Cross-border payments

A key goal of the Eurosystem’s comprehensive payments strategy is to improve cross-border payments. This could be done, for example, by making it easier for businesses and consumers in Europe to send and receive payments to and from other countries. More efficient cross-border payments would also help to enhance the international role of the euro.

Improving cross-border payments with TIPS

The Eurosystem is actively exploring initiatives where TIPS can support the targets of the G20 roadmap for cross-border payments, which aims to make international payments cheaper, faster, more transparent and more accessible.

The work to improve cross-border payments within the EU and beyond is supported by the baseline cross-currency capability implemented in TIPS in June 2025. This is based on the European Payments Council’s One-Leg Out (OLO) Instant Credit Transfer (OCT Inst) scheme and enables interactions between TIPS and fast payment systems based outside the euro area.

Cross-currency payments in TIPS

Transfers across countries in the EU are slow, complex and expensive when currency conversion is needed. To address these issues, the ECB’s Governing Council decided to implement a cross-currency settlement service in TIPS in collaboration with Sveriges Riksbank and Danmarks Nationalbank, building on the exploratory technical work started in 2020.

This cross-currency service was implemented via a change request and has been available to all TIPS participants since October 2025.

It enables Swedish and Danish consumers to transfer funds in their domestic currency to a retailer or consumer in any euro area country, with payment received in euro in a matter of seconds. In the same way, retailers and consumers in the euro area can use euro to pay for goods bought in Sweden or Denmark. The service also allows transfers to be made between Swedish and Danish accounts.

Other countries that join TIPS at a later date would similarly benefit from cross-currency instant payments, subject to a decision by the relevant central bank.

Task Force

The TIPS Consultative Group Cross-Currency Business Development Task Force brings together market participants to ensure the service is implemented successfully and to explore potential enhancements.

• Mandate of and documents produced by the task force

Interlinking TIPS with other fast payment systems

At the global level, the Eurosystem is looking at linking TIPS with other fast payment systems as a way to further improve interoperability, reduce costs and increase the speed and transparency of cross-border payments, including remittances. 

The portfolio of initiatives includes:

• joining Nexus, the multilateral network of instant payments systems launched by the Bank for International Settlements and now managed by Nexus Global Payments;

• establishing a bilateral link with the Unified Payments Interface (UPI), an instant payments system developed by the National Payments Corporation of India and regulated by the Reserve Bank of India;

• establishing a bilateral link with the Swiss Interbank Clearing Instant Payments (SIC IP) system, an instant payments system developed by the Swiss National Bank;
• establishing a bilateral link with Pix, an instant payments system developed by the Central Bank of Brazil. 

Looking ahead, the Eurosystem aims to expand these efforts to include additional currency corridors.

Payment service providers interested in making use of these currency corridors can contact TIPS_cross-border@ecb.europa.eu for further information.