“This week, the world of payments met for the biggest event of the year, Money20/20 in Las Vegas, providing a unique opportunity to get the temperature of a space that has seen significant upheaval over the last few years. And while there were many trends showcased at the event, for cross-border payments there was an overall sense of an industry in transition.    With growing austerity and a more risk adverse climate, faddish technologies such as crypto are being deprioritized in favor of practical solutions that can easily be turned into profitable product lines.   Meanwhile, the very nature of the industry has changed over the past few years, creating changing opportunities for cross-border payment providers. With this in mind, where is the industry heading next?”

“Central banks will have to make “fundamental” decisions on cross-border access for a digital version of their currency to serve as a means of payment effectively, a committee at the Bank for International Settlements said on Monday. “Central banks must make critical choices on the access of non-residents and foreign financial institutions to central bank digital currencies (CBDCs), as well as ensuring multinational interoperability, to fully harness the potential for CBDCs to enhance cross-border payments,” the BIS committee said in a statement.”

“Goldman Sachs Transaction Banking (TxB) and Form3, the leading cloud-native payment technology provider, today announced a new solution that delivers FX and payments capabilities to Form3’s banking clients. Form3’s platform will leverage TxB’s cross-border payments and Foreign Exchange (FX) execution capabilities to introduce a value added service for Form3’s regulated financial institution customers.”

“A new survey released today by non-profit Stellar Development Foundation and UK-based cryptocurrency payments platform Wirex has revealed a heightened awareness, and increasing use and acceptance, of cryptocurrencies for cross-border payments in four key developed and emerging countries — United States, United Kingdom, Mexico and Singapore — indicating that crypto is being used for sending money to, and from, emerging markets in the form of remittances, or money sent by people working overseas to their families back home.”

“Santander’s SME and corporate clients in Spain, from today, will be able to make immediate international payments to recipients in Brazil, in Brazilian Real, through the One Trade solution. Part of PagoNxt’s Trade business unit, the One Trade solution will allow international transfers to be completed in minutes, allowing senders to comply with FX documentation requirements, while the recipients are spared from closing or signing local FX contracts – as BRL will automatically be credited to the local account.”

“Nium , a global leader in modern money movement, today introduced a new brokerage payments solution that offers international financial institutions (FIs) a faster and more cost-effective method of settling transactions to select U.S. brokerages enabling customers to easily invest in U.S. equities. When compared to transactions settled via the SWIFT International Payments Network, Nium lowers settlement costs for Financial Institutions by up to 90% for international brokerage account transactions.”

“Meet Atlantic Money , a foreign exchange startup that plans to be cheaper than other foreign exchange services. If that pitch sounds familiar, that’s because Wise , the company formerly known as TransferWise, originally appeared on the startup scene with the same promise. And yet, Atlantic Money thinks that even Wise and Revolut are too expensive. According to the company, they try to do too many things at once and they end up charging customers for things they don’t need.”

“Sila Inc., a fintech software platform that provides payment infrastructure as a service, today announced that it partnered with Corpay, a FLEETCOR brand that provides integrated cross-border payments and currency risk management solutions. This partnership will expand Sila’s cross-border payment capabilities and access to global FX markets for its customers by providing them with access to 145+ currencies in over 100 countries. Customers will be able to seamlessly move between domestic and international payment options even more so than before.”

“Global payments network EMQ launches real-time payments to Pakistan in a drive to bolster its payment capabilities across South Asia, with more markets underway. This extends EMQ’s network infrastructure deeper into the domestic market, providing customers worldwide with real-time payouts to mobile wallets, bank accounts or cash pick-up in Pakistan, while making financial services more affordable, transparent and accessible across the emerging economic corridors.”

“A group of Swift veterans have unveiled a global payment addressing service for banks and fintechs that promises to make transferring money around the world as easy as sending a text message. Founded by three former Swift staffers, iPiD (International Payments Identity) has built a service – with partner Palo IT – that enables users to make cross-border payments anywhere in the world using only a simple proxy, such as phone number, for the payee’s identity.”

“President Joe Biden’s administration has prepared an initial package of sanctions against Russia that includes barring U.S. financial institutions from processing transactions for major Russian banks, three people familiar with the matter said. The measures, which would only be implemented if Russia invades Ukraine, aim to hurt the Russian economy by cutting the “correspondent” banking relationships between targeted Russian banks and U.S. banks that enable international payments.”

“Global payments network EMQ today announced that it has significantly augmented its real-time cross-border payments across South Asia, including direct access to Nepal and India’s Immediate Payment Service (IMPS), with Unified Payments Interface (UPI) and additional markets in the pipeline. These major enhancements provide a more transparent and cost-efficient payments solution for our customers worldwide, while enabling them to capture new opportunities across the emerging markets.”

“Standard Chartered Bank (Hong Kong) Ltd said on Monday that it has become the first foreign bank qualified as a direct participant in China’s Cross-border Interbank Payment System (CIPS) outside mainland China. Backed by the People’s Bank of China (PBOC), China launched the CIPS clearing and settlement services system in 2015 to internationalise yuan use. It allows global banks to clear cross-border yuan transactions directly onshore, instead of through clearing banks in offshore yuan hubs.”

“Global payments network EMQ further strengthens its multi-currency B2B payment offerings for enterprises with options including same-day settlement in RMB and USD across its extensive payout network reaching over 150 banks in China. This enables EMQ’s customers to send payments to their China-based suppliers with increased certainty, efficiency and transparency, while providing direct access into one of the world’s largest trading nations.”

“Russia’s largest lender Sberbank (SBER.MM) on Tuesday said it had launched money transfers to Alipay wallets in China using phone numbers. State-controlled Sberbank, which has customers in 18 countries, launched the service together with Western Union. For a transfer fee of 1%, customers can credit an Alipay account in Chinese yuan with just the recipient’s full name and phone number.”

“Today, leading payments platform Modulr announced a partnership with Ripple , the leader in enterprise blockchain and crypto solutions, to enable seamless payments into the UK and Europe. Trust Payments , the global unified payments group, is the first customer to go live and begin benefiting from the partnership.”

“The Chinese yuan reasserted itself as one of the most-popular currencies for cross-border payments, notching the fourth spot for the first time since August 2015.  Activity in the renminbi, as the currency is also called, rose to its second-highest level ever, according to the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunications. While the Chinese currency made inroads in the rankings, the yuan accounted for about 2.7% of the market versus the dollar at 41%, and has held the top slot since June.”

“The overseas arm of NPCI has inked an agreement with Western Union to bolster real-time money transfer to bank accounts in India from foreign countries. This collaboration will enable customers in India to receive international money transfers in real-time into their bank accounts in the country, Western Union said in a release on Thursday. NPCI International Payments Ltd (NIPL) and Western Union have inked a memorandum of understanding to bolster real-time bank account payments in India, it added.”

“SurePay, SEPAMail.eu and StreamMind have today announced the launch of the first cross-border IBAN Check/Confirmation of Payee solution. This service enables companies and banks to check that the account information entered matches the intended beneficiary when initiating cross-border payments between France and the Netherlands and marks an important first step towards a pan-European solution in the fight against fraud.”

“A year after sharing a bold vision to enable instant and frictionless transactions from one account to another anywhere in the world, SWIFT today underlines major progress in realising this vision in 2021. SWIFT has delivered on many commitments, including transforming the speed and transparency of low-value payments, removing key frictions by validating payments upfront, and delivering tools for banks to rapidly benefit from rich data in a multi-format environment. SWIFT has also been strongly engaged in experiments to integrate CBDCs and new digital assets into cross-border flows, as well as innovative proofs of concept demonstrating the real-time interlinking of MIs.”

“The world’s banking giants may or may not adopt cryptocurrencies at some point, but they are clearly looking to adopt the distributed-ledger technology that undergirds digital money. In the latest such move, Wells Fargo & Co. and HSBC Bank plc early Monday announced they have agreed to process cross-border transactions between the two big banks on a shared blockchain.  To start with, the technology will support transfers in U.S. dollars, the euro, the Canadian dollar, and the British pound sterling, but the banks say they plan to process more national currencies soon.”

“The Bank for International Settlements (BIS) is setting up a task force on defining common features of cross-border payment service levels. BIS’s Committee on Payments and Market Infrastructures (CPMI) has been working on a multiyear programme on improving cross-border payments since Saudi Arabia made it a priority of its G20 presidency.”

“Tribal Credit , a B2B payment and financing platform for emerging markets, is joining forces with leading Latin American crypto exchange, Bitso , and the Stellar Development Foundation (SDF), to create instant and cheaper cross-border payment services between Mexico and the US. Tribal Credit’s new cross-border payment service enables companies in Mexico to send B2B payments in Pesos to the US, where recipients will receive the payments in USD.”

“The Arab Monetary Fund (AMF) and Mastercard, announced today the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU). Under the terms of this MoU, Mastercard and Buna (the cross-border and multi-currency payment system owned by the AMF), will seek strategic interoperability between their respective systems to grow and facilitate the exchange of cross-border payments across the Middle East and North Africa region and international markets.”