Payment Plumbing Is Being Rebuilt, Country by Country

Singapore consolidates its schemes

Singapore has put a leadership team in place for the body that will run its national payment schemes. The Singapore Payments Network, known as SPaN, has appointed Derek Chan as its inaugural chief executive and an 11-member board chaired by Jacqueline Loh. SPaN is a not-for-profit entity established by the Monetary Authority of Singapore and the Association of Banks in Singapore, and it is scheduled to commence operations in early 2027. m:…3899

The immediate task is transition rather than invention. Its immediate focus is the transfer of national payment schemes from their current administrators, with an initial emphasis on enhancing infrastructure resilience. Chan was previously chief officer of Banking Computer Services Private Limited, a subsidiary of NETS that manages Singapore payment infrastructure, which gives the new body a leadership link to the rails it will govern. m:…3899

The governance change also moves people. Jacqueline Loh will become principal adviser in the director office of the Monetary Authority of Singapore on 1 November 2026, alongside chairing the SPaN board. The sequence matters for banks and payment firms operating in Singapore: scheme governance, infrastructure resilience and the transition timetable will now sit with a single named body rather than dispersed administrators. m:…3899

The Nordics show what happens without shared rails

A joint analysis by Nordic central banks gives the counterpoint. Cross-border payments between Nordic countries remain expensive for consumers, often exceeding 1 percent of the transfer amount, even though the Nordic economies are closely interconnected. Governor Ulrik Nodgaard noted that payment infrastructure and competition have not kept pace with that interconnection. m:…5616

The gap turns on currency and rules. A transfer of kr. 1,500 in euros costs less than 1 percent of the amount, while the same transfer in a Nordic currency costs 2 to 7 percent, according to the analysis. Transfers in Nordic currencies often involve two currency conversions, and while European Union rules limit fees on credit transfers in euros, no corresponding rules apply to transfers in Nordic currencies. Transfers in euros are therefore cheaper than transfers in Nordic currencies for structural reasons, not only because of provider pricing. m:…5616

The report points to three levers: regulation, competition and infrastructure. The TIPS cross-currency service enables instant payments between Danish krone, Swedish krona and euros, and new payment service providers such as neobanks could reduce cross-border payment costs. Nodgaard identified regulation, competition and infrastructure as key steps to improve payments, and legislators may consider further regulation at European Union or national levels. m:…5616

Georgia plans, Brazil shows scale

Georgia is at the planning stage of the same journey. At the Tbilisi Finance Summit, National Bank of Georgia Acting Governor Natia Turnava presented the bank 2027 policy agenda, with priorities including keeping inflation expectations anchored, strengthening international reserve buffers and continuing de-dollarisation. Within that agenda, the bank plans to introduce an instant payment system and aims to enhance interoperability with international payment systems, alongside regulatory cooperation among regional central banks. m:…4868

Brazil shows what scale looks like once instant rails are established. The Central Bank of Brazil reported 79.7 billion retail payment transactions in the first half of 2026, up 12.3 percent in number from the first half of 2025, with total financial volume of 71.9 trillion reais. Pix accounted for 55.2 percent of transactions by number, and Pix transaction volume grew 19.4 percent from the same period in 2025. m:…0864

The Brazilian data also shows older rails fading as instant payments grow. Pix Automatico transactions increased from 4 million in the first quarter of 2026 to 9.5 million in the second quarter, while check financial volume dropped 16.2 percent in the first half of 2026 and withdrawals in traditional modalities decreased 10.3 percent. TED remained the primary instrument for high-value transfers, accounting for 32.7 percent of total financial volume, and credit card financial volume grew 13.8 percent. The pattern across all four cases is consistent: where a shared, governed instant rail exists, volume follows it, and where it does not, consumers pay the difference. m:…0864