Cross-border payments: Opening remarks: Eurosystem’s initiatives on cross-border payments

In October 2024, the ECB announced initiatives to improve cross-border payments within the EU and beyond. Today, cross-border payments are slow, complex and expensive which the G20 roadmap and the Eurosystem’s retail payments strategy have identified as issues. The ECB initiatives include (i) implementing a cross-currency settlement service in TARGET Instant Payment Settlement (TIPS), allowing instant payments originating in one TIPS currency to be settled in another TIPS currency, and (ii) the establishment of bilateral and multilateral technical links between TIPS and other fast payment systems.

Ulrich Bindseil, Director General, European Central Bank