The Bank for International Settlements' Committee on Payments and Market Infrastructures (CPMI) today invited firms that offer cross-border payment services, payment system operators and relevant industry associations to nominate senior representatives to serve on a newly established task force on cross-border payments interoperability and extension (the "PIE task force").

Nominees for the PIE task force should have significant experience and direct responsibilities related to operational cross-border payments aspects, product development, business models, standards, interoperability technologies, and/or policy issues. Nominees should be able to commit sufficient time and organise resources from within their organisation to support the work of the task force until at least the end of 2024.

Enhancing cross-border payments' speed and transparency, while increasing access to cross-border payment services and reducing their costs, are the key objectives of the G20 cross-border payments programme.

Since the G20 Leaders endorsed the roadmap for enhancing cross-border payments in 2020, much has been accomplished in laying the foundations through the necessary stocktakes and analysis. As the programme has turned to implementation, the CPMI and the Financial Stability Board (FSB) have organised the work around three priority themes: (i) interoperability and extension of payment systems, (ii) data exchange and messaging standards, and (iii) legal, regulatory and supervisory frameworks.

The PIE task force should provide a source of expert advice and a mechanism for collaboration on the provision and enhancement of cross-border payment arrangements. It should also serve as a forum for the exchange of implementation experiences and coordination between public authorities and private sector stakeholders.

In doing so, the PIE task force will focus on improving access to payment systems, extending payment system operating hours and establishing links between payment systems – including aspects of messaging, such as ISO 20022 and application programming interfaces.

Regular engagement with senior managers and leading technical experts from industry is expected to bring together the strategic perspective and practical subject matter expertise required to implement cross-border payment enhancements.

The task force is expected to have approximately 30 members from a wide variety of jurisdictions and regions and comprising private-sector institutional types and business models as well as public sector authorities, international organisations and standard-setting bodies. The task force will meet virtually and at least quarterly. It will be chaired by at least one senior CPMI representative. A limited number of public sector representatives can attend as observers. Further details on the terms of reference for the PIE task force can be provided on request.

The FSB is in parallel inviting nominations for a task force on legal, regulatory, and supervisory aspects. The FSB and CPMI will jointly determine the composition of the two task forces to promote balanced and diverse representation across both. The CPMI will seek to achieve geographic representativeness and coverage of a broad range of business models when selecting the task force members.