These enhancements could reduce barriers to trade: cutting transaction costs on international trade just by one percentage point would save firms $ in Africa alone. And with a focus on remittances as well as wholesale and retail payments, ultimately improve financial inclusion and help to alleviate poverty. That is what I call a worthwhile vision! Enhancing cross-border payments has been an objective for many decades. What is different now is that we have a clear vision, targets and a holistic approach on how to address the disparate set of underlying frictions. And the work is taking place at a time of rapid innovation in the payments industry and national payment systems, creating an opportunity to build on existing change programmes. Cross-border payments are high on the agenda for public policymakers and financial institutions. A lot has been achieved recently through the collaborative effort of authorities worldwide, including of many of you here today. We have developed frameworks on operating hours and access policies to support public authorities to enhance their domestic systems and increase interoperability. We have consulted on harmonisation requirements to ensure that the  Page 3  new ISO20022 standards are used consistently around the globe. We have identified specific regulatory and legal barriers to seamless payment processing and proposed solutions. CPMI has recently published a set of recommendations[4] to improve adoption of risk-free PvP settlement in foreign exchange markets. Central banks and the private sector have successfully tested cuttingedge technologies for cross-border payments through BIS Innovation Hubs.
Banks worldwide spend over $ a year on financial crime compliance: enriched data is an important ingredient in getting this number to drop. ISO 20022 provides a common language for financial transactions that allows for richer and more structured data. However, making the most of it requires consistent adoption across jurisdictions and using it to transmit a wider set of information than legacy payment messages. Limited or inconsistent uptake could lead to fragmentation. There is no point for me to include a code for the purpose of my payment if my South African counterpart was using a different set of codes. To establish a basic level of consistency, the Joint Task Force of the CPMI and Payments Market Practice Group have consulted on harmonising requirements for enhancing crossborder payments. [15] They received an excellent response and will be announcing the results in the autumn. Another important dimension is the harmonisation of Application Programming Interfaces (APIs). Almost two-thirds of the payment systems surveyed by CPMI[16] already offer APIs to their participants. In the UK, our renewed RTGS has this month enabled its first API, with a full-fledged suite of APIs due to be delivered next year. APIs make it easier for payment systems and their participants to exchange data. The number of potential applications is vast. But to deliver real benefits these potential use cases rely on harmonised API standards. The CPMI is convening an industry panel of API Experts (APEX) from private and public sectors, to develop recommendations on the strategic direction for the industry.