Nexus allows payments to be addressed using any details that are valid in the Recipient’s country. These could include:
International Bank Account Numbers (IBAN) (where used)
Account Identification (account numbers) alongside a Financial Institution Identification (such as BIC or a non-BIC Clearing System Member Id)
Proxies such as mobile phone number, email address or company registration number.
Nexus maintains a record of which payment address types are available in each country and provides this information to PSPs through the GET /countries/{countryCode}/addressTypes API operation.
Nexus will not provide its own proxy service or proxy format; users cannot register with Nexus to create a global “Nexus ID’.
Nexus does not maintain its own directory of proxies and associated accounts.
Proxies are the preferred way to address Nexus payments, as they are more user friendly and easier to enter on a mobile device. But Nexus will always support IBAN (where accepted) and Account Identifiers as well.
For Senders and Recipients of Nexus payments, the use of proxies improves the user experience:
Easier to share details: It is usually easier for the Recipient to share (for example) a phone number or email address than either (a) a Financial Institution Identification and Account Identification, or (b) an International Bank Account Number (which can be 20-32 characters).
Reduces sharing of sensitive data: A payment can be addressed to the Recipient without the Recipient having to share sensitive personal details, such as their home address, or reveal where they hold their accounts.
Provides confirmation of payee: Proxy directories typically provide some way of confirming the identity of the payee, for example, by returning the real verified name of the account holder (as provided by the account holder’s PSP). This helps to give the Sender confidence that they are sending funds to the correct account, as well providing a defence against fraud.
Proxy directories are not available in all countries or payment communities. Whether or not a proxy service is available, Nexus still allows payments to be addressed using IBAN (where accepted) and/or Account Identifications.
A country that does not have a proxy directory domestically is still permitted to send Nexus payments using the proxies available in the Destination Country.
Where proxies are not available, a payment can be addressed using either (a) International Bank Account Numbers (IBAN) or (b) local account numbers alongside a financial institution ID.
Nexus supports addressing by International Bank Account Numbers (IBAN) whenever the Destination Country accepts IBAN. IBAN is accepted in around 78 countries, but is not accepted in many major markets (such as Canada, Hong Kong, India, Singapore, and the USA).
IBANs are not accepted in India, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand.
Nexus also allows payments to be addressed using an Account Identification (commonly called “account numbers”) and a Financial Institution Identification (such as a Business Identifier Code, BIC or a non-BIC Clearing System Member Id). Nexus is aware of the format of the Account Identification and Financial Institution Identification.
Account Identifications can vary significantly in format and length from country to country. In some countries, all Account Identifications have a fixed length, but in other countries the Account Identification can vary in length depending on the financial institution.
The ISO 20022 standard permits three types of Financial Institution Identification:
Business Identifier Code (BIC) (most commonly used)
Legal Entity Identifier (LEI)
A domestic Clearing System Member Identification.
In some countries, financial institutions may have both a BIC and a Clearing System Member Identification, although only one or the other needs to be used in a specific payment instruction.
LEI can be used in addition to BIC or Clearing System Member Identification to provide further information about the financial institution. This can be useful to support compliance checks and sanctions screening.
Some IPSs issue non-bank PSPs with an identifier that follows the formatting of BIC but is not registered with Swift (the registration authority). This means that the locally-generated “pseudoBICs” are not included in the Swift database that some PSPs use to validate BICs before sending payments. Consequently, some PSPs may not be able to make payments to PSPs with non-registered pseudoBICs.
It is better to register these locally generated codes with Swift, so that they always validate correctly.
In many countries with instant payment systems (IPSs), payments can be addressed using “proxies” (or “aliases") in place of Account Identifications. A proxy (or alias) is any string of text that can be linked to a specific bank account. Commonly accepted proxies include:
Mobile phone numbers
Email addresses
National ID numbers
Company incorporation numbers
Nexus allows cross-border payments to be addressed using proxies. In principle, any proxy that is valid for domestic payments should also be valid for Nexus payments. (This is dependent on the relevant proxy service provider being onboarded and connected to Nexus.)
This guide assumes that each Instant Payment System has one – and only one – corresponding proxy directory. This is the case in most countries. However, in the euro area and the USA there may be multiple IPSs and multiple (often competing) proxy directories. This raises a number of complications that will be addressed in a future phase of development.
Different countries support different types of proxies. The table below shows some examples.
COUNTRY
PROXY SCHEME
PROXIES
NOTES
Australia
PayId
Phone number
Registered business number
Addressing service provided by IPS operator (the New Payments Platform).
India
Unified Payments Interface (UPI)
Mobile number
Virtual Payment Address (UPI ID),
Aadhaar ID (non-mandatory national identity number)
UPI ID has the format name@BankName or mobilenumber@BankName. Only the bank is able to map the name element to a specific account; the IPS operator does not have this information.
Indonesia
BI-FAST
Mobile Number
Email Address
Malaysia
DuitNow
Mobile phone number
Business registration number
National ID number
Passport Number
Army Number / Police Number
The majority of account holders have linked their phone number to an account.
Philippines
InstaPay
Mobile Number
Email Address
Singapore
PayNow
Mobile phone number
Unique Entity Number for corporations
National ID number
Virtual payment address
Significant adoption. Also used for payments from individuals to smaller businesses and some larger e-commerce sites (eg Shopee)
Sweden
Swish
Mobile phone number
High adoption: the majority of Swedish adults are registered with Swish
Thailand
PromptPay
Mobile Number
National ID
Biller Id
Corporate Tax Id
Ewallet ID
UK
PayM
Mobile phone number
Service was shut down in March 2023 due to poor adoption