Mauritius Proposes Financial Center as Cross-Border Payments Hub

Mauritius is proposing to develop its international financial center into a regional hub for cross-border payments, treasury operations and settlement services linking Africa, Asia and global markets.

Bank of Mauritius Governor Priscilla S. Muthoora Thakoor outlined the policy vision in a June 17, 2026, speech at Visa Direct Day in Flic-en-Flac, Mauritius. The proposal is aimed particularly at companies operating across Africa and would cover multi-currency collections, fund consolidation, centralized treasury operations, liquidity management, reconciliation and reporting.

“The Mauritius IFC can therefore act as a central node for cross-border payments, treasury management, and regional financial coordination,” Thakoor said.

The proposal comes as remittance costs in sub-Saharan Africa remain above the global average. The average cost of sending money to the region was 8.46% in the third quarter of 2025, compared with a global average of 6.36% across 358 payment corridors.

Thakoor called for links among domestic, regional and global payment networks, along with broader use of international messaging standards such as ISO 20022. Mauritius is also working to strengthen cooperation with African central banks, regional payment systems, multilateral institutions and private-sector operators.

The speech supported supervised experimentation involving central bank digital currencies, tokenized deposits, stable-value instruments and digital settlement frameworks. Thakoor said those efforts should include governance, legal certainty, cyber resilience and financial-integrity controls.

Mauritius’s Innovation Hub, Innov8, is intended to connect regulators, banks, fintech companies, technology providers, academics and other participants involved in payment innovation.

“The international policy direction should be clear: cross-border payments must become faster, cheaper, more transparent, and more inclusive, but never at the expense of safety and security,” Thakoor said.

The proposal describes a policy direction rather than an operating payment hub. It does not provide a specific settlement agreement, investment commitment, transaction volume, revenue projection, implementation timetable or named African counterparties.