Banks and FinTechs Rewire Cross-Border Payments for CFOs
Cross-border payments traditionally pass through correspondent banks, splitting messaging, foreign exchange, compliance screening, liquidity provisioning, settlement and reconciliation across multiple systems. That structure can delay transactions and force companies to pre-fund accounts in several markets. Stablecoins and tokenized deposits matter because programmable rails could combine those six functions, giving chief financial officers better cash visibility, reducing trapped liquidity and making treasury operations more predictable.
PYMNTS reported on Aug. 26 that banks, FinTechs and infrastructure providers were advancing five interoperability initiatives: BLOOM, Project Agorá, Project Pangea, Qivalis and UniKA. The tests span multicurrency payments, central bank money, tokenized deposits and atomic settlement across institutions and jurisdictions. No common launch date, investment amount or transaction volume was disclosed. The contest is shifting from issuing digital money to controlling the connective layer that routes regulated funds and integrates FX, compliance and settlement.
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The history behind this eventCentral Banks Reshape Cross-Border Payment Rules and Deepen Bank-FinTech Collaboration
Cross-border payments have long relied on correspondent banks, local clearing networks and repeated compliance checks, resulting in high costs and uncertain settlement times. The U.S. Federal Reserve, the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) and others are therefore exploring links between real-time domestic payment rails and tokenized central bank money. Success will depend not only on speed but also on interoperability across institutions, data standards and platforms, as well as collaboration between banks and FinTech firms.
On April 13, 2026, PYMNTS reported that the Federal Reserve had proposed allowing U.S. banks to use FedNow for international settlement through intermediaries. The BIS-led Project Agorá, meanwhile, is bringing together seven central banks to test tokenized funds. As of November 2025, mBridge, whose participants include the central banks of the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, had processed 4,047 transactions worth $55.49 billion. Separately, two-thirds of banks had partnered with FinTech firms.
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