The 5th Annual Competitive Advantage in Banking Report Snapshots

Payments Verification

Shifting from regional innovation to a global standard, with CoP and VoP but implementation schedules vary.
1 in 3  Payment Pioneers say their Payment Verification planning is complete.

ISO and Message Transformation

ISO readiness levels range from enthusiastic adoption to cautious delay.
67% of Payment Pioneers have multiple use cases for leveraging ISO 20022.
 

Cash Management

Institutions are making strides toward automation and integration, significant challenges remain.
50% of Payment Pioneers indicate they have ‘a single view of cash’.
 

Sanctions Screening

Institutions highly value accurate screening to reduce false positives, avoiding inefficiency and extra compliance work.
37% of respondents cited high false positive rates as their top challenge in sanctions screening.

Swift Connectivity and Value-Added Services

Banks seek seamless Swift Connectivity and integrated solutions that add value, and exceed customer expectations.
The prioritisation of Swift GPI jumped from 35% in 2024 to 56% in 2025.

 

Real-Time and Cross-Border Payments

Institutions must modernise real-time payment capabilities and tackle cross-border visibility and cost challenges to meet customer expectations.
42% of financial institutions say legacy infrastructure is the biggest barrier to real-time payments adoption.

Payments Modernization & Customer Experience

Institutions are strengthening their payment strategies, from fraud mitigation and compliance to real-time capabilities.
Over a third of respondents say tackling payment fraud is their number one roadmap item.

Operational Efficiency & Resilience

SaaS is emerging as the most effective way to improve efficiency, scalability and compliance.
Over half of surveyed institutions see “End-to-end operational efficiency” the top benefit of SaaS for enhancing efficiency.