European Central Bank to assess feasibility of interlinking with Brazil’s instant payment system Pix
The Governing Council of the European Central Bank (ECB) has approved initiating an assessment of the feasibility of interlinking the Eurosystem’s TARGET Instant Payment Settlement (TIPS) platform with Brazil’s fast payment system, Pix. “In close collaboration with the Central Bank of Brazil, the ECB will explore the potential for interlinking TIPS and Pix by assessing technical, operational, legal and business considerations.” – according to the press release.
In view of the significant economic flows between the euro area and Brazil, an interlinking of the two payment systems could facilitate faster and lower-cost instant payments between the two regions. Pix is owned and operated by the Central Bank of Brazil and facilitates approximately 250 million real-time instant payments daily, with transactions settled directly in central bank money.
The Eurosystem is actively exploring a portfolio of initiatives to link TIPS to other fast payment systems around the world, supporting the “G20 roadmap” for creating a faster, cheaper, more transparent and accessible global payments ecosystem while ensuring secure and reliable instant payments.
These initiatives include: joining Nexus Global Payments, the multilateral network of instant payments systems initially launched by the Bank for International Settlements; establishing a bilateral link with the Unified Payments Interface, an instant payments system developed by the National Payments Corporation of India and regulated by the Reserve Bank of India; and setting up a bilateral link with the Swiss Interbank Clearing Instant Payments system developed by the Swiss National Bank.
These efforts align with the Eurosystem’s comprehensive payments strategy, which envisages advancing the integration of global cross-border payments by improving the existing infrastructure.
