, and affordable pricing

ii. Convenience and ease of access, including accessibility

through mobile phones, the use of aliases such as mobile

numbers, the use of APIs, and a common messaging

standard

iii. A sound preexisting market context—namely, penetra-

tion of the internet and mobile phones, the quality and

speed of other payment options, and the overall compet-

itiveness of the payments market

iv. Awareness and educational campaigns for end users by

public authorities, operators, and participants

The more detailed key ﬁndings and learnings are discussed

below. The key learnings are summarized in ﬁgure 23, orga-

nized across the typical life cycle of a payment infrastruc-

ture project: the conceptualization stage, the design stage,

and the “go-live” and post-implementation stage. Each of

the key learnings is directed to one or more stakeholders

across the ecosystem (that is, the overseer, owner, operator,

and participants). Table 31 provides additional insights into

these key learnings.

Considerations and Lessons for the Development and Implementation of Fast Payment Systems | 67

REGULATOR OPERATOR PARTICIPANTS OWNER

1. Determine objectives for FPS launch

2. Understand market needs

3. Carry out stakeholder consultation

4. Assess other systems

5. Develop a business case

6. Garner industry support

7. Assess participants capabilities

8. Identify proﬁt centers of participants

9. Take a long-term view

10. Carry out detailed

assessments of existing

infrastructure

Conceptualization

1. Generate customer awareness

4. Evaluate risk mitigation measures

2. Adopt a product roadmap approach

3. Implement robust oversight mechanism

5. Facilitate post launch engagements

6. Provide customized solutions by leveraging

payments data

Go-Live & Post Implementation

1. Ensure structured planning

2. Build a dynamic, scalable system

3. Incorporate scope of innovation

4. Provision of indirect participation

5. Provision of participation of non-bank players

6. Introduce appropriate pricing schemes

7. Build customer trust in the system

8. Leverage APIs for connectivity

11. Keep an adequate stress testing window

12. Adopt a common messaging standard

13. Decide on transaction limits & speciﬁcations

9. Focus on key development components

10. Incorporate robust risk management

framework

14. Assign a robust project

management team

15. Work in collaboration

16. Incorporate a strong, legal framework

17. Establish common Payment Scheme

governance

Design & Implementation

FIGURE 23: Stakeholder Mapping of Key Learnings

68 | Considerations and Lessons for the Development and Implementation of Fast Payment Systems

TABLE 31: Key Learnings from the Application of the Fast Payment Framework

PROJECT CONCEPTUALIZATION STAGE

Have clarity on the objective, including motivations/drivers for

developing fast payment services in their jurisdiction.

5 Develop a plan for investing in infrastructure and recovering

cost over a period of time, and avoid focusing on achieving

proﬁtability in the short run. The central bank should

work together with stakeholders to identify the long-term

beneﬁts of the project (direct and indirect) and the broader

long-term interests of the NPS.

Obtain knowledge of fast payment arrangements in other

jurisdictions, including the key features of their operating

models and service offerings.

6 Develop a good understanding of the infrastructure

available in the broader ecosystem (for example, phone and

communication network penetration) to determine which

user needs and expectations the fast payment arrangement

will be able to meet at launch and in its early stages of

development.

As part of the design, focus on establishing a core platform

and associated services on top of which other stakeholders

can innovate and build further services.

7 Give due regard to the existing payments infrastructure

setup, including such aspects as current familiarity with

real-time payments, instruments available (for example, push

and pull), NPS integration, support of use cases, settlement

models, the accounting practices applicable to payments,

and other banking activities operating 24/7, among others.

Underpin the business case with a clear vision of the role

for the fast payment arrangement in terms of use cases and

services it can offer to PSPs and the market in general. This is

critical for developing a credible business plan and garnering

industry support.

8 Study the existing internal infrastructure of banks and other

potential PSPs and assess their ability to achieve immediate

fund transfers with certainty. Jurisdictions could consider

agreeing on minimum criteria for participation up front, in

a way that ensures that at least the major banks and some

other smaller banks and non-bank PSPs can be ready to join

by the predecided “go-live” date.

PROJECT DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION STAGE

9 Assign a top-notch project-management team.

• The relevant stakeholders should also identify personnel

with experience and competency and assign them the

responsibility of project development and implementation.

They should also be made duly accountable for the project.

• Ensure continuity of the people/team assigned to this task

to avoid delays in implementation.

16 Ensure fair, transparent, and risk-based access criteria that

do not preclude membership based on institution type.

This is critical to foster innovation and ongoing competition

in the payment ecosystem, recognizing, though, that

many smaller and mid-sized PSPs may opt for indirect

participation, given the ﬁnancial and technical requirements

for direct participation.

10 Ensure structured planning and implementation to help

mitigate implementation delays, including those related to

stakeholder onboarding. It is essential to give participants

sufﬁcient time to adapt—that is, for contract negotiation,

internal system development, and implementation.

17 Consider using APIs that have proven most useful for the

connectivity of smaller participants and of other third

parties (for example, entities that provide payment-initiation

services), and to foster standardization of APIs in the

payments market.

11 Going live with a basic service—with limited features—can be

a good strategy to get the ball rolling. The design of the fast

payment arrangement should nevertheless be ﬂexible enough

to accommodate multiple use cases/services based on dynamic

market needs (that is, the “plug and play” approach).

18 Ensure that the pricing scheme(s) for participants promotes

quick participant adoption. The joining fee, ﬁxed fees (if

any), and variable fees should not act as barriers for smaller

players. At the same time, the operator should ensure

sustainability in the medium- to long-term timeframe.

12 Consider user experience as a critical factor that needs to be

kept in mind while designing and developing a fast payment

arrangement. Focus should be placed on providing a seamless

experience across all access channels. The elements that help

enhance the customer experience include the use of aliases

and services provided by third parties (for example, payment

initiation).

19 Ensure that pricing policies for end users foster uptake in

the short term, for which public authorities may encourage

participants to offer fast payments as a low-cost (or even

zero-cost) payment service. However, in the medium term,

this will need to be reconsidered to ensure that participants

have an incentive to introduce additional services and

features.

13 Design and implement a strong governance framework for

the fast payment arrangement. All participants (banks and

non-banks) should be represented and have a say in the

decision-making. The voices of external key parties, such

as ﬁntechs and telcos, also need to be heard and given due

consideration.

20 Give due attention to the type of messaging standard

adopted. The decision to adopt a particular message

standard—proprietary or ISO—should be based on a careful

analysis of the costs and beneﬁts and factor in the need to

facilitate the interoperability of domestic payment systems

and, eventually, to enable cross-border payments. While

other possibilities exist, ISO 20022 is emerging as a leading

messaging standard for fast payments.

continued

Considerations and Lessons for the Development and Implementation of Fast Payment Systems | 69

demands from participants, end users, overseers, and the

other stakeholders in the broader ecosystem.

5.1 WHAT’S NEXT FOR FAST PAYMENTS?

FPSs are emerging as a new payment infrastructure that is

directly linked to transaction accounts and creating a truly

independent payment mechanism alongside the payment

cards that have dominated in-person and online payments

in many countries. Now that domestic payments between

transaction accounts (transaction accounts include bank

account, mobile-money accounts, and accounts maintained

with a licensed non-bank ﬁnancial institution) happen in

seconds and at nearly zero cost, the adoption of FPS is gain-

ing traction. The BIS Innovation Hub is exploring how the

success of fast payments can improve the cross-border pay-

ments experience. The Nexus project provides a blueprint

14 Undertake comprehensive testing before launch (operator

and participants). A fully functional central testing platform

for intra- and inter-participant testing can help identify issues

early in the implementation phase.

21 Establish a clear, documented, effective risk-management

framework to identify, measure, monitor, and manage the

various risks, including those concerning potential criminal

activity (for example, money laundering, the ﬁnancing of

terrorism, cyberattacks, and data breaches). Participants

should also be mandated by their supervisor to set up

robust internal controls for operational risks.

15 Have a comprehensive rulebook that contains all relevant

rules, parameters, standards, and controls for the operational

efﬁciency and overall soundness of the fast payment

arrangement. This also promotes a level playing ﬁeld for

participants.

22 Agree on the settlement model and measures for the

mitigation of settlement risk between operators/manager

and operator/manager and participants. The measures

should be cost efﬁcient. Key decision factors include

whether non-banks will be direct participants (for example,

settling operations on their own behalf) and the speciﬁcs

of the local ecosystem (for example, settlement services

provided by the central bank or commercial banks).

PROJECT “GO-LIVE” AND POST-IMPLEMENTATION STAGE

23 Collaborate during post-implementation to ensure that the

fast payment arrangement will be able to reach its maximum

potential over time.

27 Review risk-management frameworks periodically to

mitigate evolving requirements and threats, including cyber.

Technologies such as artiﬁcial intelligence and machine

learning can help operators/managers detect failures in

compliance and combat evolving threats.

24 Generate customer awareness in the initial years to

increase registrations and uptake. Customers often require

handholding to familiarize themselves with the new service

and its functionalities.

28 Adapt some of the oversight tools and overall approach

when it comes to fast payments, to ensure that the relevant

systems or underlying arrangements operate safely and

efﬁciently on an ongoing basis (applicable for regulators/

overseers).

25 Keep the customer registration process simple, to increase

uptake.

29 Leverage payments data to introduce innovative and

customized solutions for end users (for system operators and

system participants) without compromising data-protection

and privacy aspects.

26 Adopt a product road map approach for new use cases/

services and functionalities that shares the vision of the

owner/operator with all participants (and other relevant

stakeholders, such as telcos), ensuring that these stakeholders

will be able to adopt these changes in a timely manner.

30 Evaluate on an ongoing basis whether the system continues

to meet the evolving ecosystem needs; fosters the safety,

efﬁciency, and reliability of the NPS; and has the right

governance arrangements. Take appropriate actions based

on the evaluation.

TABLE 31, continued

In summary, while many jurisdictions have implemented

fast payments, their paths have varied signiﬁcantly, owing to

differences in the regulatory environment, support from the

broader ecosystem, consumer preferences, support from

the existing payments and ICT infrastructure, and existing/

competing offerings. Each jurisdiction’s uptake, experiences,

and success have also varied. For example, ownership/oper-

ation by a central bank can be as effective (or ineffective) as

ownership/operation by the private sector. One important

conclusion is therefore that there is no single right way to

implement fast payments—what worked well in one place

may not work in the other.

It also needs to be acknowledged that the crux of a

thriving system lies in more than just a successful imple-

mentation. Jurisdictions must work consistently to incor-

porate enhancements and feedback so that fast payment

arrangements reach their maximum potential. Functional-

ities will need to be improved regularly to adapt to changing

70 | Considerations and Lessons for the Development and Implementation of Fast Payment Systems

for a scalable cross-border payments network that would

connect FPSs in multiple countries, enabling them to offer

cross-border payments that reach their destination within

60 seconds.

Moreover, crypto assets appear to be on the rise globally,

including some that certain individuals and ﬁrms consider

to be a medium of exchange. If these crypto assets with

payment capabilities gain more mainstream acceptance, a

question will arise as to whether or how they shall or could

become interoperable with existing payment systems,

including fast payment arrangements.

Likewise, several experimental projects have tested

how distributed ledger technology could be used in pay-

ments, considering the alleged beneﬁts of programmability,

increased automation, transparency, and network resilience.

Recently, the industry has been giving more thought to how

this technology could be integrated with fast payments. For

example, some players in the industry believe that connect-

ing the latter to existing distributed ledgers would facilitate

programmable fast payments.

In this regard, in July 2020, ﬁve Spanish banks successfully

completed a proof of concept for an interbank smart pay-

ment platform managed by Iberpay, the owner and opera-

tor of Spain’s ACH and fast payment arrangement. Iberpay

connected a blockchain network to an existing payments

system. The effort included the deployment of an interbank

smart payment platform and a permissioned interbank

blockchain network. The proof of concept entailed the auto-

matic execution of SCT Inst payments triggered by busi-

nesses’ smart contracts running in the blockchain network,

and their settlement by connecting with the Spanish Retail

Payment System.

This arrangement requires interoperable

messaging between the blockchain network and Iberpay’s

fast payment arrangement to facilitate the automated exe-

cution of payments. Iberpay plays the role of system integra-

tor. This initiative is illustrated in ﬁgure 24.

As central banks continue to explore the development

of central bank digital currencies (CBDCs),

the interplay

between CBDCs and fast payments is likely to receive further

attention. A CBDC network and fast payments do not nec-

essarily have to compete. One potential option in this space

would be using the FPS payment rails for CBDCs.

In addition, the availability of FPS on a 24/7 basis and

facilitating payments for varied use cases is seen as a

national payments rail. The uptake of fast payments has

been encouraging across jurisdictions that implemented it.

For instance, the growth in transaction volumes in India’s

UPI between 2019 and 2020 was 135 percent. Growth has

been very rapid, reaching an annualized rate of around 12

fast payments per capita per year in just the second year of

operation.

The availability of FPS on a 24/7 basis has removed the

barriers of unavailability of systems matching the time zones

of varied countries for cross-border payments and has over-

come the delays for cross-border payments. The integration

of the national FPS for cross-border payments has signiﬁed

FIGURE 24: Iberpay’s Integration of a Distributed Ledger with STC Inst.

Company B

Bank 1

Bank 2

Company A

Bank 3

SMART PAYMENTS SPANISH PAYMENTS SYSTEMS

Smart

contracts

Smart

payments

red-i

Interbank

payments

network

Interbank

smart

payments

platform

Interbank

instant

credit

transfers

platform

Source: EPC

Considerations and Lessons for the Development and Implementation of Fast Payment Systems | 71

the role of the national FPS for cross-border payments. The

CPMI report Enhancing Cross-Border Payments: Building

Blocks of a Global Roadmap recognizes that interlinking

retail payment systems (including FPSs) and wholesale pay-

ment systems (such as RTGS systems) allows PSPs to inter-

act directly through the linked infrastructures and reduces

their reliance on traditional correspondent banking. The

project Nexus provides a blueprint and the design choices

to future-proof domestic payment systems for cross-border

payments. The Nexus gateway can help overcome, or work

around, some of the legacy design choices.

FPS that is accessed through mobile phones with rich

data availability are more amenable to integration with pro-

motions and marketing campaigns. This can be a strong

motivator for uptake by merchants. Related to this, the

evolution of “buy now, pay later” is enabling credit provi-

sions to be embedded as part of the payment process, in

some sense bringing capabilities usually seen with credit

cards to payments from transaction accounts. This is further

strengthened by the open-banking developments. When

combined with open banking, FPS is allowing the seam-

less embedding of payment processes within commercial

and social interactions, almost making the payment process

invisible to the user.

In addition, access to APIs has allowed data to ﬂow freely

between the systems and participants. The functionalities

being made available through APIs include merchant pay-

ments, transaction history, business-to-business payments,

e-commerce payments, authentication, account balance,

bill payments, proﬁle management, P2P payments, and

reversals. The “open-banking-type”

APIs have aided inter-

actions between banks and third parties as well as interac-

tions between a customer and its issuer payment system,

and they have also enabled merchants to accept payment

methods. How the implementation of, and access to, APIs

in turn supports “open banking” differs across jurisdictions.

For example, India’s legal framework and the European

Union’s PSD2 both support API-led banking, but they differ

in terms of their respective implementation strategy. NPCI

leverages the uniﬁed “India Stack”

that enables banks to

adopt APIs in a centralized way. On the other hand, PSD2

relies on individual banks to open their systems to others

and to provide the APIs to process the payments and access

account information data. This may lead to a situation where

individual banks may publish their own security architecture

and APIs. Although compliant with the standards proposed

by regulator, they may all differ at the implementation level

and be complex to integrate.

Among other things, open banking serves as an enabler

for FPS, as it catalyzes more and more players to partici-

pate in FPS and, as a result, helps FPS become a competi-

tive differentiator in the market. Open banking is perceived

differently across jurisdictions. Some countries, such as

Australia, Bahrain, and the United Kingdom, have created a

well-deﬁned regulator-driven framework, while others, such

as the United States, have followed a more market-driven

approach. In the United Kingdom, open banking was man-

dated by the Competition and Markets Authority to increase

competition and innovation in the United Kingdom’s bank-

ing market and to rebalance markets in favor of consumers.

The impact on FPS of the rising uptake of open banking

is potentially huge. Offerings that blend both capabilities

stand to unlock the combined potential of open banking

and FPS by addressing new payments journeys in innovative

ways. Regulatory requirements and actions vary, but regu-

lators have been encouraging in their role as facilitators for

and enablers of reform. Open banking serves as a catalyst for

FPS by supporting the integration of more and more ﬁnan-

cial institutions into FPS and needs to be embedded within

the overall ﬁnancial ecosystem.

Integration of FPSs into other ﬁnancial market infra-

structures has furthered the usage of fast payments. For

example, investments in capital markets and payments for

future transactions are opening the gates for integration for

all markets. The access and integration of ﬁntechs has fur-

thered innovation in the space.

EXHIBIT A1: External Advisory Experts Group

EXTERNAL ADVISORY EXPERTS GROUP

INSTITUTION REPRESENTATIVE TITLE

Banque Centrale des États de l’Afrique

de l’Ouest (BCEAO)

Ms. Akuwa Dogbe Azoma Payment Systems Director

Committee on Payments and Market

Infrastructures (CPMI)

Mr. Umar Faruqui Member of Secretariat

European Central Bank (ECB) Ms. Mirjam Plooij Senior Market Infrastructure Expert

Central Bank of Egypt Mr. Ehab Nasr Assistant Sub-Governor, Payment Systems and Business

Technology Sector

Fast Identity Online (FIDO) Alliance Ms. Christina Hulka Executive Director and Chief Operating Ofﬁcer

Global System for Mobile

Communication (GSMA)

Mr. Bart-Jan Pors Director of Inclusive FinTech

National Payment Corporation of India

(NPCI)

Mr. Dilip Asbe Director and Chief Executive Ofﬁcer

NPCI International Payments Limited

(NIPL)

Mr. Ritesh Shukla Chief Executive Ofﬁcer

Bank of Jamaica Mrs. Novelette Panton Division Chief, Financial Markets Infrastructure

Bank of Jamaica Mr. Mario Grifﬁths (Alternate) Director, Payment System Policy and Development

Bank Negara Malaysia Mr. Yip Kah Kit Deputy Director, Financial Development and Innovation

Banco de México Mr. Miguel Diaz General Director of Payment Systems and Market

Infrastructures

South Africa Reserve Bank Mr. Tim Masela Head of Payment Systems Department

UK Payment Systems Regulator (PSR) Mr. Nick Davey Payment Specialist

UK Payment Systems Regulator (PSR) Ms. Nicole Coates (Alternate) Technical Specialist

APPENDIX A: ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Considerations and Lessons for the Development and Implementation of Fast Payment Systems | 73

Special acknowledgment is made of the following contributors for the interviews and surveys conducted with the jurisdic-

tions selected for the deep dives.

EXHIBIT A2: Contributors to Interviews and Surveys

NO. REGION

CENTRAL BANK/OTHER

REGULATOR OPERATOR PARTICIPANT

1 Australia Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) New Payments Platform Australia

Ltd. (NPPA)

National Australian Bank

Bpay

Osko

Cuscal

AusPay Network

2 Bahrain Central Bank of Bahrain BENEFIT Bank of Bahrain and Kuwait

3 Chile Comisión para el Mercado

Financiero (CMF)

Centro de Compensación

Automatizado (CCA)

Trans Bank

BNP Paribas

4 China People’s Bank of China (PBC) (China National Clearing Center)

CNCC

5 Europe European Central Bank (ECB) European Payments Council (EPC) Unicredit

CEC Belgium

Deutsche Bank

6 Hong Kong SAR,

China

Hong Kong Monetary Authority

(HKMA)

Hong Kong Interbank Clearing Ltd.

(HKICL)

NEAT

7 India Reserve Bank of India (RBI) National Payments Corporation of

India (NPCI)

SBI

Amazon Pay

ICICI Bank

8 Kenya Integrated Payment Services Ltd./

Kenya Bankers Association

Diamond Trust Bank

9 Malaysia Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) PayNet HSBC

10 Mexico Banco de México Banco de México Banco Santander

11 Poland National Bank of Poland Krajowa Izba Rozliczeniowa (KIR) Blik

12 Singapore Monetary Authority of Singapore

(MAS)

Banking Computer Services Pvt. Ltd.

(NETS)

DBS

13 Thailand Bank of Thailand (BOT) National Interbank Transaction

Management and Exchange (ITMX)

Kiatnakin Bank

KasiKorn Bank

2C2P

Thai Banker Association

14 United Kingdom Payment Systems Regulator (PSR) Pay.UK HSBC

Wise

Clear Bank

UK Finance

Ebury

15 United States Federal Reserve Board The Clearing House (TCH) Citibank

74 | Considerations and Lessons for the Development and Implementation of Fast Payment Systems

The following organizations provided technical inputs and perspectives to the focus notes. We are grateful for their support.

EXHIBIT A3: Organizations That Provided Inputs and Perspectives

NO. SPECIAL TOPIC NOTE ENTITY

1 Access to FPS Wise

2 APIs Central Bank of Mexico

Dapi

Sahamati

Wise

Form3

W3C

EMVCo

GSMA

3 Consumer protection Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)

The International Financial Consumer Protection Organisation (FinCoNet)

Central Bank of Portugal

Reserve Bank of Australia

Financial Services Regulatory Authority, Canada

4 Customer authentication EMVCo

FIDO Alliance

GSMA

W3C

5 Dispute handling, reversal,

chargebacks, and refunds

Visa Inc.

6 Fraud risks and AML/CFT Banco de México

Datavisor

7 Messaging standards Mastercard

Nexo Standards

PwC India

SWIFT

8 Proxy identiﬁers and databases NPPA

SWIFT

Thai Bankers Association

9 QR codes Ant Group

Central Bank of Mexico

EMVCo

Considerations and Lessons for the Development and Implementation of Fast Payment Systems | 75

The team is indebted to the following individuals for their

consistent guidance, valuable insights, and overall recom-

mendations made while preparing this report:

Hassan Abouzeid, Colin Adams, Jonathan Adams, Agustin

Alcaide, Shafaq Al Kooheji, Ahmed Al Mahri, Riyad Al Maraj,

Hesa Al Sada, Hasan Al Shehabi, Stefan Antimov, Anuchit

Anuchitanukul, Oya Ardic, Siritida Panomwon Na Ayudhya,

Mohammed Aziz, Hemant Baijal, B. G. Mahesh, Américo

Cristian Becerra, Jessica Bilcock, Salman Bin Isa Al Khalifa,

Gian Boeddu, Keith Brown, Bonni Brodsky, Akhil Bhudiraja,

Claude Brun, Bianca Santillana Castellano, Matias Nuñez

Castro, Tanya Chakraborty, Yuk Ying Yuki Chan, Luo Charles,

Sovon Chaterjee, Aseem Chaturvedi, Fisher Chay, Christopher

Chazin, Jennifer Chien, Daniel Chippeck, George Chou, Vijay

Chugh, Nathan Churchward, Becky Clements, Nicole Coates,

James Colassano, Carlo Corazza, Raffaella Cozzolino, Edlira

Dashi, Nick Davey, Peter Davey, Dorothee Delort, Miguel

Diaz, Fabrizio Dinacci, Francesco Di Salvo, Małgorzata

Drążyk, Isaku Endo, Ahmed Faragallah, Luis Alberto Feldman

Silberman, Javier Francisco, Kate Frankish, Matthew Friend,

Paul Fung, Ilka Funke, Pablo Furche V, Mike Gallaher, Mihir

Gandhi, Daniel Delgadillo Garrido, Etienne Goosse, Mario

Diethelm Guallar, Patricia Guerra, Ulrike Guigui, Sara

Hammond, Sunita Handa, Chad Harper, Salvador Hernandez,

Rose Hong, Christina Hulka, Sandeep Indurkar, Claudia

Alarcon Inzunza, Elize Jackson, Ryan Jackson, Ian Jacobs,

John Jefferson, Peter Jensen, Huang Jing, Yip Kah Kit, Bonnie

Kantor, Abhinav Kapoor, Jay Karia, Karol Karpinski, Fern

Karsh, Craig Kennedy, Farouk Khimji, Yos Kimsawatde, Simon

Kleine, Jessica Kong, Barbara Kotschwar, Somkrit Krishnamra,

Jeeradech Kumlangkua, Vincent Kwok, Angel Lam, Eric Lam,

James Langlois, Mile Larby, Bastien Latge, Joyce Lau, Steve

Ledford, K. H. Lee, Grzegorz Leńkowski, Kristine De Lepeleire,

Supreecha Limpikanjanakowit, Leo Lipis, Adrian Lovey,

Haiyan Lyu, Mabel Lyu, Richard Mabbott, Rory Mazurkiewicz

MacFarquhar, Balakrishnan Mahadevan, Jeremy McDougall,

Brett McDowell, Kieran McKenna, David McPhee, Jeerasak

Meekaew, Elżbieta Michalik, Richard Miller, Aung Kyaw Moe,

Fredesvinda Montes, Adam Moulson, Timothy Neill, Wameek

Noor, Liz Oakes, Mia Oh, Habil Olaka, George Otiende , Seun

Owoeye, Bhavya Pandey, Carlo Parmers, Gerry Pelgrims,

Rina Penkar, David Pereira, Mirjam Plooij, Bart-Jan Pors, Brad

Pragnell, Michele Lo Presti, Normand Provost, Yashaswi Rao,

Ronald Fernando Raurich Giménez, Guillermo Rabadan,

Anjana Ravi, Tony Richards, Mauro Romaniello, David Rosa,

Angel Salazar, Elio Santoro, Kanishk Sarkar, Christian Schaefer,

Peter Schiesser, Adam Scott, Heba Shams, Dianne Shay, Saqib

Sheikh, Marc Schmitt, Brian Shniderman, Zainab Shukralla,

Paul Kwan Hang Sin, Mohit Singh, Rose Siriwardhana,

Matthew Soursourian, Jacques Soussana, Ian C. B. Spear, Mark

Stanhope, Gynedi Srinivas, Fabio Stragiotto, Katrina Stuart,

Xi Sun, Naveen Surya, Jessica Szeto, Zubin Tafti, Anthony Yu

Kun Tai, Maverick Tam, Jaydeep Thumar, Lars Trunin, David

Turner, Andres Vargas P, Andy White, Mark Williams, Nai

Seng Wong, Yinglian Xie, Meng Yan, Sylvia Yip, Toby Young,

Pierfrancesco Zaghetti, Alice Zanza, and Ji Zheng

EXHIBIT B1: Glossary

TERM DESCRIPTION

AI artiﬁcial intelligence

Alias Alternative identiﬁer(s) to bank account holder details for increased convenience of the customer—for

example, a mobile number or national ID number

AML anti-money-laundering

ANSI American National Standards Institute

API application programming interface

Australia

ADI

AFCA

APRA

DCS

ESA

FSS

IFTI

NPP

NPPA

PSB

RADI

RBA

RITS

RTPC

authorized deposit-taking institution

Australian Financial Complaints Authority

Australian Prudential Regulation Authority

distributed clearing system

Exchange Settlement Accounts

Fast Settlement Services

International Funds Transfer Instruction

New Payments Platform

New Payments Platform Australia Ltd.

Payments System Board

restricted authorized deposit-taking institution

Reserve Bank of Australia

Reserve Bank Information and Transfer System

Real-Time Payments Committee

Authentication Methods used to verify the origin of a message or to verify the identity of a participant connected to a

system and to conﬁrm that a message has not been modiﬁed or replaced in transit

Bahrain

CBB

EFTS

PLPD

Central Bank of Bahrain

Electronic Fund Transfer System

Personal Data Protection Law

BIC Bank Identiﬁer Code

BIS Bank for International Settlements

CDD customer due diligence

Channel Modes used by customers to initiate transactions on FPS—for example, a branch, the internet, a mobile

phone, a call center, or a letter

Chile

ACH

CCA

CMF

TEF

Automated Clearing House

Centro de Compensación Automatizado

Comisión para el Mercado Financiero

Transferencias en Línea

APPENDIX B: GLOSSARY, ACRONYMS, AND ABBREVIATIONS

continued

Considerations and Lessons for the Development and Implementation of Fast Payment Systems | 77

TERM DESCRIPTION

China

IBPS

CNCC

PBC

Internet Banking Payment System

China National Clearing Center

People’s Bank of China

CFT combating the ﬁnancing of terrorism

Clearing service A multilateral system or arrangement that provides its participants with clearing services for payment

instructions; the institution responsible for the computation of obligations and the transmission of

information through a payment system network

CPMI Committee on Payments and Market Infrastructures

Credit risk The risk that a counterparty, whether a participant or other entity, will be unable to meet fully its ﬁnancial

obligations when due, or at any time in the future

Debit cap Quantitative limits on the fund transfer activity of direct participants in a system

Deferred net settlement Netting that is deferred until a prearranged time (cycle) and settles on the ﬁnal netted value at that time at

the settlement service provider

Direct debit Debit on the payer’s bank account initiated by the payee; these are usually preauthorized

Direct/primary

participants

Financial institutions that connect directly with the central clearing service provider to send and receive

payment messages and have a direct account with the settlement service provider

Dispute resolution Structured processes that address disputes or grievances that arise between the parties engaged in a

particular payment

Distributed clearing Validation and conﬁrmation of the payment instruction are undertaken on a peer-to-peer basis between

both banks, before initiating downstream settlement at the central bank

DNS deferred net settlement

DRC dispute-resolution committee

EDIFACT Electronic Data Interchange for Administration, Commerce and Transport

e-KYC electronic know your customer

EU European Union

Europe

CSM

EBA

ECB

EPC

ERPB

GDPR

MIB

OBIE

PSD2

SCA

TIPS

clearing and settlement mechanism

European Banking Association

European Central Bank

European Payments Council

Euro Retail Payments Board

General Data Protection Regulation (legislative act of the European Union)

Market Infrastructure Board (governance body of the European Central Bank)

Open Banking Implementation Entity

Revised Payment Services Directive

strong customer authentication

Target Instant Payment Settlement

e-Wallet A software-based device that securely stores a user’s payment credentials linked to a current account, a

credit card, a debit card, or an e-money account for use in paying at physical stores or in e-commerce.

When this device is a smartphone, e-wallets holders can use their phone to make payments. This is

often referred to as a mobile wallet. Combined with fast payments, mobile payments offer multiple new

possibilities for P2P and P2B payments, among others.

Fast payments Payments in which the transmission of the payment message and the availability of funds to the payee

occur in real time or near real time and as near to 24 hours a day and seven days a week (24/7) as possible.

For the purposes of this study, emphasis is placed on the immediate availability of funds to the beneﬁciary

of a fast payment transaction—which can be an individual, a ﬁrm, or a government agency—and that these

transactions can be made during an operational window during the day that is as large as possible, with

trends toward 24/7 availability.

Float The period between when money is debited from a payer’s account and credited to a recipient’s account

and interest is not paid to either the sender or the recipient of the payment

FMI ﬁnancial market infrastructure

GDP gross domestic product

EXHIBIT B1, continued

continued

78 | Considerations and Lessons for the Development and Implementation of Fast Payment Systems

TERM DESCRIPTION

General business risk The risk related to the administration and operation of a ﬁnancial market infrastructure as a business

enterprise, excluding those related to the default of a participant or another entity, such as a settlement

bank, global custodian, or another FMI.

Hong Kong SAR, China

CFI

CHATS

HKAB

HKMA

SVF

Cybersecurity Fortiﬁcation Initiative

Clearing House Automated Transfer System

Hong Kong Association of Banks

Hong Kong Monetary Authority

stored-value facility

Hub A central application that a third-party organization runs as a hub to handle the clearing between the

participants and manage the downstream settlement with the central bank’s RTGS

Hybrid settlement A settlement mechanism where payment can be processed either by deferred net settlement or real-time

settlement depending on the volume of transaction, time to process, or value of the transaction

IBA Indian Banks Association

IBAN International Bank Account Number

IOSCO International Organization of Securities Commissions

ITU International Telecommunication Union

India

CCIL

ERM

IMPS

MMID

NEFT

NPCI

PPI

RBI

SGF

TPAP

UPI

Clearing Corporation of India Ltd.

enterprise risk management

Immediate Payment Service

mobile-money identiﬁer

National Electronic Funds Transfer

National Payments Corporation of India

prepaid payment instrument

Reserve Bank of India

settlement guarantee fund

third-party application provider

Uniﬁed Payments Interface

Indirect participant A ﬁnancial institution using direct/primary participants as a sponsor for passing payment messages to the

clearing service provider and leveraging the primary participant’s account with settlement service provider

for settlement

Interoperability Technical or legal compatibility that enables a system or other mechanism (for example, a payment

instrument) to be used in conjunction with other systems or mechanisms

Intraday liquidity Liquid funds that can be accessed during the business day, usually to enable ﬁnancial institutions to settle

payment obligations on both a payment-by-payment basis and DNS cycles

IOSCO International Organization of Securities Commissions

ISO International Organization for Standardization

Kenya

IPSL

KBA

Integrated Payment Services Ltd.

Kenya Bankers Association

KYC know your customer

Liquidity facility A facility that can be drawn upon by certain eligible entities; in some cases, the facility can be used

automatically at the initiative of the account holder, while in other cases, the liquidity provider may decide

explicitly on each single request

Liquidity risk The risk that a counterparty, whether a participant or other entity, will have insufﬁcient funds to meet its

ﬁnancial obligations as and when expected, although it may be able to do so in the future

Malaysia

BNM

NRIC

PayNet

RPP

Bank Negara Malaysia

National Registration Identity Card

Payments Network Malaysia Sdn Bhd

Real-time Retail Payments Platform

ML machine learning

MOU memorandum of understanding

EXHIBIT B1, continued

continued

Considerations and Lessons for the Development and Implementation of Fast Payment Systems | 79

TERM DESCRIPTION

Merchant discount rate Rate charged to merchants for processing transactions

Messaging standard A common deﬁnition of the syntax, structure, and semantics of a family of messages that are exchanged

between counterparts

Mexico

CNBV

CoDi

SIAC

SPEI

SPEUA

Comisión Nacional Bancaria y de Valores

Cobro Digital

Account Holders Service System

Interbank Electronic Payment System

Extended Use Electronic Payments System

NDC net debit cap

Netting The offsetting of the value of obligations between or among participants in the payment system, thereby

reducing the value that needs to be transferred between participants to settle all the payment obligations

NFC Near-ﬁeld communication—for example, using smart phones to make POS transactions

Nigeria

CBN

Central Bank of Nigeria

NIP NIBSS Instant Payment

NPS national payments system

PSB Payment Scheme Board

PICC Payment Initiative Coordinating Committee

NLP natural language processing

Operational risk The risk that deﬁciencies in information systems or internal processes, human errors, management failures,

or disruptions from external events will result in the reduction, deterioration, or breakdown of services

Overlay service Ancillary services that are often based on the real-time payments rails and are ﬂexible, nimble drivers of

innovation

Oversight Oversight of payment and settlement systems and services is a central bank function whereby the

objectives of safety and efﬁciency are promoted by monitoring existing and planned systems, assessing

them against these objectives, and, where necessary, inducing change—for example, by a public authority

Payment system operator Institution responsible for operating a payment system

Payment types Payment types can be classiﬁed into the following three categories:

i) Individual payments:

• Person-to-person (P2P) payments include transfers of money to family members/friends without an

underlying economic transaction (for example, remittances). Payments to other individuals in the social

context (for example, to repay for a shared restaurant bill) also fall into this category.

ii) Business payments:

• Person-to-business (P2B) payments include retail payments associated with the purchase of retail

goods and services from businesses, irrespective of the size of the business.

• Business-to-person (B2P) payments typically involve periodic transactions in compensation for the work

rendered by employees (that is, payrolls and other compensation-related payments, such as incentives)

and are therefore normally characterized by a large number of transactions of relatively small value.

• Business-to-business (B2B) payments: When one business is the payee and another business is the

payer, it is called a B2B payment. B2B payments range from large-value payments associated with large

intra-industry transactions (which are not in the focus of this report) to retail payments between small,

medium-sized, and large enterprises

iii) Government payments:

• Person-to-government (P2G) payments include obligations that individuals pay to central, regional, and

local public administrations.

• Government-to-person (G2P) payments are characterized by a very large number of transactions,

normally of small individual value.

• Government-to-business (G2B) payments are characterized by a large number of transactions, and

values vary widely, ranging from large-value procurement contracts to very small payments made with

a government credit card or debit card.

• Business-to-government (B2G) payments are typically periodic payments and characterized by a large

number of transactions of varying sizes. B2G payments include corporate tax payments (for example,

income taxes, sales taxes, and value-added taxes), fees for government services (for example, company

registration, business permits, or licenses), penalties (for example, ﬁnes), and the employer’s share of

social-security contributions

EXHIBIT B1, continued

continued

80 | Considerations and Lessons for the Development and Implementation of Fast Payment Systems

TERM DESCRIPTION

Payment instrument Modes of payments that facilitate transactions between two parties. There are two types of payment

instruments: cash and non-cash. Non-cash payment instruments include checks, credit transfer, debit and

credit cards, direct debits, and e-wallets.

PBC People’s Bank of China

PFMI Principles for Financial Market Infrastructures

PISP payment-initiation service provider

Poland

KIR

NBP

Krajowa Izba Rozliczeniowa S.A.

National Bank of Poland

Prefunding Prefunding is the requirement to hold segregated funds against a net debit cap or other agreed position in

a payment system that can always be used for ﬁnal settlement to reduce or remove credit or liquidity risks

arising.

PSP payment service provider

Real-time settlement Settlement on a continuous, payment-by-payment basis, in real time.

Reconciliation A procedure to verify the purpose of a payment—for example, between an invoice or bill and a subsequent

payment

RFP request for proposal

RTGS real-time gross settlement

RTS regulatory technical standards

Settlement agent An entity that manages the settlement process for transfer systems or other arrangements that require

settlement; the settlement agent sometimes differs from the owner or settlement institution of the system

Settlement bank Either a central or a commercial bank used to effect fund settlements; an FMI typically maintains an account

at one or more settlement banks to conduct fund settlements between or among its participants

Settlement risk The risk that settlement in a fund or securities transfer system will not take place as expected; this risk may

comprise both credit and liquidity risk

Settlement service

provider institution

The institution across whose books transfers between participants take place to achieve settlement within

a settlement system—that is, the institution responsible for interbank/company settlement of payment

instructions—for example, central banks

Singapore

FAST

MAS

MEPS+

SACH

SCHA

Fast and Secure Transfers

Monetary Authority of Singapore

New MAS Electronic Payment and Book-Entry System

Singapore Automated Clearing House

Singapore Clearing House Association

SIPS systemically important payment system

SLA service-level agreement

SME small and medium-sized enterprise

Straight-through

processing (STP)

The automated end-to-end processing of trades and/or payment transfers, including the automated

completion of conﬁrmation, matching, generation, clearing, and settlement of instructions, without the

need for rekeying or reformatting data

Stress testing An estimation of the credit and liquidity exposures that would result from the realization of an extreme but

plausible stress event—for example, credit and liquidity risks of counterparties

SWIFT Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication

SWIPS System Wide Important Payment System

Systemic risk The risk that the inability of one or more participants to perform as expected will cause other participants

to be unable to meet their obligations when due

EXHIBIT B1, continued

continued

Considerations and Lessons for the Development and Implementation of Fast Payment Systems | 81

TERM DESCRIPTION

Thailand

BOT

CSS

PCI DSS

National ITMX

PIRPS

PSO

PSC

TBA

Bank of Thailand

Central Settlement System

Payment Card Industry—Data Security Standard

National Interbank Transaction Management and Exchange

prominently important retail payment system

Payment Systems Ofﬁce

Payment Systems Committee

Thai Bankers Association

UAT user acceptance testing

BoE

FCA

FPS

NSC

PSR

Bank of England

Financial Conduct Authority

Faster Payments Service

net sender cap

Payment Systems Regulator

USA

ABA

CUNA

ICBA

FDIC

FFIEC

FRB

NACHA

NAFCU

OCC

RTP

TCH

TLS

TPSP

American Bankers Association

Credit Union National Association

Independent Community Bankers of America

Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation

Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council

Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System

National Automated Clearing House Association

National Association of Federally Insured Credit Unions

Ofﬁce of the Comptroller of the Currency

Real Time Payments system

The Clearing House

transport-layer security

third-party service provider

Use cases Speciﬁc situation in which a product or service could potentially be used

User charges Fees levied on end users for conducting a transaction in a payment system

USSD Unstructured Supplementary Service Data

Value date The day on which the payment, transfer instruction, or other obligation is due and the associated funds and

securities are typically available to the receiving participant.

XML Extensible Markup Language

EXHIBIT B1, continued

EXHIBIT C1: Emergence of Fast Payment Arrangements over the Years

THE EMERGENCE OF FAST PAYMENTS AROUND

THE WORLD

A few jurisdictions were pioneers in implementing fast pay-

ments when there were no global analogies and little mar-

ket demand. This was the case of, for example, Chile, South

Africa, South Korea, and the United Kingdom. Other juris-

dictions started considering fast payments late in the ﬁrst

decade of the century after seeing the beneﬁts and new

opportunities brought by fast payments.

Exhibit C1 depicts the emergence of fast payments glob-

ally over the years. While a few arrangements have been

APPENDIX C: PRIMER ON FAST PAYMENTS

present for a decade or more, it was in the last ﬁve years that

most jurisdictions implemented fast payments. The wider

emergence of fast payments was undoubtedly accompa-

nied by advances in IT, especially with increases in access,

adoption, and usage of smartphones.

The central bank has also been a major driving force for

fast payment implementation, either as an operator or cat-

alyst for a solution of this kind to be implemented. Certain

jurisdictions, such as Poland and the United States, saw pri-

vate operators introducing fast payments on their own due

to an increased market need for the same.

Jurisdictions with only banks as participants

Jurisdictions with both banks and non-banks as participants

Information not available

* Europe Sct. has been considered as 1 jurisdiction

+ System supports local currency

# Zengin became FPS in 2018 with implementation of More Time System

Spain Romania Ghana Mexico Kenya

India Australia Finland Serbia

Argentina Thailand

Europe Nicaragua Latvia

USA Bhutan

TEF

RTC

BiR

Chile

U.K.

South Korea South Africa

CEFTS

Straksbetalinger

Portugal

Denmark

Norway Turkey

Sri Lanka Bahrain Singapore

Italy

SCI Inst

HRK SCI Inst CERTIS

Sunqar

IPI

IPSIPS

IPS

BIPS

FPS

Anor

Philippines

Kazakhstan

HungaryAzerbaijanRussiaCzech Republic

Malaysia

Croatia

Bulgaria

Hong Kong Japan

Colombia UAE

Uzbekistan

SCI Inst CBN Paysett Instant Payments

India

Nigeria

Sweden

China

Poland

2001–09 2009–13 2 013–15 2015 – 18 2018–2020

Considerations and Lessons for the Development and Implementation of Fast Payment Systems | 83

KEY CHARACTERISTICS AND BENEFITS PROVIDED

The key characteristics that are common across fast pay-

ment arrangements around the world are shown in exhibit

C2. While all these characteristics are very relevant, this Fast

Payments Toolkit has emphasized the immediate availability

of funds to the beneﬁciary—which can be an individual, a

ﬁrm, or a government agency—and that these transactions

can be made during an operational window during the day

that is as large as possible, with trends toward 24/7 avail-

ability

Implementation of fast payments has helped achieve the

following beneﬁts:

• Unlocking funds by providing beneﬁciaries with instant

access to funds

• Meeting end-user demands for round-the-clock avail-

ability, which, together with immediate availability of

funds, reduces uncertainty and increases the availability

of working capital

• Acting as an innovation layer for the launch of new

products and services

• Bringing new alternatives for P2B payments and, in this

context, helping to drive ﬁnancial inclusion and shift to

a more formalized economy

Today, millions are experiencing these beneﬁts. Merchants

can accept fast payments remotely and can instantly access

funds in their transaction accounts, just as they would with

cash. This is particularly helpful to micro and small-business

owners, who can then pay suppliers on time and fulﬁll other

urgent payment obligations. Emergency funds from govern-

ments to individuals and businesses can be credited quickly.

In some cases, domestic remittances are swiftly reaching

family members in need, at a low cost.

Furthermore, fast payments have had a transformational

impact on the wider payments ecosystem They have sup-

ported innovation in the broader payments landscape and

increased end-user conﬁdence in digital payment methods.

Select differentiators of fast payments when compared with

other payment methods/systems are the following:

• Instant settlement ﬁnality for both the payee and the pay-

er, and the availability of ﬁnal funds to the payee or the

beneﬁciary occurs in real time. In other payment meth-

ods, such as card purchases, while the payer’s account is

debited in real time, the funds may or may not be made

available to the beneﬁciary immediately. (It depends on

agreement between the acquirer and merchant.)

• Transactions can be made through new modes of in-

terfaces, such as third-party mobile applications of

third-party providers.

• New access channels and transaction-initiation meth-

ods, such as QR codes, have been introduced.

• Membership is broader, and non-bank PSPs can also

participate as direct participants in some cases, or as

indirect participants.

• Channel innovations are complemented with use cases

such as request to pay.

• Payments are supported with the help of aliases, such

as phone numbers and email addresses, which increase

user convenience.

• Fast payments are available around the clock.

The COVID-19 pandemic has also highlighted the grow-

ing relevance of fast payment. Many jurisdictions that have

implemented fast payments have seen a surge in adoption

and usage. For example, in Thailand, the government used

the PromptPay system to channel relief funds quickly to cit-

izens. In India, UPI transaction value grew about 8.3 percent

month on month between March and November 2020. By

contrast, it had grown about 4.5 percent month on month

during the same period in 2019. Transaction value surged

about 76 percent between February and November 2020.

The rapid adoption of fast payments, however, must

be balanced with appropriate safeguards and risk-man-

agement frameworks. Innovations in payments should not

come at the cost of overall security and safety.

It is crucial, for example, to put in place robust

fraud-mitigation mechanisms. For example,

the risk of social-engineering attacks, such as

phishing, affecting ﬁnancial service users can

be higher with fast payments due to the imme-

diacy of fund transfers. These concerns need to

be mitigated with robust monitoring systems,

fraud-prevention tools, and training. Effective

dispute-resolution mechanisms for participants

vis-à-vis each other or the operator, and for end

users, should also be in place.

EXHIBIT C2: Key Characteristics of Fast Payment Arrangements

Instant and

continuous

Final Certain Secure

Payment should

be available

to beneﬁciary

immediately and

around the clock

Payment once

initiated should

be ﬁnal and

cannot be

revoked

Both originator

and beneﬁciary

should know the

payment has

been completed

Payment should

reach the correct

beneﬁciary

securely

84 | Considerations and Lessons for the Development and Implementation of Fast Payment Systems

DRIVERS OF FAST PAYMENTS ADOPTION AND

UPTAKE

Adoption and uptake of fast payments vary signiﬁcantly

across jurisdictions. The key lever seems to be the immediate

availability of funds, even for very small-value transactions.

The following elements have also shown to be important

determinants of uptake:

• Coverage and openness of the system

Wider coverage helps maximize adoption and regular

usage by both businesses and consumers. The following

may drive wider coverage and openness:

- Capability to facilitate both individual and corporate

use cases: Restriction of fast payments to a narrow

set of transactions—for example, P2P but not P2B or

B2B—may limit potential use cases.

- Support for both push and pull payments: Accom-

modation of both types of payments helps to offer

a wider range of use cases/services to the end cus-

tomers. Authorization is mandated to ensure that

customer give consent prior to payment processing.

- Participation of non-bank PSPs and other ﬁntechs:

The presence of more participants makes the system

more valuable to each participant. Together with tra-

ditional participants such as banks, inclusion of non-

bank PSPs, ﬁntechs, and other technology compa-

nies will provide a wider user base and help boost

adoption.

- Affordability: Jurisdictions may see widespread

adoption owing to efforts—often led by public au-

thorities—to boost uptake that promote low or zero

fees to end users.

• Technology, access channels, and ease of use

Difﬁculties or limitations for users to initiate payments

or an otherwise complex user experience may pose a

signiﬁcant challenge to uptake and regular usage. The

following may ensure easy accessibility and a more user-

friendly experience:

- Accessibility via everyday devices: Many fast payment

arrangements have demonstrated the importance of

accessibility to services through mobile phones while

also providing more transaction-initiation options.

- The use of aliases (mobile numbers, national IDs,

email IDs, or other user-chosen IDs) makes it con-

venient for users to take advantage of the payment

services, which in turn promotes uptake.

- Accessibility to the arrangement for PSPs via APIs and

the usage of international messaging standards such

as ISO 20022, which enable PSPs and other non-

bank players to structure their service offering for fast

payment end users.

• Preexisting market context

Uptake is likely to be higher in economies where the pre-

existing market context enables the use of real-time pay-

ments. The following are a list of the preexisting market

and technological factors that may affect the adoption of

FPS in a jurisdiction:

- Level of penetration/adoption of mobile phones

(both smart phones and feature phones) and the us-

age of internet services

- Quality and payment speed of other payment op-

tions (checks and so on)

- The market competitiveness level in the payments

space

• Awareness programs

When public authorities, operators, and participants run

awareness and educational campaigns on fast payments,

uptake is likely to be higher.

INTEROPERABILITY

To facilitate a near-cash and seamless experience for all

types of users, there has been increased focus on the

interoperability of payment systems and payment instru-

ments. Interoperability allows customers to determine which

payment method to use based on the type of use case, user

experience, size of payment, and cost of transaction. With-

out interoperability, these decisions would be driven by

available solutions and offerings, as opposed to customer

preference.

Technical innovations have helped support interoperabil-

ity. Moreover, the fast payment infrastructure in many juris-

dictions has been used by other non-bank PSPs to design

and provide innovative payment solutions to the end cus-

tomers. A paradigm shift is anticipated toward standard-

ization in the payments industry, enabling interoperability

across payment mechanisms, clearing and settlement sys-

tems, and liquidity providers.

Open APIs can serve as interoperability enablers, as they

not only allow ﬁnancial institutions to connect with other

systems but also foster innovation. In this regard, the impact

that rising uptake of open banking is having on fast pay-

ments (and payments in general) is signiﬁcant.

The use

of APIs in fast payments is providing the foundation for a

widening array of new, innovative services from both incum-

bent, challenger banks and ﬁntechs.

Near-real-time cross-border initiatives by global private

players, such as SWIFT Global Payments Innovation (gpi), Visa

Considerations and Lessons for the Development and Implementation of Fast Payment Systems | 85

Direct, Mastercard Send, and PayPal’s XOOM, can eventually

also drive interoperability between fast payment arrange-

ments in different jurisdictions. Adoption of common mes-

saging standards will also facilitate cross-border payments

EVOLUTION AND FUTURE TRENDS

Like other aspects of the payment ecosystem, fast payments

are in constant change. Most early arrangements entered

the market with simple P2P payments. As user conﬁdence

grew, other payments types, such as to/from businesses and

to/from government, were introduced. Furthermore, while

push payments/credit transfers have been intrinsic to fast

payments since their launch, some jurisdictions are making

efforts to introduce pull-capability features.

Similarly, in the earlier versions, most fast payment

arrangement enabled payments only via bank account

numbers. This made small payments tedious, as people/

merchants had to share account details to initiate payments.

Hence, the use of aliases such as mobile-phone numbers or

email addresses as a proxy for bank account number/details

was introduced and became very popular, including for use

cases such as social commerce, where social networks and

media are used to conduct commerce between individuals.

Fast payments have also experienced a different journey

based on the market environment where they operate. For

example, due to the popularity of QR codes in Asia for mer-

chant and bill payments, fast payment arrangements in this

region have put signiﬁcant effort in enabling the invoking of

payments through this channel.

Fast payment arrangements must keep adapting and

changing as the market conditions and people’s prefer-

ences change over time. Their operators/managers should

continue to be agile to accommodate other new features

and solutions. Various operators and participants are now

equipped with sophisticated analytical tools to help under-

stand payment patterns and offer innovative customized

solutions.

While new movements around crypto assets and central

bank digital currencies, among others, are taking place, fast

payments are likely to continue to play an important role

in the overall innovation in the payments space, and these

various innovations will coexist with one another.

SUSTAINABILITY

Currently, in most jurisdictions, the top banks have incurred

the capital expenditure or investment costs to create fast

payments. Some banks have used the implementation of

fast payments as an opportunity to overhaul their entire core

banking system. In other cases, it is the central bank that

has incurred most of the investment costs to implement fast

payments.

In this context, the business model currently being fol-

lowed by many arrangements around the globe—based on

very low or zero end-user fees to boost uptake—makes it

very difﬁcult for these banks to recoup their expense, and

probably even the ongoing operational expenses, in the

short to medium term. In other words, current pricing strat-

egies for end users are not sustainable over the long run if

the fast payment arrangement is owned by the private sec-

tor and intends to make a proﬁt or at least to recover all costs

incurred. The situation may be different where the central

bank is the owner.

Nevertheless, in several jurisdictions there seems to be

an understanding that capital expenditures and implemen-

tation costs are a one-time sunk cost to improve the overall

payments infrastructure of the jurisdiction. This is likely to

bring beneﬁts that need to be quantiﬁed separately from

the revenues obtained directly from the provision of fast

payment services. Such beneﬁts may include the following:

• Engaging new customer segments

• Reducing fraud risk throughout the whole payment

ecosystem

• Improving long-term customer relationships

• Enabling innovative new product offerings to increase

market share

CONSIDERATIONS FOR IMPLEMENTATION

Fast payment implementation is a complex venture, as it

involves multiple stakeholders. Therefore, public authorities

and operators need to be meticulous while making sensitive

decisions. There is no single right way to implement a fast

payment arrangement.

Jurisdictions have adopted different models, includ-

ing different settlement mechanisms, liquidity provisions,

messaging standards, and use cases. These differences are

based on local market conditions, existing legacy systems,

and cost considerations. It is important for all stakeholders to

cooperate to ensure successful implementation. The critical

decisions have to be based on sound metrics and analyses of

key parameters, such as the overall local payment ecosystem

(including telecommunications), participants’ existing inter-

nal systems, funding, and regulatory and legal constraints.

The study methodology was divided into four phases, as

described below and shown in exhibit D1.

• Phase 1 involved secondary research to understand the

current state of fast payment arrangements and recent

developments across 10 broad parameters in almost

70 jurisdictions worldwide (including implementations

that are live, under development, and live but not fully

ﬂedged).

• In Phase 2, desk research was conducted for 25 juris-

dictions identiﬁed for more detailed study, using public-

ly available information. The parameters studied ranged

across regulatory and governance aspects, customer

features, and technical capabilities. The 25 jurisdictions

were selected based on geographical region, income

levels, and the development stage of their fast payment

arrangement.

APPENDIX D: STUDY METHODOLOGY

• In Phase 3, the 25 jurisdictions were then further stream-

lined to include only jurisdictions with live fast payment

implementations to obtain the ﬁnal list of 16 jurisdictions

where a deep-dive analysis was performed. The intent

was to get a diverse mix of regions across various geo-

graphic regions, with adequate coverage across matured/

developed and emerging economies, and jurisdictions

with maximum coverage of use cases/features. The 16

detailed jurisdiction-speciﬁc reports were developed

covering such aspects as objectives, system development

process, business and operating model, technical speci-

ﬁcations, and governance framework. These deep-dive

reports were prepared based on in-depth secondary and

primary research involving interviews with regulators,

operators, and participants (banks and non-banks).

• Finally, in Phase 4, 16 topic-speciﬁc notes were devel-

oped covering aspects that are particularly relevant for

fast payments.

Considerations and Lessons for the Development and Implementation of Fast Payment Systems | 87

PARAMETERS PHASE 1 PHASE 2 PHASE 3

Jurisdiction

selection

framework

Fast payments developments

across the globe consisting of

• Live arrangements

• Under development

• live-not full-ﬂedged

arrangements

25 jurisdictions were selected

with representation across:

• Geographical regions

• Developed / developing nations

and mix of jurisdiction economy

size

• Income levels

• Jurisdictions who were early

adopters of fast payments

and jurisdictions with new

arrangements developed over

the last 2-3 years

For the deep dive study, framework used for

shortlisting the 16 jurisdictions consists of three

ﬁlters:

• Implementation stage

• Jurisdiction economics and regional

distribution

• Key features

In this phase only ‘Live Fast Payments

Arrangements’ were considered as greater

information is likely to be available on the

technical features of the payment systems, use

cases, adoption statistics, FPS structure, rollout/

post-rollout actions

Desk research

10Global

16*

25*

25-

jurisdiction

proﬁles

FPS global

landscape

Deep dive

assessment

APPROACH

Phase DeliverableSourceJurisdictionsBrief Parameters Brief approach

Broad characteristics/indicators

offast payments were studied to

provide a global overview

25-jurisdiction proﬁles were

developed including high level

information on technical specs,

participants, governance

arrangements and use

cases/services

In-depth study across

16 jurisdictions

was carried out

Desk research

Desk research and

primary interviews

Desk research and

primary interviews

4 Focus notes

*SCT Inst has been included, which covers multiple jurisdictions across Europe

Brief approach

Toolkit

includes

consolidated

insights from

all phases

1. QR codes

2. APIs

3. Customer authentication

4. Messaging formats

5. Consumer protection

6. Dispute handling, reversal,

chargeback and refunds

7. Fraud risks and AML/CFT

8. Pricing structure

9. Proxy database

10. Access aspects

11. Cross-border aspects

12. Interoperability aspects

13. Oversight aspects

14. Scheme rules

15. Future of fast payments

16. Infrastructure and

ownership aspects

EXHIBIT D1: Study Approach

Jurisdictions, the name of their fast payment arrangement, and the development stage of the same at the time of this study

have been summarized below.

EXHIBIT E1: Complete List of Jurisdictions/Systems Studied—Regional Classiﬁcation

# REGION JURISDICTION SYSTEM NAME STAGE

1. North America, Central

America, and the

Caribbean

Aruba I-Pago Live

2. Belize APSSS Instant fund

Transfer (IFT)

Not fully ﬂedged

3. Canada Real Time Rail RTR Under development

4. Costa Rica — Live

Cura

çao and Sint Maarten

— Under development

6. Dominican Republic Instant Payments Not fully ﬂedged

7. El Salvador PayExpedite RTP Under development

8. Mexico SPEI Live

9. Nicaragua CBN PaySett Live

10. United States RTP and FedNow RTP: Live

FedNow: Under development

11. South America Argentina DEBIN Live

12. Brazil SITRAF

PIX

SITRAF: Not fully ﬂedged

PIX: Live

13. Chile TEF Live

14. Colombia Transﬁya Live

15. Peru — Under development

16. Europe Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia,

Cyprus, Denmark, Estonia, Finland,

France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Latvia,

Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Monaco, the

Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Slovenia,

Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom

SCT Inst Live

17. Belarus Instant Payment System

(IPS)

Live

18. Czech Republic RTPE Live

19. Denmark RealTime 24/7

P27

RealTime 24/7: Live

P27: Under development

20. Finland Sirto

P27

Sirto: Live

P27: Under development

21. Hungary Instant Payment System Live

22. Iceland — Live

APPENDIX E: FULL JURISDICTION LIST

Considerations and Lessons for the Development and Implementation of Fast Payment Systems | 89

# REGION JURISDICTION SYSTEM NAME STAGE

23. Europe, continued Italy Jiffy Live

24. Latvia Instant Payment Instant Payment: Live

25. The Netherlands iDeal iDeal: Not fully ﬂedged

26. Norway Straksbetalinger Live

27. Portugal MB Way MB Way: Live

28. Poland Express Elixir Live

29. Romania PlatiInstant Live

30. Russia FPS Live

31. Serbia Instant Payment Serbia Live

32. Spain Bizum Bizum: Live

33. Sweden BiR

P27

BiR: Live

P27: Under development

34. Switzerland SIC Not fully ﬂedged

35. Turkey RPS and BKM Express RPS: Not fully ﬂedged

BKM express: Live

36. United Kingdom UK Faster Payment Live

37. Middle East and North

Africa

Bahrain Fawri+ Live

38. Egypt Phone Cash Not fully ﬂedged

39. Jordan JoMoPay Not fully ﬂedged

40. Saudi Arabia — Under development

41. United Arab Emirates IPI Live

42. Yemen WeNet Instant Transfer

System

Under development

43. Sub-Saharan Africa Ghana GIP Live

44. Kenya PesaLink Live

45. Nigeria NIP Live

46. Rwanda RIPRS Under development

47. South Africa RTC Live

48. Tanzania TIPS Under development

49. West African Economic and Monetary

Union. Eight member states include Benin,

Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Guinea-Bissau,

Mali, Niger, Senegal, and Togo.

BCEAO Digital Financial

Services Interoperability

Project

Under development

EXHIBIT E1, continued

90 | Considerations and Lessons for the Development and Implementation of Fast Payment Systems

# REGION JURISDICTION SYSTEM NAME STAGE

50. Asia Azerbaijan Instant Payment System Live

51. Bhutan Bhutan Immediate

Payment System

Live

52. Brunei Payments Hub Under development

53. Cambodia Fast Payment Live

54. China IBPS Live

55. Georgia — Under development

56. Hong Kong SAR, China FPS Live

57. Indonesia BI-FAST Under development

58. India IMPS and UPI Live

59. Japan Zengin Live

60. Kazakhstan Sunqar Live

61. Malaysia RPP Live

62. Maldives Uniﬁed Payment

Gateway

Under development

63. Nepal ConnectIPS Live

64. Pakistan Raast Live

65. Philippines InstaPay Live

66. Republic of Korea HOFINET Live

6 7. Singapore Fast Live

68. Sri Lanka CEFTS Live

69. Thailand PromptPay Live

70. Uzbekistan Anor Instant Payment

System

Live

71. Vietnam NAPAS Live

72. Oceania Australia NPP Live

74. New Zealand — Under development

EXHIBIT E1, continued

This appendix identiﬁes the subset of 25 jurisdictions/sys-

tems that were identiﬁed for jurisdiction-proﬁle buildout

via desk research, together with their geographic and cate-

gory-wise distribution (as per the stage of development of

their fast payment arrangement). The parameters that were

studied are also described later in this appendix.

The 25 jurisdictions have representation across:

Geographical regions

• Developed/developing nations and a mix of jurisdiction

economy size

APPENDIX F: THE 25 JURISDICTIONS SHORTLISTED FOR A

MORE DETAILED REVIEW

EXHIBIT F1: List of Jurisdictions Shortlisted for Desk Research

# REGION JURISDICTION SYSTEM NAME STAGE

1. North and

Central America

Mexico SPEI Live

2. United States RTP Live

3. FedNow Under development

4. South America Brazil PIX Live

5. Chile TEF Live

6. Europe SEPA SCT Inst Nations (Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria,

Croatia, Cyprus, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France,

Germany, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg,

Malta, Monaco, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal,

Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom)

SCT Inst Live

7. Poland Express Elixir Live

8. Spain Bizum Live

9. Switzerland SIC Live but not fully ﬂedged

10. Turkey RPS Live but not fully ﬂedged

11 . United Kingdom Faster Payments Live

12. Middle East Asia

and North Africa

Bahrain Fawri+ Live

13. Saudi Arabia - Under development

14. Sub-Saharan

Africa

Kenya PesaLink Live

15. Nigeria NIBSS Instant Payment Live but not fully ﬂedged

16. South Africa RTC Live

17. Tanzania Tanzania Instant

Payment System (TIPS)

Under development

• Country income levels

• Jurisdictions that were early adopters of fast payments

and those with recent implementations (that occurred

over the last two to three years).

For this same subset of 25 jurisdictions, exhibit F2 shows

a distribution based on their geographic location and cat-

egorization based on the stage of development of the fast

payment arrangement. Category 1 denotes “Live,” Category

2 denotes “Under development,” and Category 3 is “Live

but not fully ﬂedged.”

92 | Considerations and Lessons for the Development and Implementation of Fast Payment Systems

# REGION JURISDICTION SYSTEM NAME STAGE

18. Asia China IBPS Live

19. Hong Kong SAR, China FPS Live

20. India IMPS and UPI Live

21. Japan Zengin Live

22. Malaysia RPP Live

23. Singapore FAST Live

24. Sri Lanka CEFTS Live

25. Thailand PromptPay Live

26. Oceania Australia NPP Live

EXHIBIT F1, continued

EXHIBIT F2: Geographic and Category-wise Distribution of the 25 Shortlisted Jurisdictions

EXHIBIT F3: Key Parameters Studied in the 25 Shortlisted Jurisdictions

3rd