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Global cross-border payment targets risk masking delays, high costs, warns TPA
Tuesday, November 10, 2026 — 17:23:16 (UTC)
Global cross-border payment targets risk masking delays and high costs, warns The Payments Association
A new report developed with Payall calls for changes to how cross-border payment performance is measured, including greater scrutiny of customer outcomes and a focus on safety and security
LONDON, UK, Tuesday 10 November 2026 – Global targets for cross-border payments risk masking delays and high costs experienced by customers, according to a new report from The Payments Association, a trade group for the payments industry.
The report, Rethinking Cross-border Payments Targets, was developed in collaboration with Payall, a cross-border payments infrastructure provider. It examines whether existing measures of progress accurately reflect the experience of businesses and consumers making international payments.
The Financial Stability Board (FSB) established the targets in 2021 as part of a G20-backed effort to make cross-border payments faster, cheaper, more accessible and more transparent, with most due to be met by the end of 2027.
While recognising the progress made so far, The Payments Association’s Cross-Border Working Group notes that nearly one in five monitored corridors (18.3%) still had average retail payment costs above the FSB’s 3% threshold in 2025, down from 24.1% the year before. Global averages alone cannot show where payments remain slow or expensive, the group argues.
The Payments Association recommends that future targets place greater emphasis on the complete payment journey and performance in individual corridors, including whether funds reach recipients at the expected time and cost.
It also proposes making safety and security an explicit part of the framework, alongside the existing targets for cost, speed, access and transparency. Faster payments can leave less time to detect and stop fraud, yet safety is not currently measured as a standalone target. Proposed measures cover payment fraud and misdirection, fund recovery, financial crime controls and operational and cyber resilience.
Emma Banymandhub, CEO of The Payments Association, said: “Businesses and consumers care what a payment costs and when it arrives, and that is what we need to measure. The international targets have helped bring the industry together, and we’ve seen real progress. The next step is to build on that work by looking at the whole payment journey and making safety and security part of how we measure success.”
Gary Palmer, founder and CEO of Payall Payment Systems, said: “"There has been enormous investment and innovation in cross-border payments, yet they too often remain unacceptably costly, slow and opaque. The targets established in 2021 gave us important, measurable ambitions, but we now need to ask whether progress is being measured in the right way. What matters is not whether one component has improved, but whether the payment experience for all parties has improved.”
Read the Full Report Rethinking Cross Border Payments here.
ENDS
About The Payments Association
The Payments Association (UK& EU) is a community for companies across the payments ecosystem, bringing together industry leaders and innovators to help shape the future of payments and create a combined network of more than 350 member organisations.
The association works closely with industry stakeholders, including the Bank of England, the FCA, HM Treasury, the Payment Systems Regulator, Pay.UK, UK Finance and Innovate Finance, representing industry perspectives and contributing to policy and regulatory discussions.
Its major events include PAY360, the PAY360 Awards and Financial Crime 360, alongside a wider programme of conferences, roundtables and member events.
The Payments Association’s Working Groups bring members together to address key issues affecting the industry, while Payments Intelligence provides research, data-led insight and strategic analysis on developments across the payments landscape.
Media contact
Ellie Langlands, SkyParlour for The Payments Association
ellielanglands@Skyparlour.com
+44 (0)330 043 1315
About Payall
Payall is a global financial technology company modernizing how money moves around the world through banks and other regulated entities. Built from first principles, Payall's first-of-its-kind cross-border payment infrastructure enables financial institutions to deliver safe, transparent, fast, low-cost, and accessible domestic and international payments, while seamlessly integrating with existing systems.
Payall's modular, cloud-based platform digitizes and automates customer onboarding, risk management, regulatory compliance, transaction authorization, foreign exchange, ledgering, payment orchestration and settlement, synchronized in real time across multiple financial institutions. Its global payment gateway connects financial institutions to domestic interbank networks, innovative payment platforms and emerging technologies, including stablecoins. Payall empowers financial institutions to compete and participate in cross-border payments on their own terms—as originating institutions, receive banks, or correspondent banks—while retaining independent control over their businesses.
Headquartered in Miami Beach, Florida, Payall is backed by a16z / Andreessen Horowitz, Ventura Capital, Motivate Ventures, Thomson Reuters, Presidio Ventures (Sumitomo Corporation), RRE Ventures, and prominent financial technology industry leaders.
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Source: Company press release. 
Categories: Reports and research
