Greek Central Banker Urges Interoperable Cross-Border Payments

Bank of Greece Deputy Governor Christina Papaconstantinou urged central banks to keep cross-border payment systems interoperable as they weigh upgrades to existing networks against infrastructure for tokenized wholesale markets. At a Mediterranean central banks conference in Roda de Berà, Spain, on Oct. 2, Papaconstantinou said those choices should reflect users’ needs, the limits of current systems and the benefits a new approach could deliver. She pointed to TARGET Instant Payment Settlement (TIPS) and the Eurosystem’s Appia initiative as examples of the two approaches. TIPS settles instant payments in central bank money.