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Modelling Full Interoperability of International Payment Systems: Towards a Unified Framework for Global Financial Infrastructure

Received: 25 August 2026     Accepted: 7 September 2026     Published: 20 September 2026
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Abstract

Interoperability has long been a central issue for payment systems, which are sometimes siloed and operate in parallel. International payment systems form the backbone of the global economy, but their technical, regulatory, and protocol fragmentation creates costly frictions, latencies, and systemic vulnerabilities. Through the auspices of the BIS, several initiatives have been launched to ensure smooth and inexpensive processing of cross-border payments, with outcomes that are more or less successful. The same is true at the level of economically and monetarily integrated regions, such as the SEPA, or sometimes for regions which are intentionally open to free trade, such as ASEAN and AfCFTA, more recently. Whereas existing studies often focus on only one aspect, this paper proposes a formal modeling framework for full interoperability—the ability for any payment system to interact natively with any other system, regardless of jurisdiction, underlying technology, or governance model. We introduce a reference architecture based on three layers—protocol, semantics and governance—and demonstrate how communicating automata modeling and shared ontology allow to describe, verify and implement real interoperability. Our simulations show that full interoperability would reduce cross-border transaction costs by 40-60% and settlement times from days to minutes, while enhancing the resilience of the overall financial system.

Published in International Journal of Economics, Finance and Management Sciences (Volume 14, Issue 5)
DOI 10.11648/j.ijefm.20261405.19
Page(s) 383-392
Creative Commons

This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.

Copyright

Copyright © The Author(s), 2026. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

Interoperability, Payment Systems, Formal Modeling, Financial Standards, Settlement Protocols, Critical Infrastructure

References
[1] Auer, R., Cornelli, G., & Frost, J. (2020). Rise of the central bank digital currencies: drivers, approaches and technologies. BIS Working Papers, No 880.
[2] BIS (2021). Interoperability between payment systems across borders. BIS bulletin, No 49. Accessed august 10, 2026.
[3] BIS (2022). Project Dunbar: International settlements using multi-CBDCs. BIS Innovation Hub, March 2022.
[4] BIS (2022). Project mBridge: connecting economies through CBDC. BIS Innovation Hub, October 2022.
[5] BIS (2024). Project Nexus: enabling instant cross-border payments. BIS Innovation Hub, July 2024.
[6] Brownsword, A. (2004). Interoperability as a Policy Objective. In: Digital Rights Management. Springer.
[7] Catalini, C., & Gans, J. S. (2019). Some simple economics of the blockchain. Communications of the ACM, 63(7), 80-83. Accessed July 8, 2026.
[8] Committee on Payments and Market Infrastructures (CPMI). (2020). Enhancing cross-border payments: building blocks of a global roadmap. Bank for International Settlements. Accessed August 12, 2026.
[9] European Central Bank (2014). SEPA Migration Report.
[10] GBF (2024). BIS to leave cross border payments platform project mbridge. Global Banking & Finance Review. Accessed August 18, 2026.
[11] G20 Technical Roadmap. (2020). Enhancing Cross-border Payments. Financial Stability Board.
[12] Holzmann, G. J. (2004). The SPIN Model Checker: Primer and Reference Manual. Addison-Wesley.
[13] IMF (1989). The role of central banks: ensuring long-term price stability and the health of financial systems are important tasks. A view from the IMF. Finance & Development, December 1989.
[14] ISO 20022. (2019). Universal financial industry message scheme. ISO Standard.
[15] Kahn, C. M., & Roberds, W. (2009). Why pay? An introduction to payments economics. Journal of Financial Intermediation, 18(1), 1-23.
[16] Katz, M., & Shapiro, C. (1985). Network Externalities, Competition, and Compatibility. The American Economic Review Vol. 75, No. 3 (Jun., 1985), pp. 424-440 (17 pages).
[17] Lamport, L., Shostak, R., & Pease, M. (1982). The Byzantine Generals Problem. ACM Transactions on Programming Languages and Systems, 4(3), 382-401. Accessed august 12, 2026.
[18] Paillés, JC. (2003). Les Systèmes de Paiement électronique sur Internet. Les Cahiers du numérique 2003/1 Vol. 4, 45-59.
[19] PAPSS (2026). PAPSS Payment Network Coverage report, June 2026-5.
[20] Reserve Bank of India (2021). Unified Payments Interface (UPI) adoption study.
[21] Sheth, A. P., & Larson, J. A. (1990). Federated database systems for managing distributed, heterogeneous, and autonomous databases. ACM Computing Surveys, 22(3), 183-236. Accessed August 04, 2026.
[22] Williamson, O. E. (1981). The Economics of Organization: The Transaction Cost Approach. American Journal of Sociology Vol. 87, No. 3 (Nov., 1981), pp. 548-577 (30 pages).
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  • APA Style

    Martial, K. A. A. (2026). Modelling Full Interoperability of International Payment Systems: Towards a Unified Framework for Global Financial Infrastructure. International Journal of Economics, Finance and Management Sciences, 14(5), 383-392. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijefm.20261405.19

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    ACS Style

    Martial, K. A. A. Modelling Full Interoperability of International Payment Systems: Towards a Unified Framework for Global Financial Infrastructure. Int. J. Econ. Finance Manag. Sci. 2026, 14(5), 383-392. doi: 10.11648/j.ijefm.20261405.19

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    AMA Style

    Martial KAA. Modelling Full Interoperability of International Payment Systems: Towards a Unified Framework for Global Financial Infrastructure. Int J Econ Finance Manag Sci. 2026;14(5):383-392. doi: 10.11648/j.ijefm.20261405.19

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  • @article{10.11648/j.ijefm.20261405.19,
      author = {Kengne Assomo Aubin Martial},
      title = {Modelling Full Interoperability of International Payment Systems: Towards a Unified Framework for Global Financial Infrastructure},
      journal = {International Journal of Economics, Finance and Management Sciences},
      volume = {14},
      number = {5},
      pages = {383-392},
      doi = {10.11648/j.ijefm.20261405.19},
      url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijefm.20261405.19},
      eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ijefm.20261405.19},
      abstract = {Interoperability has long been a central issue for payment systems, which are sometimes siloed and operate in parallel. International payment systems form the backbone of the global economy, but their technical, regulatory, and protocol fragmentation creates costly frictions, latencies, and systemic vulnerabilities. Through the auspices of the BIS, several initiatives have been launched to ensure smooth and inexpensive processing of cross-border payments, with outcomes that are more or less successful. The same is true at the level of economically and monetarily integrated regions, such as the SEPA, or sometimes for regions which are intentionally open to free trade, such as ASEAN and AfCFTA, more recently. Whereas existing studies often focus on only one aspect, this paper proposes a formal modeling framework for full interoperability—the ability for any payment system to interact natively with any other system, regardless of jurisdiction, underlying technology, or governance model. We introduce a reference architecture based on three layers—protocol, semantics and governance—and demonstrate how communicating automata modeling and shared ontology allow to describe, verify and implement real interoperability. Our simulations show that full interoperability would reduce cross-border transaction costs by 40-60% and settlement times from days to minutes, while enhancing the resilience of the overall financial system.},
     year = {2026}
    }
    

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    AB  - Interoperability has long been a central issue for payment systems, which are sometimes siloed and operate in parallel. International payment systems form the backbone of the global economy, but their technical, regulatory, and protocol fragmentation creates costly frictions, latencies, and systemic vulnerabilities. Through the auspices of the BIS, several initiatives have been launched to ensure smooth and inexpensive processing of cross-border payments, with outcomes that are more or less successful. The same is true at the level of economically and monetarily integrated regions, such as the SEPA, or sometimes for regions which are intentionally open to free trade, such as ASEAN and AfCFTA, more recently. Whereas existing studies often focus on only one aspect, this paper proposes a formal modeling framework for full interoperability—the ability for any payment system to interact natively with any other system, regardless of jurisdiction, underlying technology, or governance model. We introduce a reference architecture based on three layers—protocol, semantics and governance—and demonstrate how communicating automata modeling and shared ontology allow to describe, verify and implement real interoperability. Our simulations show that full interoperability would reduce cross-border transaction costs by 40-60% and settlement times from days to minutes, while enhancing the resilience of the overall financial system.
    VL  - 14
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