South Korea’s central bank said Tuesday that is has decided to participate in the Group of 20’s roadmap on enhancing cross-border payments, focused on lowering the cost of the transactions.

According to the Bank of Korea, the G20 plans to carry out a set of 19 measures, including increased adoption of payment versus payment system, stronger cooperation among central banks for cross-border liquidity supply, connecting payment settlement systems among economies and development of a single multiple currency payment system and more.

The G20 Leaders’ Summit early last year acknowledged that lowering the cost and enhancing the speed, reliability, and transparency of cross-border payments as a key priority. Soon after, global financial bodies including the Bank for International Settlements and the Financial Stability Board rolled out the 19 measures to improve the payment system.

The cross-border payment system has remained “inefficient” despite the growth in global trade. The BOK said that the cost of cross-border payment is 10 times higher compared to domestic transactions and the job may even take a maximum of seven days.

The research part of the roadmap aims to be finalized by 2022 and the effects are expected to take place in all G20 and BIS member nations after that, the BOK noted. The roadmap itself aims to be completed by 2025.

“We believe an active preparation is necessary for South Korea to take part in the early development stage of the roadmap, as it is expected to extensively affect the nation’s payment market,” a BOK official said in a statement.

“For South Korea’s won to be included in the multiple currency payment system, the BOK plans to actively participate in the project,” the official added.

By Jung Min-kyung (mkjung@heraldcorp.com)