Cross Border Payments

31 Mar 26 @ 19:07

China is intensifying efforts to position its Cross-Border Interbank Payment System, or CIPS, as a more credible alternative to the Western-dominated architecture that has long underpinned international payments. The move... read more

09 Mar 26 @ 14:45

SWIFT has introduced a new international payments framework aimed at significantly improving the speed, transparency and predictability of cross-border retail transactions. The initiative, backed by a coalition of more than... read more

10 Feb 26 @ 17:30

Visa is pushing deeper into one of the world’s most strategically important payment corridors, announcing a partnership with UnionPay International to enable cross-border, real-time payments into mainland China. The agreement... read more

09 Feb 26 @ 13:24

Europe’s long-running ambition to reclaim control over its payments infrastructure has taken a tangible step forward. A new memorandum of understanding signed by Bancomat, Bizum, SIBS, Vipps MobilePay and EPI... read more

19 Jan 26 @ 17:27

Project Agorá, the flagship cross-border distributed ledger initiative led by the Bank for International Settlements, has entered its long-anticipated testing phase. After progressing from design to prototype build during 2025,... read more

15 Jan 26 @ 21:00

Revolut, Visa and Mastercard have failed in a High Court bid to block a proposed UK cap on cross-border card interchange fees. The decision hands a significant legal victory to... read more

06 Jan 26 @ 14:10

A new pilot involving Swift, Ant International and HSBC offers a glimpse of how blockchain-based money could integrate with the plumbing of the global financial system. The test demonstrated cross-border... read more

10 Dec 25 @ 17:21

On 07 November 2025, the Payments Vision Delivery Committee (PVDC) published its “Strategy for Future Retail Payments Infrastructure.” As a quick refresher, the PVDC was set up in November 2024 to... read more

26 Nov 25 @ 09:48

The global financial system has crossed a decisive threshold with the full-scale shift to ISO 20022, marking the end of the long coexistence with the legacy MT messaging format and... read more

19 Nov 25 @ 18:04

The payments industry is entering one of the most consequential periods of change in its modern history – and a lot rests on the rails it runs on. Consumer habits,... read more

05 Nov 25 @ 15:14

A new white paper from global banking infrastructure innovators RS2 traces the rapid global rise of B2B marketplaces – and what it means for banks. Originating in the dynamic, digital-first... read more

30 Oct 25 @ 15:13

A major new partnership between Thunes and Ecobank Group aims to accelerate financial inclusion and unlock instant cross-border payments for millions of Africans. The collaboration operationalises a landmark 2024 memorandum... read more