This report draws insights from a recent roundtable held during the Point Zero Forum 2024.
October 2024
1. As cross-border payment flows top $150 trillion annually, veteran and challenger financial institutions are both competing and collaborating to better serve the market.
2. While legacy financial infrastructure has achieved impressive scale and reliability, its patchwork of thirdparty processors, services, and networks impose costs, delays, and inefficiencies that limit interoperability and financial inclusion.
3. Money that is fit for purpose in the always-on global economy should be device-centric and internetnative. This means enhancing the rails on which money can travel and shifting from siloed spreadsheets, message passing, and manual reconciliation to the blockchain. The rapid rise of tokenized cash – in the form of payment stablecoins – reflects a fundamental upgrade that gives fiat currency the powers of the internet.
4. Powered by deep connections with the banking system, tokenized cash can drive the next evolution of global payments. Firms of various types are exploring ways to drive cross-border efficiencies and extend financial access to the world's 1.4 billion unbanked. These efforts will accelerate as regulatory clarity emerges and the demand for financial interoperability rises.
Introduction
Cross-border payments are the flywheel of the global economy, representing over $150 trillion in annual volume, according to a McKinsey report.
At the 2024 Point Zero Forum in Zurich, Switzerland, leading figures from banking, fintech, payments, and ecommerce gathered to unpack the evolution of cross-border payments. Though formally divided into “Veteran” and “Challenger” teams, the debate quickly confirmed significant agreement on issues ranging from access to financial services to KYC/AML enforcement. Both teams see a pressing need to complete unfinished work in the global financial system to make it faster, cheaper, and more inclusive.
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