Cross-border payments are finally getting the overhaul that businesses (of all sizes) have wanted for a decade.

While trillions still move daily over aging infrastructure — a new stack built on faster networks, richer data standards, tokenization, and fiat-backed stablecoins is impacting speed, cost, and transparency in this sector.

In this report, we break down how international payment rails are evolving, who’s competing to move money globally, and why the next wave of innovation will be as much about data and compliance as it is about chains and coins.

Legacy Rails: How We Got Here — and Why It’s Changing

For decades, cross-border payments have relied on correspondent banking — a framework of banks passing messages across borders via SWIFT, reconciling accounts in hours or days.

It’s durable, compliant, and globally connected — but it’s also complex and costly for numerous use cases.

To understand where the industry is going, it helps to review how this legacy stack and why works the way it does.

The correspondent model and SWIFT MT messages

In the simplest terms, the classic model is essentially a relay.

A payer’s bank sends a message to an intermediary (or two), which then passes it to a beneficiary bank. Along the way, fees, FX spreads, cut-off times, and compliance checks add time and complexity.

Historically these messages were “MT-format” SWIFT messages — concise but very limited in structure — so data is often truncated, fueling errors and manual investigations.

That’s why the (current) global push to ISO 20022 is critical.

ISO 20022 introduces richer, structured data fields — able to define precise payer/beneficiary data, purpose codes, invoice references. The result will improve sanctions screening, reconciliation, and automation.

The SWIFT community confirmed November 2025 as the end of the MT/ISO 20022 coexistence period for cross-border — creating a hard deadline for the industry.

SWIFT gpi: faster, trackable payments over existing rails

SWIFT gpi (Global Payments Innovation) boosted transparency by assigning a unique transaction ID and tracking status (like a parcel).

With gpi, payments that could take several days can clear much faster, with standardized tracking that reduces exceptions, support tickets, and manual reviews.

The policy push: speed, cost, access, transparency

Separately, public-sector demand is increasing.

The G20 Roadmap for Enhancing Cross-Border Payments set concrete targets and moved the conversation from analysis to jurisdiction-level implementation — specifically, addressing interlinking instant-payment systems, extending operating hours, harmonizing ISO 20022 data, and aligning AML/CFT.

The CPMI’s current work program emphasizes moving from testing to deployment — an important signal for banks and payment providers planning their technology roadmaps.

The enduring pain points

Despite recent progress, average consumer remittance costs remain above the UN’s 3% target.

The World Bank’s latest tracking still puts the global average above 6% for a typical $200 transfer — proof that retail corridors, compliance overhead, and FX fragmentation still cause friction.

Legacy rails aren’t going away soon, but they are being upgraded. ISO 20022 and gpi are making old pipes smarter, while policy pushes are expanding operating hours and linking instant systems.

But for many B2B use cases, “faster MT” isn’t enough — cheaper, programmable, real-time, end-to-end options are needed.

The Market Today: Providers, Use Cases, and What Buyers Actually Value

The provider landscape is saturated more than ever — filled with card networks, banks, FX vendors, FinTech players, and crypto-native newcomers.

The right choice depends on corridor mix, ticket size, speed requirements, and compliance risk.

From enterprise treasury teams to eCommerce to remittance providers, decision criteria are converging on three areas: price transparency, time-to-wallet, and tracking.

The big numbers (and who’s moving them)

Cross-border B2B flows are massive and still growing as supply chains globalize AND SMBs sell cross-border.

Recent industry estimates peg B2B flows at around $40T out of a $194T global payments market, underscoring just how much corporate movement still rides legacy infra.

On the consumer side, remittances remain a lifeline with $656B sent to low & middle-income countries in 2023, but the average cost to send money remains persistently high, especially on smaller-value corridors.

Card networks & push-to-account rails

Card networks have leaned into account-to-account payouts.

Visa Direct pushes funds in near real time to cards, accounts, and wallets across a broad, global endpoint footprint. Their recent thought leadership highlights customer demand for transparent pricing and fast availability, regardless of destination.

At the same time, Visa’s broader innovation push (e.g., risk tools, tokenization, network-level fraud controls) continues to strengthen merchant and small-business acceptance of cross-border.

While not cross-border-specific, Visa’s emphasis on security and reliability remains a competitive moat for global payouts.

FX specialists, digital wallets, and SMB platforms

FinTechs like Wise built winning propositions on mid-market FX, low transparent fees, and multi-currency accounts.

Customers sent £42.1B in a recent quarter, even as FX volatility dented profits and nudged Wise to adjust fees.

The company has also flagged the lowest average fees in years (~0.54%) in recent mission updates, signaling a continued push toward price leadership.

And discoverability is improving.

Wise’s new partnership with Google surfaces transparent fee and speed comparisons right in search, pushing the entire industry toward clearer pricing & delivery time guarantees—something cross-border shoppers + SMBs increasingly demand.

Banks and global transaction services

Global banks are hardly standing still.

They’re modernizing FX, embedding APIs, and migrating to ISO 20022 to improve data quality, compliance, and reconciliation.

Citi’s latest update on the ISO 20022 migration underscores the benefits of structured data: better interoperability, fewer repairs, improved sanctions screening, and resilience.

What buyers value in 2025

Surveys and market behavior point to a short list: total landed cost transparency (FX + fees), accurate ETA/time-to-wallet, compliance predictability, and self-serve tracking.

Cross-border consumers, in particular, select merchants based on local payment method acceptance — 99% expect to pay using familiar methods — making localization a critical need, not a “nice to have.”

This is a buyer’s market as more providers are competing and transparency (with cost) is rising. SMBs and enterprises can better optimize their payment mix by corridor and use case — through more options.

The future state: best-in-class cross-border programs will offer a multi-rail experience — routing intelligently across cards, accounts, instant systems, and tokenized currency.

The Tech Upgrades: ISO 20022, Interlinking Fast Systems, and Tokenization

The next phase of cross-border isn’t just faster settlement — it’s data-rich, programmable movement that’s easier to screen and reconcile.

Three building blocks lead the way: ISO 20022 data, interlinking domestic instant-payment systems, and tokenization of money and assets.

These upgrades are all complementary — combined, they reduce friction across legal entities, currencies, and time zones.

ISO 20022 as the “data plane” of payments

We’ve entered the “structured data” era in cross-border.

As noted earlier, SWIFT and banks are converging on a November 2025 ‘hard stop’ for MT/MX coexistence.

Daily ISO 20022 cross-border payment instructions have already surged, with MX volumes nearly doubling since early 2024 and BIC adoption up 50% in the same window.

The payoff in this shift: fewer manual key-ins, more automated investigations, and better AML/CFT screening.

Interlinking instant-payment systems

A huge lever is simply keeping systems open longer AND linking them all together.

The G20/CPMI roadmap pushes extended operating hours and interoperability between fast-payment systems (FPS). A payment initiated in one market can settle in real time in another — no time-zone friction or batch windows involved.

This is moving from concept to implementation for the 2025–27 CPMI cycle.

Tokenization: collapsing intermediaries into a single workflow

Tokenization replaces today’s sequential ledgers with a shared, programmable settlement layer — transforming a chain of activities into a smooth workflow (escrow, delivery-versus-payment, instant FX).

The BIS argues that tokenization can “improve the old” by smoothing frictions in current architecture AND “enable the new” by creating programmable contracts — automating compliance and settlement conditions.

The way forward is clear: better data, longer hours, smarter interlinks — and a future where settlement becomes programmable.

For enterprise treasurers, that translates into fewer exceptions, faster closes, and less trapped cash.

For providers, it’s a chance to differentiate on orchestration and compliance, not just price.

Stablecoins Enter the Chat: Policy Clarity, Institutional Demand, and Real Corridors

Stablecoins — fiat-backed digital dollars and euros — have crossed from crypto infrastructure into mainstream payments strategy.

What changed?

Regulation is clarifying. Institutional rails are maturing. Providers are embedding stablecoins into treasury and payout flows to consolidate settlement times and FX spreads.

Policy clarity unlocks mainstream pilots

In the U.S., the newly enacted GENIUS Act sets reserve, disclosure, and compliance requirements for stablecoin issuers. The legislation has catalyzed bank and FinTech launches as firms seek cross-border transfers over blockchain — with clearer rules of engagement.

Analysts note potential second-order effects — like increased demand for T-bills given reserve mandates —but also stres that stablecoins’ macro impact will depend on adoption patterns and use cases.

Europe is also a player.

Germany’s BaFin approved EURAU, a euro stablecoin from the AllUnity JV (DWS, Galaxy Digital, Flow Traders), with DWS’s CEO calling stablecoins a “gigantic market” as tokenized assets and on-chain settlement mature under the EU’s MiCA regime.

Institutional transparency and regulated issuance are key ingredients for cross-border adoption and future scale.

What the data says about industry focus?

Even before these policy shifts, industry attention was spiking.

In H1 2025, press releases mentioning stablecoins + payments jumped 186% year over year, with “cross-border + stablecoins” references up 1,000%+.

The takeaway: this isn’t just crypto marketing — traditional players are testing the rails.

M&A and capability building

On the execution side, Ripple agreed to acquire stablecoin payments platform Rail for $200M, aiming to expand compliant, stablecoin-based cross-border infrastructure and virtual accounts globally (deal pending close).

This follows a broader market push to integrate tokenized cash into B2B payout stacks, not just retail remittances.

Real-world use cases we’re seeing

Treasury funding and on-chain liquidity: Firms prefund local payouts using tokenized dollars (e.g., USDC-like models) to reduce cut-off risk and time-zone friction; funds can be converted locally or sent to bank accounts via off-ramps.
Marketplace and gaming payouts: Stablecoins act as a neutral, always-on bridge for micro-payouts to wallets, then cash-out via local rails.
B2B supplier payments: Tokenized invoices and escrow conditions trigger instant, conditional settlement when goods ship and clear.

Stablecoins are not a ‘catch-all’: they still face off-ramp dependencies, chain fragmentation, and enterprise policy limits. The current utility centers on liquidity instead of transacting and real-world usage. Despite this status, the adoption (even at institutional levels) is at a fever-pitch.

The stablecoin moment is less about speculation and more about programmable fiat with better uptime.

With regulatory clarity and enterprise integrations, expect pilots to become products—especially for time-sensitive B2B and marketplace flows.

The providers that win will hide the crypto plumbing and deliver clean SLAs, fair FX, and one-click compliance.

Innovation Snapshot: What’s New and What’s Next

Beyond stablecoins, innovation is arriving from three angles —> (i) richer data for automated compliance, (ii) smarter routing across multiple rails, and (iii) UX transparency that builds trust.

Put differently: the frontier is orchestration, not just transport.

Here’s what to watch.

Data-first compliance and smarter investigations

ISO 20022’s structured fields enable precision—beneficiary data, invoice IDs, and purpose codes that reduce false positives and manual investigations.

Citi and others stress that richer data boosts interoperability, fraud management, and screening accuracy, cutting exceptions that have historically plagued cross-border ops teams.

Multi-rail orchestration (cards + account-to-account + wallets + tokenized cash)

Modern payment stacks dynamically route by corridor, amount, and risk profile: e.g., push to card with Visa Direct in one flow; settle to a local account the next; and use tokenized cash to bridge weekend cut-offs or illiquid corridors.

Visa’s recent updates emphasize the customer demand for transparent pricing, tracking, and fast availability across destinations.

UX transparency as a growth lever

Wise’s Google integration makes fees and speeds searchable—an SEO-era nudge toward industry-wide transparency. Expect comparison layers to get richer, and for hidden FX and vague fees to lose ground as shoppers demand local methods and real ETAs. The implication for merchants and PSPs: invest in upfront clarity; it converts.

The “tokenized back office”

The BIS (Bank for International Settlements) calls out tokenization’s power to collapse sequential ledgers into a single, programmable flow.

Think: delivery-versus-payment across borders, with on-chain conditions that auto-release funds when data (invoice, customs, IoT signals) says “go.” Over time, this obliterates latency and reduces working-capital buffers.

Innovation is converging on a playbook: combine structured data with orchestration and a transparent front end.

That’s how providers will deliver faster, cheaper, and safer cross-border movement at scale.

For buyers, it means fewer surprises and better cash velocity—without sacrificing compliance.

Mini-Strategy Guide: Choosing the Right Cross-Border Stack in 2025

With so many vendors and rails, the risk isn’t choosing “wrong”—it’s choosing “one.”

The best programs mix providers and dynamically route by corridor, value, and SLA.

Here’s a practical way to design your stack.

1) Start with your corridors and SLA

Segment by region, currency, and payout target (bank account, card, wallet). For high-value B2B payments with documentation needs, prioritize ISO 20022-rich messaging and robust gpi tracking. For eCommerce payouts, prioritize instant availability and status visibility.

2) Price transparency > raw price

Shoppers and SMBs reward transparent quotes. Recent research shows 99% of cross-border shoppers expect local methods, and Google/Wise’s transparency initiative pushes the whole market toward clear fee + speed comparisons in search. When in doubt, pick the provider that shows a real ETA and a guaranteed FX, not just a teaser.

3) Enable multi-rail routing

Blend Visa Direct (push-to-card accounts), bank-to-bank payouts, local instant rails where available, and a tokenized option for always-on settlement when cut-offs loom. The key is routing intelligence—choose a PSP or treasury platform that can arbitrate by fee, FX, SLA, and risk in real time.

4) Build for compliance at design time

ISO 20022 fields, persistent identifiers, proof-of-payment, and programmatic sanctions screening are now table stakes. Aligning with the G20 roadmap and CPMI guidance (longer hours, FPS interlinkages, harmonized data) will future-proof your operations. (Bank for International Settlements)

5) Explore stablecoins—safely

With the GENIUS Act in place and European approvals like EURAU under BaFin, enterprises can run controlled pilots with regulated stablecoin partners. Focus on corridors with weekend/holiday cut-offs or volatile FX; measure settlement time reduction and working-capital impact. Keep an eye on issuer disclosures and reserve quality.

You don’t need to bet the company on a single rail.

Design for optionality, enforce transparency, and treat compliance as a product feature.

In a world of blended rails, orchestration is your moat.

What the Next 12–18 Months Likely Bring

The payment’s world changes stepwise—then suddenly. With November 2025 marking ISO 20022’s cross-border coexistence sunset on SWIFT, expect a rush of last-mile upgrades.

Meanwhile, regulated stablecoins, tokenized treasuries, and interlinked instant rails will blur the line between “traditional” and “crypto.”

Five predictions to guide planning

ISO 20022 flips from “project” to “performance.”
As MX becomes standard, structured data will slash exceptions and unlock straight-through reconciliation, turning compliance from cost center to speed enabler. SWIFT reports MX traffic and BIC adoption are already surging—expect downstream improvements in fraud controls and investigations.
Transparency becomes the default UI.
With Google surfacing fees and ETAs and providers advertising real-time tracking, “opaque” pricing will lose market share. Merchants that localize payment methods for each country will convert better, reflecting shopper expectations.
Stablecoin pilots graduate to production in B2B.
U.S. and EU rulebooks will spark bank-grade stablecoin rails for treasury and supplier payments. Analysts still caution that macro effects are limited (for now), but the utility for always-on settlement and intraday liquidity is undeniable.
G20 roadmap progress shows up in SLAs.
More interlinked fast-payment systems and extended operating hours will shave hours off cross-border delivery times. Expect providers to publish “business-day SLA” charts by corridor and time zone, not just calendar days.
The orchestration layer becomes the battleground.
Providers will compete on policy-aware routing: pick the cheapest, fastest compliant rail automatically, then failover seamlessly. Think of it as SD-WAN for money movement.

The direction is unequivocal: better data, more transparency, smarter routing, and programmable fiat.

For leaders, the strategic question isn’t “if” but “how fast” to modernize your cross-border stack.

Those who move now will bank the working-capital gains and customer trust—before it becomes table stakes.

Industry Voices & Resources (What to Read Next)

To round out this analysis, here are recent, authoritative reads our team found especially helpful.

They reflect the policy, technology, and provider angles shaping decisions this year.

Bookmark them as you plan your H2 2025 roadmap.

Financial IT: The big-picture of $40T B2B cross-border payments and the modernization imperative across a $194T global payments market. (Financial IT)
FXC Intelligence: A crisp primer on stablecoins in cross-border, highlighting the 186% YoY surge in payments-related announcements and 1,000%+ jump for cross-border mentions in H1 2025. (FXC Intelligence)
SWIFT / ISO 20022: The November 2025 coexistence end date and progress metrics for MX adoption. (Swift)
BIS: How tokenization can replace sequential updating with integrated, programmable settlement. (Bank for International Settlements)
Visa Direct: Opportunities and requirements for transparent, trackable global money movement and real-time payouts. (Visa Corporate)
World Bank (RPW): The global average remittance cost still above 6%, underscoring why cheaper rails matter for inclusion. (remittanceprices.worldbank.org)
Policy & Regulation: U.S. GENIUS Act coverage and European approvals (e.g., EURAU) shaping a regulated stablecoin landscape. (Reuters, Tom's Hardware, F&N London)
Citi ISO 20022: Practical benefits of structured data for compliance and operations resilience. (Citi)
PYMNTS / Wise + Google: UX transparency becoming the competitive wedge. (PYMNTS.com)

Together, these sources point to an unmistakable narrative: cross-border payments are moving from opaque, batch-based transfers to transparent, data-rich, and programmable flows.

The organizations that absorb this shift into product and policy will find new growth, lower OpEx, and happier customers.

The ones that wait will be playing catch-up by the time ISO 20022 flips the switch.

TL;DR for Operators (5-Point Recap)

If you only remember five things from this report — make them these.

They’ll steer your roadmap, vendor selection, and internal KPI design.

They’re also the shortest path to measurable savings and delighted finance teams.

Adopt ISO 20022-native tooling now—structure your data and clean up master records. Your compliance team (and exception queues) will thank you when MX is standard in Nov 2025.
Instrument transparency into the UI: show all-in fees, guaranteed FX (when possible), and true ETAs.
Go multi-rail: pick a PSP or orchestration layer that can route across cards, A2A, wallets, and stablecoin rails based on SLA, price, and risk.
Pilot stablecoins where it matters, under regulated issuers, with off-ramps locked down; measure working-capital and settlement-speed deltas before scaling. Policy clarity in the U.S. and EU unlocks responsible experimentation.
Align with the G20 roadmap: interlink instant systems, extend hours, and harmonize APIs. Policy momentum is on your side—use it.

If you’re a CFO, product lead, or payments strategist, the takeaway is simple: competitive advantage now hinges on your ability to blend legacy robustness with modern rails.

The winners will master interoperability, embrace ISO 20022 data, and use programmable money to automate the last mile of settlement — with safely AND at scale.

The future of cross-border payments is here — and it’s interoperable, data-rich, and increasingly programmable.

Start small, learn fast, and scale what works.

Your customers won’t just notice — they’ll make the switch because of it.

The State of Cross-Border Payments in 2025: Legacy Rails, New Networks, and the Stablecoin Shift