Payments have been around hundreds, if not thousands, of years. Many believed the challenges of how to exchange electronic payment messages at scale, across country, and indeed, country borders, had largely been overcome. Many payment networks have existed for over 40 years, and would look familiar to anyone who had used them during that period. But things are changing - rapidly.

Today, the world is quite different. Payments are a key part of how banks compete – not just on price but on experience, choice, visibility, transparency, etc. The move from being seen as a cost centre to considering payments as a valuable tool in the bank’s proposition is changing how banks think about payments. Technology and competition are both enabling and driving significant change as a result. This is likely to be even more visible in cross-border payments.

Are banks ready?

Whatever a bank views as their future in cross-border payments, they will need to plan to do something. Change is inevitable, whether through regulation, competition, or customer expectations changing. The pace of technology alone creates compelling reasons to do so. And increasingly, doing nothing won’t really be an option.