A first-of-its-kind for this region, the transaction saw Credo Bank in Georgia and MDO Humo in Tajikistan settle the obligations resulting from two FX trades, Payment vs. Payment, and use the resulting funds to make two onward payments via the digital settlement service in a matter of seconds.

By enabling instantaneous movement of funds cross-border between banks, RTGS.global directly connects key market participants from individual countries into a global settlement network, creating seamless interoperability across borders and currencies. By transacting through the RTGS.global network, member banks realise significant liquidity benefits and streamline traditionally cumbersome cross-border settlement processes.

As part of the transaction, the RTGS.global settlement network facilitated a payment from Credo Bank to MDO Humo in TJS and from MDO Humo to Credo Bank in GEL. Using direct currency conversion between both currencies and executed near instantly, this further strengthens the market infrastructure’s ambition to connect banks in a global settlement network through seamless interoperability across borders and currencies.

This milestone closely follows RTGS.global announcing a number of pilot agreements with early adopters in rapidly-developing markets, with Alif Bank and Bank Arvand in Tajikistan, and Universal Capital Bank in Montenegro, joining MDO Humo and Credo Bank in running pilots. These further pilots will be scheduled for the first part of 2024.

“This is a significant moment for RTGS.global in demonstrating how instant atomic settlement can directly solve the historic and emerging challenges associated with cross-border payments and liquidity management”, said Marcus Treacher, Executive Chair at RTGS.global. “Successfully facilitating frictionless cross-border payments and settlements between two progressive institutions in rapidly growing markets serves as a powerful proof point for how instantaneous settlement has the potential to revolutionise the way money moves around the world, while driving financial inclusion.”

Ketevan Khomeriki, Product Development Manager at Credo Bank, added: “The speed at which transactions are settled through the RTGS.global network is truly impressive and reinforces our confidence in the platform. Its functionality aligns seamlessly with the requirements of commercial banks, providing user-friendly management options, real-time notifications for transaction progress, and the flexibility to review and edit transactions before approval.”

In response to the successful pilot, Firdavs Nuriddinzoda, Director of HumoLab, MDO Humo commented: “We are absolutely thrilled to have been part of this pilot transaction which has broken new ground in opening up the TJS/GEL corridor. This was not something that could have been imagined previously. This is a real milestone that now paves the way for more corridors to be added and I am looking forward to working with RTGS.global to continue to grow the network.”

The successful pilot also saw the first use of RTGS.global’s new screen-based application. Chief Product Officer, Dirk Cavens, commented: “Early in our engagement with smaller and medium sized institutions we identified the need to provide a means to benefit from RTGS.global without the immediate requirement for an extensive integration project. In collaboration with a specialist third party, we developed a highly configurable, secure and functionally-rich screen-based application, with operational users in both organisations requiring little time and training to familiarise themselves with its intuitive and fully auditable workflows to confidently execute their transactions. Based on recent feedback from within our participant community this application is now perceived by a wide range of institutions as a logical first step in their adoption of the RTGS.global service.”