In 2021 the G20 set targets for cross-border payments, mostly for the end of 2027: an average retail cost no higher than one per cent, no corridor above three per cent, and 75 per cent of payments arriving within an hour. The FSB's 2025 report showed limited progress. In 2025, around 35 per cent of payments arrived within an hour. The goals are clear; the structure underneath them is not built for them.
The targets, restated
| Target | Goal |
|---|---|
| Average retail cost | No higher than 1% |
| Any single corridor | No higher than 3% |
| Speed | 75% within an hour |
Each target attacks a different failure. Cost is a pricing problem, corridor caps are a fairness problem, and speed is a plumbing problem.
Why cost misses
Cost is not one charge but many: FX margin, lifting fees, intermediary deductions, scheme tariffs and credit fees, each levied by a different party with no single owner of the total. Because no participant sees the whole bill, no participant is positioned to reduce it. Transparency helps at the margin, but the structural fix is to move less money — netting offsetting flows — and to check compliance once instead of at every hop.
Why speed misses
The hour target collides with cut-off windows, time zones, batch cycles and manual repair. A payment that misses a window waits for the next one, and duplicated screening adds queues that have nothing to do with transmission speed. Getting to 75 per cent requires mechanisms that do not depend on a single rail's timetable.
Why corridor caps miss
A corridor cap is hard to enforce when routes are bilateral and trust is personal rather than rule-based. Where relationships have thinned, the remaining paths carry the pricing power. Codifying trust — so that any participant can rely on another's due diligence under a shared, multilateral rule — widens the set of viable paths and gives the caps something to bite on.
In short
- The G20 set 1% average cost, 3% corridor and 75%-in-an-hour targets, mostly for end-2027.
- The FSB's 2025 report found limited progress; about 35% arrived within an hour.
- Cost is fragmented across parties, so no one owns the total.
- Speed is limited by windows, time zones and duplicated screening.
- Netting, one compliance check and codified trust address all three.
This content is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice.
For the architectural view behind these mechanisms, see /protocol/.