Committee on Payments and Market Infrastructures

Model Diplomat Research Team · Last reviewed June 22, 2026

TL;DR

A global standard-setter, hosted by the BIS, that promotes the safety and efficiency of payment, clearing, settlement, and related arrangements.
Is the CPMI the same as the old CPSS?
Are CPMI standards legally binding?
What is the PFMI?

Updated June 22, 2026

A global standard-setter, hosted by the BIS, that promotes the safety and efficiency of payment, clearing, settlement, and related arrangements.

Go beyond the definition

Research Committee on Payments and Market Infrastructures like a delegate

Model Diplomat's AI drafts position papers, speeches, and country research with real sources — built for MUN and politics students.

Research it like a delegate

Research on modeldiplomat.com

Ask a follow-up about Committee on Payments and Market Infrastructures

Open a cited briefing in Model Diplomat search — timelines, positions, and sources you can use in committee or exam answers.

Start research on Committee on Payments and Market Infrastructures

Example

In October 2020, the CPMI delivered the G20-endorsed roadmap for enhancing cross-border payments, coordinating with the FSB, IMF, and World Bank on implementation targets through 2027.

Keep learning

Go deeper than the definition

Explore all Economics & Trade lessons Test yourself with a quiz

Take Committee on Payments and Market Infrastructures beyond the glossary

Ask the AI research engine built for diplomacy — get briefings, position papers, and speeches with sources you can cite in committee.

Research it like a delegate

The Committee on Payments and Market Infrastructures (CPMI) is a committee of central banks hosted by the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) in Basel. It was created in its current form in September 2014, when the BIS renamed and broadened the mandate of the former Committee on Payment and Settlement Systems (CPSS), which itself had operated since 1990. The CPMI reports to the Global Economy Meeting of BIS central bank governors.

Its core function is to set international standards for payment systems, central counterparties (CCPs), central securities depositories, securities settlement systems, and trade repositories. The most influential CPMI output is the Principles for Financial Market Infrastructures (PFMI), issued jointly with IOSCO in April 2012, which now serves as the baseline framework that national regulators use to supervise systemically important financial market infrastructures.

CPMI work also covers:

Cross-border payments, where it leads the technical workstreams of the G20 Roadmap endorsed in October 2020 to make cross-border payments faster, cheaper, more transparent, and more inclusive.
Central bank digital currencies (CBDCs), including the 2020 joint report with seven central banks and the BIS on foundational principles.
Cyber resilience of FMIs, addressed in guidance issued jointly with IOSCO in June 2016.
Statistics on payments and FMIs, published annually in the Red Book.

Membership consists of central banks; as of the mid-2010s expansion it includes roughly two dozen jurisdictions spanning major advanced and emerging economies. The CPMI has no treaty-based legal authority — its standards are soft law — but its principles are typically incorporated into national law and into IMF/World Bank Financial Sector Assessment Programs (FSAPs), giving them strong de facto force.

For MUN and IR researchers, CPMI is the key venue for understanding how the plumbing of global finance is governed outside formal intergovernmental organizations.

Frequently asked questions

Is the CPMI the same as the old CPSS?

Effectively yes — the BIS renamed the Committee on Payment and Settlement Systems (CPSS) to CPMI in September 2014 and expanded its mandate to cover market infrastructures more broadly.

Are CPMI standards legally binding?

No. CPMI issues soft-law guidance, but its principles are routinely written into national legislation and assessed in IMF–World Bank Financial Sector Assessment Programs.

What is the PFMI?

The Principles for Financial Market Infrastructures, a 24-principle framework issued by CPSS-IOSCO in April 2012, is the global benchmark for regulating systemically important payment, clearing, and settlement systems.