Pacific Strengthening Correspondent Banking Relationships Project: Detailed assessment to inform the design of a payment aggregation mechanism to improve economies of scale

Objectives: The primary objective of the Pacific Strengthening Correspondent Banking Relationships Project is to enable continuous access to correspondent banking services for Pacific Island Countries by undertaking a feasibility study for the Pacific Payment Mechanism (PPM). The project aims to provide stable, self-sustaining solutions for market-based provision of CBRs, ensuring cheaper, faster, accessible, and transparent cross-border payments. It seeks to alleviate the pressure of low CBR profitability and economies of scale by consolidating CBRs and aggregating transaction processing, facilitating ongoing access to settlement accounts, and implementing centralized tools to enhance AML/CFT compliance. The project also plans to provide technical assistance to participating financial institutions.