The challenge of cross-border payments

Cross-bor­der pay­ments — finan­cial trans­ac­tions where the pay­er and recip­i­ent are based in sep­a­rate coun­tries — are grow­ing in eco­nom­ic impor­tance. The val­ue of both the retail and whole­sale mar­ket is expect­ed to grow from $150tn in 2017 to more than $250tn by 2027, accord­ing to pro­jec­tions by the Bank of Eng­land. But the sys­tems to enable such pay­ments can be slow and expen­sive for a num­ber of rea­sons, from a lack of com­pe­ti­tion to lega­cy tech plat­forms and frag­ment­ed data. That’s why improv­ing them is a pri­or­i­ty for the G20 as it looks to boost glob­al trade