International Advisory Group for Government Payments

Posted by Rahul Kitchlu

Government payments play a critical role in the development of a national payment system given their scale and volume and the positive role they play in facilitating economic growth and innovation in the underlying retail payments infrastructure. The Payment Systems Development Group (PSDG) of the World Bank has convened an International Advisory Group (IAG) with a central mandate of supporting member governments improve efficiency of their national payment systems.

The objective of the IAG is to lead the development of an evidence based guidance framework for government payments that would provide guidelines on the design and implementation of such programs including the respective roles of public authorities and the private sector entities. The core members of the IAG comprise of representatives from the World Bank Group, other multilateral agencies and interested governmental authorities from member countries as well as other nongovernmental and private sector agencies. 

 
The IAG is chaired by the Massimo Cirasino, the Head of PSDG at the World Bank and the IAG Secretariat includes Hemant Baijal and Rahul Kitchlu also of the WB PSDG. The main functions of the IAG are:

• Host and steer the overall process
• Set priorities for potential focus areas
• Discuss and prepare the key documents and deliverables
• Ensure visibility and awareness of the issues related to government payments globally

More Details: http://www.worldbank.org/paymentsystems/iag

Note: The posts on the IMF PFM Blog should not be reported as representing the views of the IMF. The views expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of the IMF or IMF policy.