Global business payments are poised for rapid growth as regulations, technology standards, and industry plans converge. For corporate treasurers and bank strategists alike, the Sibos panel “Meet the Experts: G20 Cross-Border Payment Targets – Maximizing on the ISO 20022 Opportunity” gave a clear look at the future of messaging and payments.

At the heart of the action is the push for the G20’s four ambitious outcomes – speed, transparency, cost, and access – alongside migration to the ISO 20022 standard.

Moderator Zhenya Winter of Bottomline opened by emphasizing the scale of market change and the stakeholder responsibility shared across banking and business payments. Speaking to an audience intimately familiar with the massive growth in global payment flows, she said the scale of change projected ($320 trillion in global cross-border payments by 2032) means "we all need to have a stake in the game."

Each expert brought a distinct experience and perspective to the conversation. François Maigre, Head of Payments for EMEA at Swift, drew from knowledge of Europe’s payment superhighways and the world’s leading source of financial traffic. Annick Moes of the Euro Banking Association (EBA), and also a key member of EBA CLEARING, offered insights into regulation, liquidity, and cooperation.

Vitus Rotzer, Financial Messaging Product leader at Bottomline, dissected the technical and operational glue of cross-border financial messaging. Adding his viewpoint from one of the world’s largest banks, Alex Loyden, Head of EMEA Global Clearing Product at J.P. Morgan Payments, focused on the pragmatic realities of implementation.

Panelists highlighted not just the scale but also the multiplicity of the new payments progression. Maigre noted the "acceleration in terms of payments growth” in the post-pandemic era, yet underlined that “resiliency, when it comes to global trade,” is crucial.

Rotzer stressed regional differentiation, saying, “North America [is] leading in terms of amounts, in terms of value, and the APAC region is leading in terms of number of volume of transactions.” The point: value and volume differ, and there is no one-size-fits-all model.

 

The G20 Vision Confronts Reality

Panelists examined the gap between intentions and practicalities. Maigre said that “only 46% of the payments processed on our network are meeting the G20 speed targets of delivery within one hour. There’s still some work to be done.”

However, he noted that most transactions are already making the grade, saying, “75% of transactions reach the beneficiary bank within 10 minutes,” only to then stumble in the “last mile” settlement. The roadblocks often aren’t sudden technical failures, they agreed, but rather embedded regulatory and operational frictions.

These factors “have an impact on speed. We don’t say it’s bad, but we need to acknowledge that they are there,” Maigre said. For banks, “same day value transfer” is the historical baseline, yet “it’s not meeting the G20 targets, [and] definitely not customer expectation.”

The EBA’s Moes sounded an alarm about another major operational challenge at this time of change: liquidity management. She cautioned that “if you have all of these different rails and all of these different channels, you usually also need a liquidity pot for each of them,” and the logistical work of managing liquidity “24/7 and on weekends...gets quite tricky.”

Her analysis warned that as choice and flexibility in payment channels increase, complexity also increases, so the risk of trapped liquidity “will move higher up on your list.”

Loyden acknowledged that regulatory complexity can be burdensome. He also noted that “different regional interpretations can add friction both to onboarding and the transaction itself.” This idea echoed throughout the debate. With complexity raging on every front, it’s about collectively solving for the most persistent pain points first.

 

Market Fragmentation, Operational Barriers

Rotzer, reflecting on cross-border standards, was direct: “There’s fragmentation around the world, with what’s being adopted, what isn’t, and how well technical standards are executed.”

Given today’s array of rails, currencies, and local practices, the interoperability of technical standards can mean the difference between progress and lag. Rotzer said that the aim should be to ensure payment system efficiency “not only cross-border, but also last mile.”

That takes collaboration. Moes noted how the banking sector is working on frameworks for fraud detection and information exchange, for example. She noted that new “industry-wide fraud taxonomy” projects allow banks and regulators to use “the same language when speaking about fraud ... so that [there's] also a good foundation for cross-border payments, when they are speedy, to also be safe.”

Major investments in technology are the norm, yet Loyden pointed out that balancing the need for speed with best-of-breed fraud defenses can optimize that spend. He called this “investment in process automation and data structures tailored for risk mitigation, not just speed.”

In the end, there is widespread agreement, reflected during this discussion, that regulatory demands may be burdensome, but they are an ecosystem necessity.

 

ISO 20022 as a Unifying Force

Throughout the session, panelists credited ISO 20022 as the foundational enabler for aligning global payments, harmonizing data, and unlocking G20 target attainment.

Rotzer called it “the glue and the prerequisite to solve all of this," adding that full integration demands broad, coordinated industry buy-in from banks to corporates.

Panel experts took turns tackling major issues now facing B2B payments and FM, including:

  • Speed: Moes countered early myths about ISO 20022 slowing transaction processing. “It was one of the very early legends,” she said. “That is absolutely not how it panned out. The more structured your data is, the faster it can run, and even extend speed benefits beyond what we thought possible.”
     
  • Access and Interoperability: Rotzer argued that consistent standards are essential, saying, “It’s only by having a harmonization of the format everywhere that we can reach interoperability.”
     
  • Transparency: Maigre emphasized the transparency boost ISO 20022 delivers. “If you are able to isolate the necessary data elements in the ISO message,” he said, “then you can start really to look at automating those reporting requirements. You have the option to have visibility on all actors in the payment chain.”
     
  • Cost: Loyden addressed the price tag of this change and highlighted its importance: “The move to ISO 20022 has cost ... a lot in terms of investments to upgrade systems infrastructure. It is foundational. It’s a long-term play to ensure that the future benefits of speed, cost, transparency…can be realized.”

 

Security, Investment, and the Collaboration Path

The pace and technical demands of B2B payments have elevated operational risk, putting both security and collaboration center stage. Loyden reemphasized that “balancing speed and fraud is key,” adding that using structured data can “enhance seamless, automated fraud processes” across business and banking communities.

Moes reiterated that a cross-association fraud detection taxonomy is critical for the future, allowing “banks, infrastructure providers, and regulators to all speak the same language and respond rapidly to threats, even under the pressure of increased transaction speeds.”

For his part, Maigre reinforced the need for secure progress, saying “There’s absolutely no way that these outcomes ... can come at the expense of the security of the ecosystem.”