GLOBAL PAYMENTS KNOWLEDGEISO 20022 / SWIFT / SEPA / MT / MX
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GET IN TOUCH
CIPS (CROSS-BORDER RMB)

Waiting on the direct participant: a CIPS indirect-access delay

Trigger: An indirect participant's payment is missing information the onshore CIPS direct participant needs before it can submit to CIPS.

Contributor Shubham Mathure

What operations sees first: A cross-border RMB payment does not move immediately; it waits at the indirect-access layer until the direct participant has what CIPS requires.

WHERE IS THE MONEY?

Held at the indirect-access layer until the direct participant could submit; no settlement until then.

DID SETTLEMENT HAPPEN?

Settlement onshore between direct participants completed once the payment entered CIPS.

WHO ACTS NEXT?

Cassia Bank (CIPS direct participant) Bank Alfa ensures its RMB instructions carry the information its direct participant needs for CIPS.

PLAY THE EXCEPTION

Trigger: Cassia, the direct participant, finds the instruction is missing information CIPS requires from an onshore submission, so it cannot submit yet.

STEP 1 / 5MESSAGE

Bank Alfa sends the RMB instruction to its direct participant

Bank Alfa (payer's bank, CIPS indirect participant) → Cassia Bank (CIPS direct participant, onshore) · RMB payment instruction

Bank Alfa is an indirect participant abroad: it cannot submit to CIPS itself, so it sends the renminbi payment instruction for Asha Traders to Cassia Bank, the onshore CIPS direct participant it reaches the system through.

Ledger effect

  • DRAsha Traders' account at Bank Alfa — CNY 500,000.00

What can go wrong here

  • INFO The onshore direct participant is missing information CIPS requires

Step 1 of 5: Bank Alfa sends the RMB instruction to its direct participant

  1. 01Message
    Bank Alfa sends the RMB instruction to its direct participantBank Alfa (payer's bank, CIPS indirect participant) → Cassia Bank (CIPS direct participant, onshore) · RMB payment instruction
  2. 02 · EXCEPTION PATHProcessing
    Cassia holds the payment at the indirect-access layerCassia Bank (CIPS direct participant, onshore)
  3. 03 · EXCEPTION PATHMessage
    Cassia asks Bank Alfa for the missing detailCassia Bank (CIPS direct participant, onshore) → Bank Alfa (payer's bank, CIPS indirect participant) · Information request
  4. 04 · EXCEPTION PATHMessage
    Bank Alfa supplies what CIPS requiresBank Alfa (payer's bank, CIPS indirect participant) → Cassia Bank (CIPS direct participant, onshore) · Information response
  5. 05 · EXCEPTION PATHMessage
    Cassia submits the completed paymentCassia Bank (CIPS direct participant, onshore) → CIPS (Cross-border Interbank Payment System) · CIPS payment message
  6. OUTCOME
    Funds
    Held at Bank Alfa pending the missing detail, then submitted and delivered once resolved.
    Settlement
    Not yet settled while the information was outstanding; settles onshore after submission.
    Who acts next
    Cassia Bank (CIPS direct participant, onshore) — Bank Alfa records which onshore fields CIPS requires so future RMB instructions carry them and reach the direct participant complete.
Full step-by-step text (works without JavaScript)
  1. 01Message
    Bank Alfa sends the RMB instruction to its direct participantBank Alfa (payer's bank, CIPS indirect participant) → Cassia Bank (CIPS direct participant, onshore) · RMB payment instruction

    Bank Alfa is an indirect participant abroad: it cannot submit to CIPS itself, so it sends the renminbi payment instruction for Asha Traders to Cassia Bank, the onshore CIPS direct participant it reaches the system through.

    • DR Asha Traders' account at Bank Alfa — CNY 500,000.00
  2. 02 · EXCEPTION PATHProcessing
    Cassia holds the payment at the indirect-access layerCassia Bank (CIPS direct participant, onshore)

    Because Bank Alfa reaches CIPS only through Cassia, a gap in the data stops the payment here — the indirect participant depends entirely on its direct participant to enter the system.

  3. 03 · EXCEPTION PATHMessage
    Cassia asks Bank Alfa for the missing detailCassia Bank (CIPS direct participant, onshore) → Bank Alfa (payer's bank, CIPS indirect participant) · Information request

    Cassia asks Bank Alfa to supply the information CIPS needs — the kind of onshore data an indirect participant abroad may not include by default.

  4. 04 · EXCEPTION PATHMessage
    Bank Alfa supplies what CIPS requiresBank Alfa (payer's bank, CIPS indirect participant) → Cassia Bank (CIPS direct participant, onshore) · Information response

    Bank Alfa returns the missing information; a complete, well-formed instruction is what lets the direct participant submit into CIPS without further friction.

  5. 05 · EXCEPTION PATHMessage
    Cassia submits the completed paymentCassia Bank (CIPS direct participant, onshore) → CIPS (Cross-border Interbank Payment System) · CIPS payment message

    With the required detail in hand, Cassia submits the payment into CIPS and the flow rejoins the normal path toward onshore settlement and delivery.

  6. OUTCOME
    Funds
    Held at Bank Alfa pending the missing detail, then submitted and delivered once resolved.
    Settlement
    Not yet settled while the information was outstanding; settles onshore after submission.
    Who acts next
    Cassia Bank (CIPS direct participant, onshore) — Bank Alfa records which onshore fields CIPS requires so future RMB instructions carry them and reach the direct participant complete.

THE TIMELINE

  1. 01Bank Alfa (indirect participant)
    Sends an RMB payment instruction to Cassia Bank, its onshore CIPS direct participant.
  2. 02Cassia Bank (CIPS direct participant)
    Finds the instruction is missing information CIPS requires and holds it rather than submitting.

    An indirect participant depends on its direct participant for CIPS access; incomplete data stops the payment there.

  3. 03Bank Alfa
    Supplies the missing information to Cassia Bank.
  4. 04Cassia Bank
    Submits the completed payment into CIPS, which clears and settles it onshore under PBoC oversight.

Resolution: The delay is at the indirect-access layer, not a rejection. Once the direct participant has the required information, CIPS clears and settles the RMB payment onshore.

LEARN THE CONCEPTS

Sources for this scenario2
  1. Official requirement

    CIPS (Cross-border Interbank Payment System) ↗ — Cross-border Interbank Payment System (CIPS Co., Ltd.) · direct/indirect participants

    Describes CIPS, the Cross-border Interbank Payment System authorized and overseen by the Peoples Bank of China (launched 2015): a wholesale system specializing in RMB cross-border clearing and settlement between direct and indirect participants, using SWIFT and its own messaging, settling onshore through PBoC-approved arrangements, typically same-day or T+1. · Checked 2026-07-14

    CIPS clears and settles cross-border RMB; it uses SWIFT messaging alongside its own network and settles onshore under PBoC oversight.

  2. Simplified educational illustration

    Payments Signal editorial teaching models — Payments Signal

    This site's own simplified teaching models. · Checked 2026-07-12

    What this simplifies: Single-cycle teaching model; participant-specific handling and exact timings vary.

    Used wherever diagrams, scenarios, figures, or example values are didactic constructions rather than sourced facts; every such use carries a simplifications disclosure. All people, companies, banks, and list entries in examples are fictional.