The efficiency of cross-border payments significantly impacts businesses, consumers and financial institutions around the globe.
Last year, the G20 endorsed a roadmap for improvements developed by the Financial Stability Board (FSB) built on earlier findings of key challenges in cross-border payments: speed, cost, transparency and access. The roadmap provides a high-level plan to carry forward a set of building blocks developed to address those challenges over the next several years. While the actions primarily involve the public sector, the private sector will play an important role in providing feedback on and contributing to roadmap deliverables.
Targets for Addressing the Four Challenges of Cross-Border Payments
One of the first deliverables of this initiative involves establishing quantitative global targets for reducing cost, increasing speed, and improving access and transparency in cross-border payments across several segments of the market. A consultative report (Off-site) on the proposed targets was released on May 31, 2021, for input from public and private-sector stakeholders.
The report (Off-site) preface invites the public to provide input on a number of questions, such as whether the targets are appropriately designed and can be measured, whether the three segments – wholesale, retail and remittance payments – are sufficiently clear and reflect the diversity of the ecosystem, if the dates for achieving the targets are realistic (but sufficiently ambitious) and how the FSB should think about measuring progress for each target.
All comments are due to the FSB by email at fsb@fsb.org by Friday, July 16. The FSB will consider feedback received during the consultation and submit a final report to the G20 in October 2021.
The Federal Reserve will continue participating in global collaboration and assessing potential opportunities and implications for the United States and the industry through its role on the FSB and other standard-setting bodies. The Fed also independently monitors developments in cross-border payments and engages with stakeholders to gather input and foster broader industry education and dialogue. Check back for updates on this initiative and to learn more about advancement efforts in the cross-border payments landscape.