Why Banks Must Adapt to Real-Time Payment Demands

In our interconnected world, customer expectations for fast, cost-efficient, transparent, secure, and accessible cross-border payments may not always be met, despite increased commoditization of global money movement.

Providing international payments remains complex due to multiple intermediaries, potential lack of transparency, compliance and regulatory burden, and fluctuating foreign exchange (FX) rates. These factors can result in slow, expensive and opaque transactions, often accompanied by confusing and cumbersome customer experiences. Consequently, customers may struggle to send or receive cross-border funds with ease.

Technology advances and regulatory initiatives are changing the cross-border payments landscape. Consumers today have a growing universe of options for cross-border payments beyond their retail banks, and they aren’t afraid to shop around to find providers who can meet their needs: 52% of consumers prefer to have funds held across several accounts, and they have yet to land on a favorite way to pay — using an average of four out of seven different methods, with only 16% using a default payment method.¹ Meanwhile, 90% of SMBs report dissatisfaction with their primary bank.²

However, banks are not alone in their focus on addressing customers' rising expectations and dissatisfaction with their cross-border payment experiences.

At the request of the Group of 20 (G20), the Financial Stability Board (FSB), an organization created by the G20 to enhance international cooperation and oversight of the global financial system, developed the “Roadmap for Enhancing Cross-Border Payments.”³ The roadmap looks to establish a way to create more consistent customer experiences globally; it sets quantitative global targets to lower costs, increase speed and inclusion and enable greater transparency of international payments and remittances by the end of 2027.

The G20 Roadmap: A path forward for global money movement

The key players in the initiative include the FSB in coordination with the Bank for International Settlements’ (BIS) Committee on Payments and Market Infrastructures (CPMI), alongside other relevant international organizations and standard-setting bodies. Private and public sector stakeholders also provide insights and expertise via consultation publications, bilateral discussions and expert groups and forums.

Core themes and supporting actions of the enhanced roadmap include:³

1. Payment system interoperability and extension that improves the efficiency and accessibility of cross-border transactions by enabling domestic and regional payment systems to work together. This entails facilitating payments between countries without the need for intermediaries — improving access for all users, especially those who are underserved.
2. Legal, regulatory and supervisory frameworks that create a more harmonized and efficient regulatory landscape for international payments.
3. Standardized cross-border data exchange and message standards aiming to streamline processes, reduce costs, and improve the overall efficiency of cross-border payments.

Progress check: Business as usual so far

• Retail banks may still have significant ground to cover when it comes to modernizing their cross-border payment experiences and demonstrating progress with the G20 roadmap. Globally, cost KPIs showed no improvements in 2024 compared to 2023, with no use case identified as meeting the roadmap’s target cost of 1% of the transfer amount for cross-border money movement.⁴ In fact, many regions and use cases saw higher costs in 2024 than in 2023.⁵
• Retail payment speed has also deteriorated since 2023, with the share of payment services by PSPs settling within one hour and one business day from initiation, thereby decreasing to 33.5% and 69%, respectively.⁴ That said, the transparency on cost and speed improved across the board.
  

There isn’t much year-over-year change for remittances⁵ in cost or speed, either.

• The average cost for sending $200 remittances was slightly higher than in 2023 (6.4%), while the cost for sending $500 remittances remained unchanged.⁵
• Remittance speed in 2024 did not improve over 2023, with 54% of services making funds available to the recipient in one hour and 76.6% in one business day.⁵

It’s true that there’s a long way to go (particularly around driving down costs, increasing speed and providing opportunity for banks to take the lead) and progress is slow.

Opportunities ahead for banks that embrace the G20 roadmap

While the FSB doesn't mandate adherence to the roadmap for cross-border payments, aligning services with the outlined KPIs could give banks a competitive advantage. Identifying a cross-border provider with reliable infrastructure and a global network can enable banks to accelerate their efforts to meet the G20's speed, cost and transparency KPIs. While the G20 roadmap outlines a path to a new way of doing business for banks, it's a world that Visa has been actively fostering for years, making technology investments and acquisitions to better serve customers. As a key banking partner, Visa continues to develop products that align with the objectives of the G20 Cross-Border Roadmap initiative.

The Visa Direct portfolio exemplifies this alignment by offering options for real-time* cross-border transfers, directly addressing the roadmap's speed and efficiency targets. Visa is also making significant strides in enhancing transaction transparency and supporting the compliance efforts of its clients. Through continued collaboration and innovation with partners and clients, the vision of easier, faster and more transparent cross-border money movement is becoming a reality.

Visa Direct. Move money your way.

To learn more about money movement, visit: visa.com/visadirect