Several credible efforts are rebuilding institutional settlement, and they are often grouped together because they share a purpose: faster, cheaper movement of value between institutions. They are not the same thing. Mapping them helps explain why a neutral hub is a different proposition rather than a competing version of the same one.

The institutional settlement projects

  • Partior — a settlement initiative involving JPMorgan, DBS and Standard Chartered.
  • Kinexys — JPMorgan's own settlement effort.
  • BIS Nexus — a Bank for International Settlements project to connect instant payment systems.
  • BIS Project Agorá — a Bank for International Settlements exploration of tokenised settlement with a group of institutions.

Each addresses a real constraint. Some focus on the ledger, some on interoperability between domestic schemes, some on tokenised money. They sit largely within or around the institutions that sponsor them.

How a neutral hub differs

SUPA is designed as an infrastructure and protocol layer for the cross-border movement of value, and it is deliberately neutral: it does not compete with participants for their clients. Clients stay clients of their own bank or fintech.

The design reverses the familiar direction. A hub holds correspondent accounts for institutions rather than each institution opening accounts everywhere. On joining, participants sign one multilateral reliance agreement built on FATF Recommendation 17, which fixes responsibility, the data that must accompany each operation, access to documents, and minimum KYC/KYB standards. Approved operations enter a single order book, offsetting flows cancel internally, and the remainder is routed by AI across hub participants, card networks, local instant payments, SWIFT, stablecoins and agent protocols.

Why the distinction matters

Sponsor-led projects tend to optimise within an existing perimeter. A neutral hub asks a prior question: which layer connects protocols, rails and institutions, who governs it, and how trust is established between institutions that are also competitors. That is an architectural question, and its answer determines whether the network can be joined rather than owned.

SUPA is not yet a bank. Before a banking licence it does not take deposits or hold client money in its own name; balances sit with licensed partners. This content is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice.

In short

  • Partior, Kinexys, Nexus and Agorá each address settlement from inside or around institutions.
  • A neutral hub holds correspondent accounts for institutions.
  • Clients remain clients of their own institution.
  • One multilateral reliance agreement replaces many bilateral ones.
  • Netting and AI routing sit at the centre of the design.

Compare the architecture with the alternatives at /protocol/.