Glossary term
Committee on Payments and Market Infrastructures (CPMI)
The Committee on Payments and Market Infrastructures is a BIS-hosted central-bank committee focused on payment, clearing, settlement, and market-infrastructure safety.
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What Is the Committee on Payments and Market Infrastructures?
The Committee on Payments and Market Infrastructures (CPMI) is a committee hosted by the Bank for International Settlements that focuses on payment, clearing, settlement, and financial market infrastructure. It brings central banks together to promote safe and efficient systems for moving money, securities, and financial obligations.
CPMI is the current name for the committee formerly known as the Committee on Payment and Settlement Systems. The name changed in 2014 to reflect a broader focus on modern market infrastructure.
Key Takeaways
- CPMI is a BIS-hosted central-bank committee.
- It focuses on payment systems and financial market infrastructures.
- Its work covers payment, clearing, settlement, central counterparties, securities depositories, and related systems.
- It matters because weak market plumbing can transmit financial stress.
- CPMI is the successor name to CPSS.
What CPMI Does
CPMI studies and sets expectations for the infrastructure that allows financial markets to function. That infrastructure includes large-value payment systems, retail payment systems, securities settlement systems, central securities depositories, central counterparties, and other arrangements that sit behind transactions.
The committee does not function like a retail regulator for consumers. Its work is higher-level and system-focused. It helps central banks coordinate on standards, principles, monitoring, and policy analysis so that payment and settlement systems remain reliable under stress.
Financial Stability Role
Payment and settlement systems are easy to ignore until they fail. A bond trade, card payment, securities transfer, derivatives margin call, or interbank payment depends on rules for timing, finality, liquidity, and operational continuity. If those rules are weak, a problem at one institution can spread through counterparties and markets.
CPMI's work therefore supports the confidence that money and securities will move as expected. That confidence lowers friction, supports liquidity, and reduces the chance that operational or settlement failures become systemic events.
Infrastructure CPMI Watches
Infrastructure | Financial role |
|---|---|
Payment systems | Move money among participants. |
Central securities depositories | Hold and transfer securities records. |
Securities settlement systems | Complete trades after execution. |
Central counterparties | Stand between buyers and sellers to manage clearing risk. |
Trade repositories | Collect and maintain transaction data. |
CPMI Versus CPSS
CPSS is the older name. CPMI is the current name. Older documents, standards, and papers may still refer to CPSS, especially when discussing payment and settlement systems before the 2014 renaming. Modern references usually use CPMI.
The continuity matters more than the label. Both names point to central-bank attention on the infrastructure that supports payment finality, settlement reliability, and market resilience.
How to Read CPMI References
CPMI references often appear in central-bank speeches, payment-system standards, market-infrastructure reports, and settlement-risk discussions. The language can sound technical, but the practical question is simple: can the system complete transactions safely when volume is high, participants are stressed, or technology fails?
That question affects more than banks. Securities settlement, card networks, real-time payments, collateral movement, and cross-border transfers all depend on resilient infrastructure. CPMI work helps define the expectations behind that resilience.
CPMI is also important when new payment technology appears. Faster payments, tokenized settlement, stablecoin arrangements, and cross-border payment improvements all raise the same core questions: who bears risk, when is payment final, what happens if a participant fails, and how resilient is the system under stress?
That is why CPMI work often feels distant from everyday banking but still affects it. The reliability of payment apps, brokerage settlement, cash management, and institutional funding depends on standards that keep the underlying infrastructure orderly.
The Bottom Line
CPMI is a central-bank committee focused on the systems that move money and settle financial obligations. It matters because safe payment, clearing, and settlement infrastructure is a quiet foundation of banking, securities markets, and financial stability.