Unlocking the final frontier in cross-border payments

Julie Bolan from Swift explores how the global financial community is making significant strides toward faster, more transparent cross-border payments – and why focusing on the final leg of the journey is key to unlocking the full potential of instant international transactions.

In today’s hyper-connected world, the ability to move money across borders quickly, securely, and transparently is no longer a luxury, it’s a necessity. Whether it’s a small business paying a supplier overseas or a family sending remittances back home, the expectations for cross-border payments have never been higher.

Thanks to years of industry-wide collaboration and innovation, we’ve made remarkable progress as a community. Today, Swift’s data shows that 90% of payments sent via our network reach the beneficiary bank within an hour.

This performance is well ahead of the G20’s target of having 75% of end-to-end payments processed within an hour by 2027. However, to truly deliver on the promise of instant, frictionless transactions, the industry must turn its attention to the final leg of the journey: the beneficiary leg.

A journey transformed, but not yet complete

The G20’s roadmap, developed in partnership with the Financial Stability Board (FSB), laid out ambitious targets to improve the speed, cost, transparency, and access of cross-border payments.

As a testament to the collective efforts of financial institutions, market infrastructures, and technology providers around the world, we’re well on our way to hitting the G20’s target. The in-flight portion of the payment journey, between the sending and receiving banks, is operating at or above target in nearly every major corridor.

But when we zoom in on the final stretch, when the funds arrive at the beneficiary bank and are credited to the end-customer’s account, the picture changes.

Understanding the bottleneck

Globally, only 43% of payments are credited end-to-end within an hour. Typically, the final step introduces the most delays, as it often depends on domestic systems and local practices. When analysing global financial markets, common barriers to a quick beneficiary leg emerge:

Batch processing and limited operating hours: in some countries, payments are still processed in batches or only during business hours, creating delays when funds arrive outside those windows.
Regulatory and compliance checks: requirements to verify the recipient’s identity or confirm the purpose of a payment can introduce manual steps that slow things down. Sometimes these are regulatory requirements, in other cases they may be local market practices.

These issues are not insurmountable. In fact, many countries are already showing what’s possible. Markets with real-time domestic payment systems, 24/7 bank operations, combined with Swift’s global infrastructure, are consistently meeting or exceeding the G20’s speed target, proving that faster end-to-end processing is achievable.

The customer experience imperative

Speed is only part of the story. Our recent research, conducted in collaboration with McKinsey & Company, reveals that customers value more than just fast transactions. They also want simplicity, transparency, and traceability when sending payments.

Simplicity: customers expect intuitive interfaces, pre-filled fields, and minimal friction when initiating a payment.
Transparency: they want to know exactly how much the transaction will cost, including fees and FX rates, before they hit 'send'.
Traceability: just like tracking a parcel, customers want to follow their payment’s journey and know when it’s been delivered.

The good news? Many of these expectations are already being met by financial institutions, with existing infrastructure. Providers that leverage tools like Swift GPI, payment pre-validation, and ISO 20022 messaging are already delivering best-in-class experiences without needing to reinvent the wheel.

Collaboration is key

Improving the end customer experience on both sides of a payment isn’t something any one player can solve alone. It requires coordinated action across the ecosystem – banks, market infrastructures, regulators, and technology providers all have a role to play.

For regulators and policymakers, this means reviewing local requirements that may inadvertently slow down payments and exploring ways to enable real-time processing. For banks and payment providers, it means investing in modern back-office systems, adopting global standards, and embedding transparency into customer-facing channels.

And for all of us, it means continuing to share data, insights, and best practices to raise the bar across the board.

A once-in-a-generation opportunity

We stand at a pivotal moment. The foundations for fast, transparent, and interoperable cross-border payments are already in place. Now, it’s about ensuring that the domestic beneficiary leg is just as efficient as the rest of the journey.

By working together, we have an opportunity to reshape how money moves across borders. We can make this process faster, more predictable, and ultimately more aligned with what customers need. A future where businesses grow faster, families stay connected, and economies thrive.

The time to act is now.

About Julie Bolan

In her multi-decade career in the banking and finance industry, Julie Bolan has worked as a Global Transaction Banking professional, payments domain expert across domestic, international and wholesale banking and as head of risk, regulatory and financial crime programs. In 2023, Julie was awarded the Women in Payments Australia Distinguished Payments Professional Award. In her current role as Head of Payments APAC, Go To Market Julie leads the payments business in the APAC region, driving the adoption and usage of strategic services to enable instant and frictionless payments across the Swift community. This includes GPI services such as Swift Go, Pre-Validation and gCase in addition to supporting foundational transformation programs such as the ISO 20022 CBPR+ program, Network Interoperability and Payment Experience initiatives. Previously, Julie spent 25+ years at Westpac, where she held senior leadership positions including Head of Receivables Products, Head of GTS Product Delivery Asia, Director Payments (including NPP), Head of Network Management and Head of Risk, Regulatory and Financial Crime Programs and Transformation.