Payment Systems Broadcast #19 - Modernizing Payments Settlement Engines

In this broadcast we build on our discussion from our previous session, Building on Article 75 and Privacy: The Future of Cross-border Data Sharing, which dismantled the ‘privacy paradox’ by exploring how Article 75 enables institutions to share encrypted insights using Privacy-Enhancing Technologies (PETs). In this session, we shift our focus from policy to infrastructure, exploring how Article 75, by facilitating information sharing, offers jurisdictions the opportunity to establish National Anti-Scam Utilities. This technical de-brief focuses on the practical engineering required to break down siloed responses to fraud and align institutional responses to threats posed by criminals working in networks. We discuss: Engineered Proportionality: Expanding on the previous session’s focus on sharing insights rather than raw data, this discussion examines how proportionality must be encoded into the architecture itself. If proportionality depends on human interpretation under time pressure during a live fraud event, the sharing simply does not happen. Structural Fragmentation: An examination of what fails in real-time collaboration and how map scam flows across insititons to reveal blind spots that individual firms simply cannot see on their own. Network Topology & Containment: The operational shift from traditional, account-centric frameworks to reconstructing scam activity as a network of interacting accounts. Once the focus moves from accounts to topology, the strategy shifts from detection to containment. The Intervention Window: A look at how speed changes the economics of fraud. The session will cover the measurable difference between intervention in hours versus intervention in minutes, and how criminals arbitrage delays Utility Governance: An analysis of the systems architecture, governance, and resilience trade-offs between commercially provided collaboration platforms and nationally overseen sovereign utilities

As cross-border fraud accelerates and criminal networks become more sophisticated, few policy proposals have generated as much discussion as Article 75. Concepts like data sharing, collaboration, and privacy preservation are often used interchangeably — but do they mean the same thing? And can institutions truly collaborate across borders without exposing sensitive data. FNA and guests Nick Maxwell (FFIS) and Ian Wachters (Roseman Labs) for this upcoming session, where we take a clear-eyed look at the assumptions shaping today’s debate on cross-border fraud intelligence, privacy obligations, and the role of privacy-enhancing technologies (PETs) such as Secure Multi-Party Computation. In this 60-minute session, we move beyond the slogans and surface-level narratives by exploring the operational, regulatory, and technological realities behind Article 75, addressing: Why today’s cross-border fraud blind spots persist — and how Article 75 aims to close them The difference between sharing data and sharing insights, and why it matters How PETs such as MPC enable collaboration that is privacy-preserving by design What institutions can realistically expect in terms of governance, liability, and regulatory trust The fraud and mule-network detection use cases that Article 75 could finally unlock

In this 60-minute session, we aim to go beyond the hype separating fact from fiction by exploring the realities behind the technology, policy narratives transforming the wholesale FX market, addressing:  Why atomic and instant settlement are not the same The liquidity trade-offs of faster settlement models Whether decentralization truly means resilience  Why the post-trade FX Layer is more advanced than it appears 

Fraud and scams continue to pose systemic risks to the global financial system, costing more than $1 trillion in 2023 alone. As real-time and cross-border payments expand, scam prevention remains fragmented and slow, leaving institutions with limited ability to protect victimes or recover stolen funds. To help close this gap, FNA and Proto have joined forces to develop and integrate the Anti-Scam Centre platform- a solution recently shortlisted for the 2025 G20 TechSprint focusing on fraud and cyber-risk mitigation. Guests Kimmo Soramäki and Proto's Curtis Matlock join host Amanah Ramadiah to discuss the partnership futher.

Mark Cheeseman OBE, CEO of the UK’s Public Sector Fraud Authority (PSFA), and Phillip Straley, President of FNA unpacked insights from the PSFA’s latest Annual Report and discussed how governments and financial authorities can strengthen their defenses against fraud and scams in this 60-minute broadcast.  This session explored how organizations can move from reactive fraud detection to proactive prevention, embedding resilience through smarter systems, stronger cultures, and deeper collaboration.

Cybersecurity threats pose one of the greatest risks to global financial stability, making robust preparation essential for central banks, regulators, and financial institutions. In this session of the Payment Systems Broadcast, guests from the IMF and Bank of Finland explore how computer-based simulations can strengthen cyber stress testing exercises. Drawing on their recent IMF working paper, ‘Using Simulations for Cyber Stress Testing Exercises, Tanai Khiaonarong, Kasperi Korpinen, and Emran Islam join us to discuss why simulations are especially effective for assessing cyber resilience. The conversation will cover their proposed framework, illustrative scenarios, and key implications for safeguarding payments and financial infrastructures against cyber incidents.

Foreign exchange (FX) markets are at the heart of global finance; yet, the processes for settling cross-border transactions remain slow, costly, and vulnerable to risk.  Project Meridian FX- a collaborative experiment led by the BIS Innovation Hub’s London and Eurossytem Centres alongside central banks, including the Bank of England, Banque de France, Deutsche Bundesbank, Banca d’Italia, and the European Central Bank- set out to address these long-standing challenges.  At the centre of the project is the concept of the synchronisation operator (SO), a technology that enables coordinated, payment-versus-payment  (PvP) settlement across different platforms and jurisdictions. Building on the original Project Meridian, the FX-focused initiative tested how the SO could support interoperability between real-time gross settlement (RTGS) systems and distributed ledger technology (DLT) platforms.  John Jackson (Bank of England) and Stephanie Haffner (BIS Innovation Hub)  join FNA for the Payment Systems Broadcast as we explore these insights further to understand what they mean for the future of payments. 

We explore how increasing the frequency of settlement cycles impacts liquidity efficiency and systemic risk with CLS Group's Emanuel Vila. This session follows the recent publication of a joint study from FNA and CLS investigating the trade-offs of potentially increasing settlement frequency in CLSSettlement which currently settles over $7 trillion in FX transactions daily with high netting efficiency.    The study is significant in that it takes a unique look into the trade-off between increasing the number of settlements and reducing netting efficiency, something often neglected by public discourse, and serves as a foundation for future industry discussions on optimizing FX settlement.  CLS’ Director of Corporate Strategy & Innovation Lead, Emanuel Vila, joins Carlos Leon for a fireside chat to discuss findings from the report, why this study matters, and what its conclusions may mean for the future of FX payments.  Read the full report: ‘Reimagining same-day FX: Exploring the case for additional settlement cycles’ here >

Guests Oliver Hanmer (Payment Systems Regulator) and Dave McPhee (Pay.UK) joined FNA as we explored the complex challenge of balancing consumer protection measures and seamless payment experiences.  Protecting consumers is paramount in ensuring trust in financial services. But as the right payment landscape evolves, how do financial institutions strike the right balance between offering a seamless payment experience and robust fraud prevention measures to protect consumers?  In this session, we delved into regulatory and industry-led interventions including the role of data in fraud mitigation, emerging AI-driven solutions, and best practices from different jurisdictions. Our guests provided valuable insights into how regulation industry initiatives can work in tandem to protect consumers, drive efficiency and foster innovation in payments ecosystem as we ask seek to find the balance between reducing friction across the payment journey while optimizing fraud prevention and funds recovery.

Guests Baltazar Rodriguez, BIS Innovation, Toronto, and  Animesh Gosh, CEO of Currency Network, joined FNA to explore the groundbreaking work of Project FuSSE (Fully Scalable Settlement Engine) led by the BIS Innovation Hub in collaboration with the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB).  The initiative aims to revolutionize financial market infrastructures (FMIs) by addressing critical challenges such as scalability, interoperability, and security while preparing FMIs for emerging technologies, including AI and quantum computing.  This session covered: An overview of Project FuSSE and its objectives in modernizing payment settlement engines The scalability of the solution and how it meets the demands of today’s financial ecosystem  How FuSSe addresses operational challenges such as Liquidity saving mechanisms and security such as quantum-resistant cryptography The role of private-sector innovation in creating more inclusive financial projects and what more can be done to accelerate the modernization of payment settlement engines