Financial institutions and corporations continue to face costly and slow international payment systems. Global policymakers have now established concrete targets and deadlines to accelerate improvements in cross-border transfers.
G20 steps up commitment to cross-border payment reforms
A participant in a SibosTV panel highlighted ongoing challenges in cross-border payments, including high transaction costs, limited access, sluggish processing, and a lack of transparency. She emphasized that pinpointing root causes has been key to developing solutions.
She indicated that G20 involvement has strengthened political support and driven progress among institutions working to modernize international payment systems. The G20, a group representing major economies worldwide, is leading initiatives to set measurable improvement goals for the financial industry.
“Sending money between countries is still too slow. The issues being discussed are problems that have persisted for years in cross-border payments,” wrote analyst X Finance Bull, pointing to the relevance of Ripple and Stellar networks.
FSB establishes deadlines to lower costs and speed up transfers
The Financial Stability Board (FSB), an international organization overseeing global financial systems, has set milestone deadlines for cross-border payment reform. By the end of 2027, at least 75% of international payments must reach recipients in under one hour. In addition, the average retail payment cost should drop to at most 1% by the same year.
By 2030, the FSB targets a further reduction in remittance expenses, expecting the average global cost to send a $200 remittance to fall to 3% or less. These benchmarks require banks and payment firms to expedite improvements in speed, affordability, and accessibility.
| Objective | Target | Deadline |
|---|---|---|
| 75% of cross-border payments delivered within 1 hour | Deadline | End of 2027 |
| Average retail payment cost ≤ 1% | Deadline | End of 2027 |
| Remittance cost for $200 ≤ 3% | Target | By 2030 |
XRP Ledger and Stellar as established solutions for global payments
Analyst X Finance Bull has linked these international goals to the current capabilities of XRP Ledger and the Stellar network. Both networks support rapid and low-cost asset transfers, making them suitable for addressing inefficiencies in cross-border payments. Several companies are already leveraging these technologies for instant settlement and remittance.
Ripple, a US-based blockchain firm specializing in enterprise payments, and Bitso, a major crypto exchange in Latin America, have expanded their partnership for stablecoin settlements across the US-Mexico payment corridor. Ripple’s Bitso case study highlights the use of XRP as a settlement asset in cross-border flows.
In South Korea, Jeonbuk Bank pioneered the deployment of Ripple Payments for outbound remittances. Meanwhile, Ripple has secured regulatory approvals in countries such as the United Kingdom, Luxembourg, and Australia.
Stellar, an open-source payments network, has expanded its cross-border presence with projects like MoneyGram Ramps, which links USDC stablecoin transfers on Stellar to cash-out points in over 170 countries. Financial platform BVNK integrated Stellar into its payments platform in September 2026 and reported an annualized processing volume of $39 billion.
Mini dictionary: Financial Stability Board (FSB), an international body that monitors and makes recommendations about the global financial system to ensure stability and coordination across jurisdictions.
Liquidity and adoption rates remain crucial for success
X Finance Bull observed that as payment platforms expand into more global corridors, access to liquidity will become increasingly vital to efficiently facilitate transactions across currencies. This demand is expected to create additional opportunities for digital assets that serve as bridges between payment systems.
X Finance Bull noted, increased adoption and transaction levels in XRP and XLM networks may lead to greater liquidity requirements, but asset performance will depend on real usage and market demand, not volume alone.
In particular, Stellar’s path payments feature allows senders to pay in one currency while recipients get another, with seamless conversion handled by the network. With the proliferation of stablecoins and tokenized assets, this interoperability could significantly improve user experience and drive growth in cross-border payments.
The G20’s reform agenda will run through at least 2030. The extent to which XRP Ledger and Stellar can attract institutional partners and foster payment-related liquidity will determine their impact on making global payments faster, more affordable, and broadly accessible.
