Committee on Payments and Market Infrastructures (CPMI)
The Committee on Payments and Market Infrastructures (CPMI) is the international standard-setter for payment, clearing and settlement systems. Hosted by the BIS, it brings together central banks to promote the safety and efficiency of the infrastructure that moves money.
Also called: CPMI · CPSS · Committee on Payment and Settlement Systems
The committee began in 1990 as the Committee on Payment and Settlement Systems and took its current name in 2014. Its members are senior officials from central banks that operate or oversee major payment systems.
Its best-known work is the Principles for Financial Market Infrastructures, published with the securities regulators' body IOSCO in 2012. The 24 principles cover legal basis, governance, credit and liquidity risk, settlement finality, settlement in central bank money, and access. Central banks use them to oversee RTGS systems, clearing houses and securities settlement systems.
The CPMI also leads the technical work on the G20 programme to make cross-border payments faster, cheaper and more transparent, including harmonised ISO 20022 messaging, longer operating hours for settlement systems and the linking of fast-payment systems. Its reports on settlement risk in foreign exchange and on stablecoin arrangements are standard references.
Commonly confused with
| Term | How it differs |
|---|---|
| Basel Committee | The Basel Committee sets rules for banks as institutions. The CPMI sets standards for the systems through which payments and securities are cleared and settled. |
See also
- Bank for International SettlementsThe Bank for International Settlements (BIS) is an international institution in Basel, owned by central banks, that provides banking services to them and hosts the committees that write global standards for bank capital and payment infrastructure.
- Payment FinalityPayment finality is the point at which a transfer of funds becomes irrevocable and unconditional: it cannot be recalled by the sender, reversed by the system or unwound if a participant becomes insolvent. Before that point a payment is still a promise.
- Settlement RiskSettlement risk is the risk that a payment or trade does not complete as expected because a party fails to deliver what it owes, on time or at all, after its counterparty has already performed.
- RTGSRTGS stands for real-time gross settlement: a system that settles each payment individually and finally in central bank money, rather than offsetting many payments against each other and settling only the difference at the end of a cycle.
- Basel Committee on Banking SupervisionThe Basel Committee on Banking Supervision (BCBS) is the global standard-setter for the prudential regulation of banks. Hosted by the BIS, it writes the Basel framework on capital, liquidity and leverage that national regulators then put into law.