Trust at the till: AI compliance for retailers and their customers
November 6, 2026
An industry-led assessment of the FSB’s cross-border payment targets, examining where progress is falling short, why global measures can obscure end-user outcomes, and how the framework should evolve, produced by The Payments Association’s Cross-Border Working Group in collaboration with Payall.
The FSB’s targets established a common framework for improving the cost, speed, access and transparency of cross-border payments. Progress, however, should ultimately be judged by the experience of the end user.
This report finds that global averages can conceal poor outcomes in individual corridors, while improvements to payment infrastructure do not necessarily translate into faster, cheaper or more accessible payments. The framework also leaves security outside the formal target structure despite its growing importance.
No cost KPI has reached the 1% target, and 18.3% of monitored corridors still exceed the 3% cap. A falling global average can coexist with stagnant costs in the corridors where cost matters most.
Around 89% of SWIFT payments reach the recipient’s bank within an hour, but only around 60% reach the customer’s account in that time. The delay sits in the final leg: compliance checks, batch processing, and operating hours, and the target explicitly carves compliance out. In many cases, predictability is more important than speed.
Progress is tracked through account ownership, which is a precondition for access rather than a measure of it. The unbanked are absent from the KPI. The target is satisfied by a single option, however slow or expensive. It also ignores whether PSPs can access payment systems, which determines whether options exist in the first place.
The KPI checks only whether cost and speed are disclosed at initiation. Only 62.9% of cost-transparent providers also disclose speed. Status tracking, delays and failures go unmeasured.
Faster, cheaper and more accessible payments can also increase exposure to fraud and other risks. Yet the current framework does not explicitly measure safety, making it difficult to assess whether gains in cost, speed and access are being achieved without increasing risk.
The Payments Association’s working groups comprise industry experts from across the payments chain, who share the mission of driving industry change to shape the future payments landscape and improve the industry on behalf of members of the association.
Being a member of one of The Payments Association’s working groups comes with a host of benefits:
In addition, committee members will receive:
All working group members are representatives of organisations with The Payments Association membership.
“The Cross-Border Working Group aims to foster a collaborative approach when providing thought leadership to TPA membership and gathering feedback for industry stakeholders that challenges the regulatory evolution of international payments. We want to ensure that the international payments framework accounts for the broad range of current and future requirements of its local and international users and encourages healthy competition between a wide range of providers.”
The cross-border working group published a whitepaper providing 10 key takeaways to improve the future of cross-border payments, citing a series of interviews with experts and a survey of 100+ industry professionals.
Cross-border payments are perceived as inherently high risk due to reliance on manual process and lack of transparency among the players. This has created knock on effects (slow, expensive and limited services) for senders and recipients of cross-border payments; a complicated and burdensome regulatory environment that fails significantly in meeting its goals to stop international money laundering and other nefarious acts; and, ultimately, a lack of competition and innovation — continuing the cycle.
The Cross–border Working Group published a short report highlighting the key challenges, barriers and complexities our members face when delivering and receiving cross-border payments.
The Cross-border working group co-hosted a Global Payments Forum meeting with IIF and EPA Asia, which examined the role of CBDCs in disrupting cross-border payments.
In this episode of the Insights podcast, Tony Craddock, Director General of the Payments Association, welcomes Gary Palmer, CEO and Chairman of Payall, for a focused discussion on the evolution and challenges of cross-border payments. With decades of experience, Palmer offers a critical analysis of why this sector, crucial to the global economy, has seen limited technological advancement and outlines the transformative changes on the horizon.
Please fill out the form to indicate your interest in receiving more information about The Payments Association’s Cross-border Working Group. A member of our Project Team will be in touch with you shortly.
