Global financial authorities are set to fall short of the G20’s ambitious goal to make cross-border payments faster, cheaper and more transparent by 2027.
This is according to an update from the Financial Stability Board’s (FSB) Consolidated Progress Report for 2025.
Despite steady policy development and infrastructure upgrades since the initiative began in 2020, the reforms have yet to deliver meaningful improvements for businesses and consumers worldwide.
The G20’s Roadmap for Enhancing Cross-Border Payments was launched five years ago to address long-standing inefficiencies in international transactions.
The targets, formalised in 2021, set out clear metrics — including reducing the global average cost of a retail cross-border payment to no more than 1%, and ensuring that 75% of wholesale and retail payments are credited within one hour.
But the latest data show only marginal gains since 2023, suggesting that those objectives are unlikely to be met within the original timeframe.
Incremental progress, enduring challenges
“It’s becoming clear that the targets are not going to be hit by 2027,” admitted FSB Deputy Secretary General Martin Moloney, speaking to Reuters.
The challenge, he said, lies in the sheer complexity of overhauling the global payments infrastructure across hundreds of jurisdictions.
The FSB’s Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) show that the speed of wholesale transactions and personal remittances has improved modestly — a positive sign for those dependent on international wage transfers and family support.
However, progress on cost reduction has been sluggish.
Fees for sending money abroad remain high, particularly in emerging markets, where average remittance costs still hover well above the 3% UN Sustainable Development Goal threshold.
Transparency has also improved only slightly, with limited quantitative data available to paint a complete global picture.
The report concludes that, while the foundational policy work is largely complete, end-users have yet to see material benefits in their day-to-day payment experiences.
The cost of fragmentation
Experts argue that the persistent inefficiencies stem less from a lack of innovation than from fragmented regulation.
David Patrick, Head of Payments Strategy at RedCompass Labs, notes that “despite advances in digital technology and the rise of neo-banks, cross-border payment costs remain stubbornly high, mainly due to the hidden costs of information security, compliance, and the complexity of operating across multiple regulatory regimes.”
Each jurisdiction enforces its own frameworks for data protection, anti-money laundering and capital controls, often without interoperability.
This patchwork of rules, Patrick argues, “adds friction instead of efficiency.”
He calls for “greater regulatory alignment, not simply more regulation,” if the global industry is to realise the G20’s vision.
A call for renewed momentum
As stablecoins, central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) and blockchain-based systems enter the mainstream, policymakers face renewed pressure to update the G20 Roadmap for a changing landscape.
Moloney has called for “a rich and focused debate” among G20 leaders on whether to extend the current 2027 deadline or establish new, more realistic targets.
For now, the G20’s vision of faster, cheaper, more transparent cross-border payments remains unfinished business — a reminder that technological promise alone cannot overcome the inertia of regulatory and infrastructural fragmentation.
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