Articles by Central Banking staff
Payments Benchmarks 2026 Charts
Take a deep dive into the Payments Benchmarks charts, which have just been released for 2026
Central banks laying ground for multi-currency settlement
Africa leads as region with most RTGS systems able to settle multiple currencies
Over 70% of jurisdictions now have an instant payments system
Nearly a fifth of central banks plan to launch a system in the future
AML/CFT seen as biggest barrier to improving cross-border payments
All African central banks say AML/CFT compliance is a major challenge
Three in 10 instant payment systems built in-house
Montran is most widely-used commercial partner for development
One in five central banks regulates stablecoins
Most respondents are indifferent on use of stablecoins for payment
People: April to June 2026
A round-up of central bankers in the news and on the move during the past three months
Banknotes: April to June 2026
A round-up of news and salient issues that have affected central bankers in the past three months
Number of unplanned outages in RTGS systems doubles
Central banks with longest average downtime typically plan to upgrade system within a year
Two-thirds of RTGS systems now aligned with ISO 20022
Over 80% of central banks aligned with CPMI harmonised standards
RTGS systems with broader hours accessed by more financial firms
Number of non-banks with RTGS systems access doubles year on year
RTGS systems’ running costs linked to operational hours
Two-thirds of infrastructure still operational for 7–12 hours daily
RTGS systems process nearly 200 million payments on average
Transaction values average $11.6 trillion among respondents