• Comprehensive review of legislative and regulatory regimes on cross-border payments within SAR: Conduct a comprehensive review of the legislations and regulatory frameworks in the select SAR countries that govern the establishment; operations and oversight of a) Cross-border payments; including licensing requirements; b) Banks and Non-Bank institutions vis a vis their authority and role in payment systems; c) Access to payment systems and banking services for foreign financial institutions; d) Foreign exchange management operations and restrictions; including controls on capital outflows/inflows e) Data storage; privacy; protection and messaging standards; f) Applicable fees and charges for domestic and cross-border payments; and g) Financial identification and compliance with anti-money laundering and counter-financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) measures. • Review of global best practices for benchmarking a SAR regulatory framework: Review and analyze global best practices on regulatory reforms and recommend appropriate frameworks suitable to ensure regulatory alignment for cross-border payments within select SAR countries. This regulatory framework is envisaged to serve as a minimum benchmark that can guide countries within SAR to ensure alignment and coherence within their regulatory frameworks. • Identification of Policy Gaps and Capacity Constraints: Assess the existing policy and regulatory gaps and inherent capacity constraints in countries within the select SAR countries against the common minimum benchmark for multilateral cross-order payments. The assessment should also capture incremental policy and regulatory gaps that are relevant but not captured by the common minimum framework. • Institutional mapping of key stakeholders: Map the institutions responsible within the select SAR countries that govern the cross-border payments with their current and/or envisaged roles and responsibilities towards a multilateral regulatory framework for cross-border payments within SAR. • Experience on regional co-operation initiatives in SAR: Review examples of regional co-operation initiatives in other key sectors such as energy; transport; trade among others within select SAR countries. Document and examine how such initiatives addressed differences in legal and regulatory frameworks to identify effective strategies and best practices that can serve as useful reference to guide regional cooperation for effective cross-border payments within SAR. • Recommend a regulatory reform roadmap: The reform roadmap should outline the regulatory initiatives to be undertaken at the select SAR countries spanning across the short; medium; and long term. The recommended roadmap should review and analyze learning from other similar initiatives across other regions and in compliance with the requirements of the international best practices. Additionally; the recommendation should also analyze the types of payment mechanisms used across these countries; the users’ profile categories; challenges faced during transactions; and evaluate the associated costs and time taken by different cross-border payment mechanisms before firming up a reform roadmap. The roadmap should be able to answer the following key aspects: (i) whether there is a legal impediment to implementing more efficient cross-border payment arrangements like a regional platform; (ii) are there any specific regulatory barriers preventing development of efficient cross-border payment arrangements; (iii) how can these impediments be addressed and how have other regional initiatives handled them (such as Project Nexus and Pan-African System); (iv) what could be the different options and for each option which potential cross-border payment arrangements could be feasible for SAR. Outputs of the proposed study: • Interim Presentation (End of First Month): A comprehensive PowerPoint presentation outlining the key findings; preliminary analysis; and initial recommendations. This presentation will encompass a) The preliminary review of the legislative and regulatory frameworks; b) Review of global best practices and identification of a common benchmark; c) identification of key stakeholders in cross-border payments and d) summary of policy gaps and capacity constraints within the countries in the SAR.• Final Report (End of Two Months): A detailed report consolidating the findings; analysis; and comprehensive recommendations based on the study's outcomes. This report will encompass all aspects covered in the interim presentation; further elaborated; and refined based on additional analysis and inputs provided by the World Bank. This report should clearly outline specific regulatory and policy changes which should be implemented in the five countries covered under the study to ensure synchronization of laws/regulations; movement towards global standards; and facilitate the set up of an integrated cross-border payment system. These policy/regulatory measures should also be ideated at the presentation stage. The study is expected to be conducted within a maximum period of two months from the initiation date.