Nick Ogden, Microsoft launch new network for cross-border payments

RTGS Global, a global cross-border liquidity network, together with Microsoft have developed a new system which enables banks to gain visibility of liquidity between their counterparties.

Built on Microsoft Azure, RTGS.global promises to overhaul the machinery of correspondent banking, according to the official press release. The network safeguards existing commercial banking relationships but will change the way they work – in many cases moving from what today still involves manual processing – to one that enables a new level of customer service to be delivered. The announcement marks the launch of Stage one of the system’s operational rollout.

RTGS Global is the brainchild of Nick Ogden, fintech entrepreneur and founder of WorldPay and ClearBank. RTGS Global enables settlement across both commercial and central banks, authenticating the exchange of funds between banks based on the real-time availability of liquidity. Through its patent pending Liquidity Lock, Lock and Block system, RTGS Global locks available liquidity at two counterparty banks, before sending a Liquidity Block message to complete the transaction. This whole process can take just 50 milliseconds to complete, enabling real-time, bilateral settlement of funds.

The announcement comes in parallel to a move by the G20, under the 2020 Saudi Arabian Presidency, to make cross-border payments a priority in recognition of the widespread benefits for global citizens and economies, that will result from ‘faster, cheaper, more transparent and more inclusive cross border payments’.