The G20 set its cross-border payment targets in 2021 with an end-2027 horizon, and gave them numbers that could be checked: an average retail cost no higher than 1%, no corridor above 3%, and 75% of payments settled within an hour. Targets of that kind are useful precisely because they cannot be massaged. They also make the shortfall visible.

Where the goals stand

The FSB's 2025 report describes limited progress. On the speed objective, around 35% of payments arrived within an hour in 2025, well short of the 75% goal with little time remaining. The picture is uneven across corridors: some move briskly, others barely at all.

This is not a story of indifference. Supervisors, schemes and institutions have invested. The gap is better explained by the fit between the targets and the underlying architecture.

Why the roadmap slipped

The targets assume a network that can route, net and validate flows as a system. Much of the correspondent layer does not work that way. Relationships are bilateral; each payment is processed on its own; the same checks are repeated across institutions that also compete with one another.

  • Trust is personal and non-transferable, so it cannot be reused across the network.
  • Offsetting flows are not netted, so the full amount moves.
  • Routing is largely fixed by relationships rather than chosen by cost, time and reliability.

Where those conditions hold, meeting a one-hour standard rests on volume and luck rather than design.

What the gap reveals

The evidence points to a missing layer rather than a missing rail. A connective settlement layer — where legitimacy is validated once, offsetting flows cancel and the remainder is routed to the best path — is what the targets implicitly assume. Building it is a governance question as much as a technical one, because it requires institutions that are competitors to rely on shared rules.

This content is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice.

In short

  • The G20 targets run mainly to end-2027.
  • Around 35% of payments met the one-hour goal in 2025.
  • Cost goals are ≤1% average retail and no corridor above 3%.
  • Bilateral relationships make systemic targets hard to reach.
  • The gap points to a missing connective layer, not a missing rail.

Read how institutions take part in the protocol at /institutions/.