This is an excerpt from a Sibos special edition report: The Future of Cross-Border Payments 2026: Strategies for Success.
Cutting-edge technologies like AI – and its content-creator cousin, GenAI – are set to revolutionise almost every area of the financial services industry. Particularly exposed to change is the payments landscape, with AI slated to upscale fraud detection
and prevention, payment routing, customer service – and even streamline FX and cross-border transactions; providing the necessary investments are made.
By November 2025 – the deadline for ISO 20022 migration for cross-border payments and reporting (CBPR+) – the industry will move yet another step closer to ensuring smoother, more secure and interoperable payments for the future. But, in order to fully capitalise
on this competitive opportunity, commentators are increasingly advising financial institutions (FIs) and payment service providers (PSPs) to supplement their technology stacks with AI – securing continued evolution and prosperity in one of financial services’
most fiercely competitive and fast-moving marketplaces.
AI and GenAI: What’s in it for FIs?
With the CBPR+ compliance deadline fast approaching, how can the cost of AI investment be justified? What returns can FIs expect?
“The global migration to ISO 20022 represents a critical foundation for modernising cross-border payments, enabling richer data structures and improved interoperability. However, it is the integration of emerging technologies — particularly blockchain and
AI — that will unlock the next phase of transformation. These technologies offer the potential for real-time settlement, automated compliance, and significantly enhanced transparency across value chains,” states Ellen Kumwenda-Mtine, head of sales cash management,
transactional banking, Absa CIB.
By reducing reliance on legacy infrastructure and enabling programmable financial interactions, AI paves the way for more efficient, resilient, and inclusive payment ecosystems.
HSBC’s head of global payments solutions for Greater China, Yvonne Yiu, underlines how the development and application of blockchain technology will also hinge on the rollout of upcoming payment messaging standards:
“With the industry’s shift to ISO 20022, banks now benefit from a common, structured messaging standard that elevates AML controls, transparency, and governance in cross-border transactions. This shared framework is essential as the landscape evolves to
include CBDCs and tokenised deposit services – both of which demand reliable, internationally compatible infrastructure to thrive – while innovative formats like the Ethereum Request for Comment 20 (ERC20) standard, built on the Ethereum blockchain and widely
used for fungible tokens in decentralised finance, support niche ecosystems, that often lack the breadth required for broad, institutional interoperability.”
ISO 20022 as the backbone of future-ready payments
Herein lies why ISO 20022 remains so indispensable. “The industry’s investment in this standard has built a future-ready backbone where any payment type – traditional, digital, or tokenised – can carry embedded data using a universally recognised structure,”
says Yiu.
Clearly, as payment systems shift towards 24/7 real-time capabilities, ISO 20022 continues to bridge legacy platforms with emerging technologies; ensuring cross-border solutions stay seamless, secure and scalable.
Global head of sales at Crown Agents Bank, Kirsty Garrett, also points to the importance of AI and ISO 20022 as a means to enrich the overall payments experience: “With greater capacity to monitor and screen transactions, ISO 20022 ultimately equips cross-border
providers with confidence that the flows will securely get where they are needed.”
Susanne Prager, head of cash management at RBI, meanwhile, has a slightly more conservative view of the benefits of ISO 20022, recognising its potential to enable richer, structured payment data for better automation, transparency or compliance, but also
underlining that “the migration is still underway, and its full capabilities have not yet been fully adopted across the entire ecosystem.”
Prager acknowledges that when paired with AI, the vast volumes of transactional data yielded by ISO 20022 will be transformational:
“Some of [ISO 20022’s] potential benefits will still take time to be fully realised. But, if you look at what's on the horizon, there are plenty of key technologies and initiatives that could have a huge impact on how cross-border payments are handled today.
For example, AI and advanced analytics are becoming essential for fraud detection, AML screening, and optimising payment routing. With richer ISO 20022 data available, AI will really enhance real-time risk assessment and automate many compliance tasks that
used to be manual.”
The role of APIs and open banking frameworks will also be significant, argues Prager. “APIs make it much easier to embed cross-border payment services directly into customer platforms and workflows, creating a much smoother, more integrated experience.”
As are many of the other institutions Finextra spoke to, RBI is closely watching developments in the digital asset space, which reveal the potential to deliver “faster, cheaper and more transparent settlement – especially in corridors where costs are traditionally
high or access is limited.”
As ever, success here hinges on continued progress toward interoperability, the consistent adoption of standards, and strong industry collaboration across regions.
Transformers: How new technologies help PSPs evolve
The benefits promised by AI investment – in parallel with ISO 20022 compliance – span the entire payments value chain: from the end-user’s journey, all the way up the to the PSP itself.
Mostapha Tahiri, executive vice president and chief operating officer, State Street says:
“Tech convergence will push banks to redefine value beyond settlement speed – offering services around data, security, and liquidity. The crossborder payment ISO 20022 adoption rounds out implementations of the major payment market infrastructures to the
ISO 20022 standard. SEPA and other ACH systems have been there for a while, many international RTGS settlement systems have migrated over the last year. The ISO 20022 (MX) message standard provides for more highly structured and rich data content, additional
fields, and more granularity of data elements within the fields.”
Nitin Agarwal, chief revenue officer, FV Bank, agrees, arguing that as the industry continues to move toward adoption of ISO 20022, the full potential of emerging technologies is really coming into focus.
Agarwal explains: “ISO 20022 gives us richer and more structured data, which means we have a much stronger foundation for true interoperability and a strong foundation for more meaningful innovation across the sector. One of the biggest shifts we’re seeing
is in how banks and fintechs can use AI and ML to improve fraud detection, automate compliance processes, and optimise liquidity management. As a result, suspicious activity can be flagged more efficiently and compliance checks are more thorough and automated,
helping institutions manage risks and resources more effectively."
“Blockchain technology will also make a difference,” Agarwal continues. “It enables tokenised settlements and reduces the need for intermediaries, which simplifies, brings in transparency, and speeds up international payments while cutting costs. Smart contracts
take this further by allowing conditional payments to be automated, which can streamline complex, multi-party transactions and improve trust between participants. Finally, the rise of APIs and open banking is enhancing connectivity and transparency across
the financial ecosystem.”
Indeed, these tools promote industry-wide innovation by making it easier for FIs and fintechs to collaborate and offer new, more transparent cross-border payment solutions.
Chief risk and compliance officer of Januar, Marcus Mølleskov, also believes in the sheer potential of feeding ISO 20022-unlocked data to AI models:
“ISO 20022 lays the foundation for standardised payments messaging, but the real transformation happens when that data powers smart contracts and programmable money. That’s where efficiency becomes automation. We are entering a phase where payments are not
just messages but fully automated transactions, with built-in compliance, reconciliation, and settlement. Stablecoins and blockchain networks are turning standards into execution layers.”
Katja Lehr, managing director, EMEA payments and commerce solutions, J.P. Morgan Payments, dovetails on the significance of blockchain in this picture, claiming that “blockchain and DLT will enable faster, more secure, and transparent cross-border transactions,
while deposit tokens and CBDCs could facilitate instant, low-cost payments.
“Smart contracts could also be leveraged to automate complex transactions,” added Lehr, “reducing counterparty risk and enhancing efficiency. Embracing these technologies to enhance payment processes, utilising the rich data capabilities of ISO 20022 to
improve compliance and customer insights, will be a differentiator in the market post-ISO migration.”
James Chan, head of payments, ZA Bank says that with ISO 20022 now standardising richer payment data globally, the table is set for tokenisation and DLT to further transform cross-border value transfer. Indeed, these technologies have the potential to simplify
the entire payment process – enabling faster, cheaper, and more efficient cross-border payments.
“Tokenisation of money and assets will be a game-changer for cross-border settlements,” he observes. “Tokenised deposits – essentially bank deposits represented as digital tokens on a blockchain – allow instant transfer of value between institutions with
minimal intermediaries, so long as they operate on interoperable ledgers. Stablecoins can greatly improve the speed of cross-border payments and reduce FX settlement risk, especially to/ from jurisdictions with a lack of advanced payment infrastructures and/or
volatile currencies.
“Adopting regulated stablecoins can help streamline payment and settlement in multiple location and various currencies,” Chan continues. “Smart contract-based payment rails offer programmability, adding a new dimension to cross-border transactions especially
for business-to-business transactions. Instead of just sending money, parties can embed business logic: escrow conditions, milestone-based releases, or compliance checks coded into the payment itself. Extending this concept, a cross-border trade payment could
be tokenised such that funds are released only when an IoT sensor confirms delivery of goods at port. This reduces dependency on banks to manually handle documents or triggers.”
Indeed, such innovations would streamline correspondent chains (since fewer intermediaries are needed to ensure trust) and slash settlement times.
Data as the cornerstone
While the financial services industry is embracing these emerging technologies in cross-border payments, Chan stresses that the exchange of rich data remains the key to efficient, secure and compliant money movement – even as stablecoins and DLT-based solutions
gain traction.
Despite the rise of decentralised payment systems, ZA Bank feels Swift continues to play a crucial role in enabling this exchange of robust data. Swift’s ongoing efforts to integrate blockchain technology and its experimentation with tokenised asset settlements,
for example, demonstrate its adaptability to emerging technologies, argued Chan.
“Swift’s ability to provide standardised messaging and data across borders complements the efficiency of stablecoins and DLT-based payments, ensuring compatibility and compliance in complex, multi-jurisdictional environments,” he says.
Société Générale’s global head of products and networks, cash clearing services, Isabelle Poussigues, summarised the relationship between ISO 20022 and AI by observing that “emerging technologies do not utilise ISO 20022 per se, but serve as a universal
language that can facilitate the interoperability of payment systems and enable the transfer of richer data, leading to new use cases. This helps reduce friction and associated costs, such as universal pre-validation services with verification of payee”.
Indeed, in an increasingly fragmented technical landscape, having the right connectors between ISO and other standards will be critical for providing end-users with seamless payment experiences. However, “the impact of emerging technologies will be limited
if we continue to reintroduce our existing cross-border payments’ frictions onto new technological platforms, such as uneven sanction screening applications, non-harmonised capital or change controls, and local legal framework variances,” Poussigues claims.
“These frictions must be addressed from the outset to maximise the benefits of new technology implementations.”
Jonathan Adams, executive, National Australian Bank Payments, takes a decisively practical approach to these trends, underlining that his focus is “on building capabilities, powered by ISO 20022 messaging, which consistently deliver 99.9% straight-through
processing and operational efficiency across all payments that pass initial validation at the point of origination.”
The post-ISO 20022 landscape will be defined by how effectively institutions harness emerging technologies to deliver secure, reliable, and intelligent payment experiences at scale and without borders.
ISO 20022 migration: The final push
So, what can the payments ecosystem expect from AI advancement beyond the November 2025 deadline for CBPR+? Forward-thinking institutions are already starting to look to this horizon.
BNY’s executive platform owner, treasury services, Carl Slabicki, explains that emerging technologies will transform cross-border payments post-ISO 20022 by enabling real-time, data-rich, and interoperable transactions. Indeed, “AI helps enhance fraud detection
and analytics; APIs and open finance improve client experiences; and DLT offers potential for transparency and settlement efficiency to pair with more traditional infrastructure. Cloudnative platforms support scalable processing, while full MX adoption by
end-2025 will standardise global messaging."
Slabicki believes institutions embracing these tools early gain operational agility and competitive advantage. Standard Chartered’s global head of payments, David Rego, agrees, saying that “In a post-ISO 20022 migration landscape, emerging technologies will
greatly leverage richer, standardised payment data to transform cross-border payments.”
Rego adds that blockchain and stablecoin will enable faster cross-border settlements, “reshaping traditional correspondent banking models”. Various forms of tokenised money, like tokenised deposits, stablecoins, and CBDCs, “will likely introduce new configurations
for payment flows and rails, ushering in new levels of speed for international transactions.”
With this in mind, Rego confirmed that Standard Chartered is involved in various CBDC projects; and is actively collaborating with stablecoin issuers and digital asset custodians.
Commerzbank’s global head of payment platforms, Simone Loefgen, also feels that post-ISO 20022 migration, the landscape for cross-border payments is set to be transformed by emerging technologies – particularly AI and DLT, including stablecoins.
Loefgen states that while the shift to ISO 20022 has already revamped messaging standards for payments, FIs still need to embrace technology beyond simple conversion processes – integrating state-of-the-art solutions to efficiently respond to ongoing market
developments and future technological advancements.
“With developments such as ISO 20022, we can expect more seamless international transactions and improved transparency with data becoming richer, more structured and standardised. By standardising and structuring payment data, ISO 20022 limits inconsistencies
that can disrupt automated processing. This enhanced data quality enables more efficient transaction processing, interoperability between market infrastructures, improved transaction monitoring capabilities, and streamlined reconciliation processes,” states
Annelinda Koldewe, global head of payments and cash management, ING.
In a post-ISO 20022 migration landscape, AI – laser-guided by regulation – will facilitate payment systems that are more secure, efficient and responsive to the needs of FIs and their customers than ever before.
Collaboration between the private and public sectors is becoming increasingly foundational to the level of future prosperity and innovation in cross-border payments.