Cross-Border Payments: Speed, Cost, and New Rails in 2025

For years, sending money across borders meant waiting days, paying high fees, and guessing where your cash got stuck. A payment from the U.S. to Kenya? Three to five days. Fees? Nearly 7% of the amount. No tracking. No clarity. That’s not just inconvenient-it’s expensive for families, small businesses, and global startups. But in 2025, that old system is crumbling. A new wave of technology is rewriting the rules of cross-border payments, making them faster, cheaper, and more transparent than ever before.

The Old Way Was Broken

The legacy system relied on correspondent banking: your bank sends money to another bank, which sends it to another, and so on-sometimes five intermediaries deep. Each one takes a cut. SWIFT, the messaging network that’s been around since 1973, didn’t move money-it just told banks where to send it. And it used outdated message formats (MT) that couldn’t carry rich data. If something went wrong, you had no idea why. No receipt. No timeline. Just silence.

The numbers don’t lie. In 2024, the average cost of a cross-border payment was 6.42%, according to the World Bank. For a $500 remittance, that’s over $30 in fees. Settlements took 3-5 days. And for small businesses trying to pay overseas suppliers or freelancers, that delay choked cash flow.

ISO 20022 Is the New Standard

The biggest shift in 2025 isn’t flashy-it’s technical. ISO 20022 is the new universal language for payments. Unlike the old MT messages, ISO 20022 uses structured XML data. It doesn’t just say “send $1,000.” It says: “Send $1,000 from John Doe in New York to Maria Lopez in Manila for invoice #INV-2025-048, related to IT services, with tax ID attached.”

By November 2025, every financial institution had to switch. No more MT messages. No exceptions. This forced the entire industry to upgrade. The result? Payments now carry context. That means fewer errors, faster reconciliation, and better fraud detection. Banks using ISO 20022 report 50% fewer payment exceptions. For companies, it’s not just about speed-it’s about clean accounting.

Real-Time Rails Are Here

It’s no longer enough to say “faster.” Today, payments need to be instant. And they are-in many corridors.

Platforms like Thunes and Due connect directly to local instant payment systems. Need to pay a freelancer in India? Thunes routes the payment through UPI, India’s real-time system that handles 11.5 billion transactions a month. The money lands in under 10 seconds. In the EU, payments flow through TIPS (Target Instant Payment Settlement), the ECB’s platform that now supports multi-currency settlements. Sweden and Denmark already use it for cross-border payouts. Norway joins in 2028.

Even corridors once considered too risky-like the UK to Kenya or the U.S. to the Philippines-are now live 24/7. Thunes delivers 99% real-time settlement across 60+ instant systems. Due offers virtual bank accounts in EUR, USD, and GBP, so you collect money locally and pay out globally without holding foreign currency.

Blockchain Isn’t the Future-It’s the Bridge

You hear “blockchain” and think Bitcoin. But in cross-border payments, it’s not about crypto speculation. It’s about tokenized cash.

Companies like BVNK use stablecoins-digital tokens pegged to the U.S. dollar-as bridges between currencies. Instead of converting USD to EUR through a bank (with FX fees and delays), you convert USD to USDC, send it across a blockchain in under 3 minutes, then convert it to EUR on the other side. The result? Settlements that used to take days now take minutes. Fees drop by 70-85%.

But it’s not perfect. Volatility during market swings can eat into savings. And regulatory pressure is mounting. The Financial Action Task Force now requires 100% Travel Rule compliance for transactions over $1,000 by January 2026. That means every stablecoin transfer must include sender and receiver details-just like a bank wire. Firms using this model now spend $25,000-$75,000 a year on compliance software.

Multi-Rail Orchestration Is the Smart Play

No single system works everywhere. That’s why the smartest companies don’t pick one rail-they use them all.

This is called multi-rail orchestration. A payment might go through Visa Direct for a card push in Latin America, then switch to a local ACH system in the U.S., then use tokenized cash to bridge a weekend gap in Southeast Asia. The system automatically picks the fastest, cheapest path based on amount, destination, and risk.

Thunes’ single API gives access to 130+ countries through bank accounts, digital wallets, cash outlets, and cards. Due offers the same with virtual IBANs and Fedwire access. These platforms handle the complexity so you don’t have to. Integration? Two to four weeks. Cost? Under $50,000. Compare that to SWIFT implementation, which takes 12-18 months and costs over $500,000.

Who’s Winning in 2025?

Legacy banks are struggling. SWIFT gpi improved tracking and cut processing times-but it’s still bound by the same old infrastructure. Meanwhile, fintechs like Thunes and Due are scaling fast. Thunes has a 4.6/5 rating on G2 Crowd. Users love the single API. But some note liquidity issues in emerging markets.

Due scores 4.3/5 on Trustpilot. Customers rave about multi-currency accounts. But complaints pop up when converting stablecoins to fiat during high-volume periods.

Enterprise adoption is climbing. 68% of Fortune 500 companies now use multi-rail strategies. Small businesses, once locked out, can now access the same tools through APIs. A startup in Lagos can pay a developer in Poland the same way a multinational pays its Singapore office.

The Road Ahead

The next big leap? Project Nexus, led by the Bank for International Settlements. It’s connecting national instant payment systems-like India’s UPI, Singapore’s PayNow, and the EU’s TIPS-into one global network. By Q2 2026, seven major systems will be linked. Imagine sending money from a UPI app in India directly to a PayNow wallet in Singapore. No intermediaries. No currency conversion. Instant.

By 2027, Gartner predicts 45% of cross-border payments will use tokenization. Real-time corridors will grow from 50 to over 100 countries.

But challenges remain. Regulatory fragmentation is the biggest roadblock. 78% of payment executives say inconsistent global rules slow innovation. Compliance is expensive. And blockchain’s capacity still lags behind Visa’s 150 million daily transactions.

Still, the direction is clear. Cross-border payments are no longer a cost center. They’re a competitive advantage. The companies that move fast, pay less, and track every dollar will win.

What You Should Do Now

If you’re sending money internationally:

• Check if your provider uses ISO 20022-ask for the payment reference ID and tracking details.
• For frequent payments, test a fintech API like Thunes or Due. Compare fees and speed against your bank.
• If you’re handling crypto or stablecoins, ensure you’re compliant with the Travel Rule. Don’t wait until January 2026.
• Start mapping your top 5 payment corridors. Are they still using SWIFT? Can they be switched to real-time rails?

The old system is still running. But it’s fading. The new rails are live. The question isn’t whether to switch-it’s how fast you can.