Produced by The Payments Association, in collaboration with Payall Payment Systems
The global payments industry stands at a defining moment. Innovation is accelerating — from tokenised deposits and programmable ledgers to stablecoins and 24/7 settlement networks. Yet every advancement reveals the same underlying challenge: the global financial system still runs on fragmented, decades-old infrastructure not designed for real-time, borderless money movement.
This whitepaper, Navigating the Next Wave of Cross-Border Payments: Can Innovation Conquer the Challenges Ahead?, brings together industry leaders — including Gary Palmer (Payall), Dr. Ruth Wandhöfer, Kamran Hedjri (PXP Financial), Natalie Lewis (Travers Smith), and others — to explore how the ecosystem can advance innovation without compromising safety, compliance, or inclusion.
Why This Whitepaper Is Important
Innovation in payments isn’t just accelerating — it’s diverging.
While tokenisation, stablecoins, and instant settlement promise speed and access, they also expose deep gaps in supervision, transparency, and global coordination.
This whitepaper is essential for anyone shaping the future of cross-border finance because it:
Maps the technological and regulatory shifts driving the next decade of payments.
Examines stablecoins and tokenised money as catalysts for change — and their operational blind spots.
Highlights regulatory frameworks like MiCAR, the U.S. GENIUS Act, and the UK’s proposed stablecoin rules — and the fragmentation they expose.
Introduces the concept of a Global Single Shared Platform — a model for unified oversight and infrastructure that complements both fiat and digital innovation. (Read more about the Global Single Shared Platform here.)
It’s not just a report on what’s happening — it’s a blueprint for how the global payments ecosystem can evolve with confidence, transparency, and shared control.
Key Themes and Findings
Innovation and fragmentation grow in parallel. Tokenisation, stablecoins, and new fiat networks expand reach but deepen oversight and interoperability gaps.
Stablecoins and digital assets are entering the mainstream — transacting trillions on-chain — yet still depend on banks, regulation, and robust fiat backstops.
Regulatory alignment lags behind innovation. MiCAR, the U.S. GENIUS Act, and the UK’s stablecoin framework mark progress but reveal fragmented global standards.
Infrastructure is the missing foundation. Without shared systems for compliance and transparency, risk remains manual and reactive.
A Global Single Shared Platform (GSSP) — aligned with central-bank settlement models but enhanced for the modern era — synchronizes ledger operations, compliance, and rule execution, addressing what blockchain and stablecoins alone cannot.
The Way Forward
The report calls for collaboration across banks, regulators, and innovators to build interoperable digital infrastructure that merges innovation with oversight.
A Global Single Shared Platform offers the path forward — connecting every participant to the same trusted data, enabling pre-transaction rule execution, on-demand audit, and real-time visibility.
This is the foundation for cross-border payments that are safe, transparent, low-cost, and inclusive — by design, not by exception.
Download the Whitepaper
Explore the global findings from The Payments Association’s Cross-Border Payments Working Group, developed in collaboration with Payall, to understand how innovation, regulation, and shared infrastructure can finally converge to build a safer global payment future.
