Rethinking Borders: Real-Time Payments and Stablecoins are Reshaping International Payments

Traditional international wire transfers and remittances are often burdened by high fees, processing delays, lack of transparency, complex regulatory and compliance requirements, and risks of fraud and errors. However, the landscape is gradually transforming. The advent of instant and near-instant cross-border payment solutions is set to redefine global money movement, offering enhanced speed, transparency, cost efficiency, and security for both individuals and businesses.

In parallel, stablecoins are emerging as a complementary rail for international payments. By leveraging blockchain technology, stablecoins can facilitate 24/7 cross-border transfers with near-instant speed and lower fees—particularly for regions that may lack traditional financial market infrastructure or where traditional correspondent banking relationships are limited. As this ecosystem matures and regulatory clarity improves, we may see stablecoin rails operating alongside traditional networks, offering businesses and consumers more choice and flexibility in how they move money globally.

The transformation of cross-border payments is already in progress. As an example, in 2023, India and Singapore introduced an innovative payment linkage that facilitates seamless money transfers between the two countries. This system enables individuals in India and Singapore to send funds across borders with significantly reduced costs and processing times. While challenges to widespread global adoption persist, other nations and regions are actively exploring real-time cross-border payment solutions, signaling a broader shift toward faster, more efficient international transactions.

At Cross River, where I lead product management for payments, we are building fast, secure, and scalable payment solutions to support the evolving landscape of international banking. As industry moves toward more efficient cross-border transactions, financial institutions must prepare by understanding the key developments shaping this transformation.

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Local payment networks

Real-time domestic payment networks have already transformed the speed and security of transactions within individual countries. Prominent examples include the UK’s Faster Payments System (FPS), Europe’s Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA), Singapore’s PayNow, Thailand’s PromptPay, and India’s Unified Payments Interface (UPI)—the world’s largest real-time payment network. In the United States, two key networks have recently emerged: The Clearing House’s RTP® network, developed by the private sector, and FedNow®, launched by the Federal Reserve.

Historically, domestic payment systems have relied on proprietary messaging formats unique to their respective financial institutions, creating significant interoperability challenges. However, the adoption of the ISO20022 standard by many countries is paving the way for greater interoperability, enabling more seamless cross-border transactions.

The next phase of innovation may involve interlinking these domestic payment networks—similar to the recent connection between India and Singapore. Such integrations have the potential to make international payments as fast, seamless, and cost-effective as domestic transactions, eliminating excessive fees and lengthy processing times.

While advancements in technical connectivity and messaging standards have significantly improved interoperability, key challenges persist. Variations in sanctions screening protocols, foreign exchange (FX) rate management, and banking hours across jurisdictions may continue to create friction in cross-border transactions. Addressing these disparities will be critical to achieving truly seamless global payment integration.

One promising avenue for bypassing these challenges lies in blockchain-based stablecoin transactions. Stablecoins are not bound by national banking hours or infrastructure limitations, so they could offer real-time interoperability that transcends local networks. For example, a fintech in the U.S. could use stablecoins to send instant settlements to a supplier in the U.K., independent of local banking rails. As these assets gain traction with compliant infrastructure and regulatory support, they could become a standard payment rail, working alongside ACH and RTP® to create a more unified system.

International payments, instantly

Real-time payment systems offer instant, secure, and universally accessible transactions. An optimal cross-border payments framework will enable users to transfer funds quickly and cost-effectively while ensuring competitive exchange rates and strong data security.

In this future state, a European consumer purchasing handcrafted goods from a seller in Thailand will experience immediate payment settlement. A tourist in Brazil will seamlessly pay for a meal using a mobile payment app linked to the country’s real-time payment network. Businesses will also benefit—an American retailer, for example, will be able to remit payment to a manufacturer in Malaysia in real time, facilitating faster order fulfillment and supply chain efficiency.

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As real-time payments evolve, their impact will extend across consumers, businesses, and global economies, driving faster, more efficient, and more inclusive financial transactions.

For fintech enablers like Cross River*, the goal is to manage the underlying complexities of cross-border transactions – including currency conversion, regulatory compliance, transparency, reliability and security – so that businesses can focus on their core business and operations and not be concerned with payment logistics. A well-designed international payment system ensures that transactions are processed seamlessly in the background while providing enhanced efficiency and user experience across the ecosystem.

Public-private partnerships

Public-private partnerships play a critical role in shaping the future of payments by fostering collaboration between government entities, regulatory bodies, and the private sector. Institutions such as the Federal Reserve provide the regulatory and governance frameworks necessary to ensure security, stability, and trust, while fintech companies drive technological innovation and accelerate market adoption.

A notable example of this synergy is Kenya’s M-Pesa, developed through a partnership between Vodafone, Safaricom, and the Kenyan government. This initiative has transformed digital payments and financial inclusion, demonstrating the potential of coordinated public and private sector efforts to revolutionize money movement.

Many of the world’s most advanced domestic payment networks have achieved success through similar collaborations, which help streamline regulatory compliance, enhance fraud prevention, and facilitate the adoption of global standards such as ISO20022 and Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs). As international payments continue to evolve, such partnerships will remain essential in driving innovation, interoperability, and financial inclusion on a global scale.

Regulatory frameworks and bilateral agreements

As international regulatory standards continue to evolve, it is crucial for countries to align on regulations related to sanctions screening, dispute resolution, data protection, and privacy to ensure the long-term sustainability of cross-border payment linkages. While still in development, the partnership between India and Singapore offers a valuable model for international real-time payments.

India and Singapore established a bilateral agreement to link India’s Unified Payments Interface (UPI) with Singapore’s PayNow, enabling payments via QR codes. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) worked together to create the necessary regulatory frameworks and technical systems to ensure seamless integration. This collaboration has significantly reduced the cost of transferring money between the two nations, lowered transaction fees, and facilitated near-instant, secure, and final payments. The benefits of lower costs, increased speed, and enhanced security foster greater trade, marketplace expansion, and foreign direct investment. India and Singapore have demonstrated that such cross-border linkages are not only feasible but also highly beneficial.

Looking ahead, more bilateral agreements are likely to emerge, each building on the success of prior collaborations. Countries such as Australia and Singapore, with their strong trade relations, may form similar linkages, while the U.S. might explore partnerships with Europe’s SEPA or the UK’s FPS. Over time, a patchwork of real-time payment networks may evolve into a more unified global system. However, this transformation may take a few years to fully materialize.

Barriers to global banking integration

Current banking systems are often outdated, complex, and challenging to maintain, with upgrade efforts proving both costly and time-consuming. To remain competitive and modernize their operations, financial institutions must adopt APIs and flexible and scalable, microservice-based architectures. Microservices allow systems to be broken down into smaller, independent components that work together seamlessly. These components can be updated or expanded without disrupting the entire system, in contrast to traditional architectures where a single change can trigger significant, often unintended, ripple effects.

A major limitation of legacy systems is their reliance on proprietary data and messaging standards, which complicate integration with other systems. Additionally, training staff to operate these systems is costly and time-intensive, often requiring months or even years to achieve proficiency. In contrast, ISO-based systems are more widely understood, reducing training costs and expanding the talent pool available to institutions.

Currency conversion presents another layer of complexity for instant cross-border payments. To facilitate smooth and effective transactions, currencies must be converted in real time. This requires coordinated efforts among multiple stakeholders—including financial institutions, payment networks, central banks, regulatory bodies, and foreign exchange (forex) markets—to manage exchange rates, ensure liquidity, and adhere to legal and regulatory requirements. Such collaboration is essential for the seamless operation of cross-border payments in a globalized financial ecosystem.

Preparing for instant international transactions  

Businesses worldwide are preparing for the widespread adoption of instant cross-border payments. Cross River’s custom-built, API-based core banking system, COS, is designed to be flexible and scalable—key requirements for facilitating real-time global transactions. This infrastructure has enabled seamless integration with RTP and FedNow, positioning us as one of the top senders on both networks.

In addition, we have launched an international payments solution that leverages both SWIFT and local payment rails, allowing for quick onboarding and payments processing for new partners. We have a strong roadmap and we are actively working on further product innovation and strategic partnerships to increase our reach and provide a better customer experience.

While challenges remain on the path to widespread adoption of real-time, low-cost cross-border payment systems, we are prepared to lead the way when borderless payments become a reality.