The G20 roadmap for cross-border payments

The FSB wrote the roadmap at the request of the G20 in 2020, with 19 building blocks aimed at the frictions behind high cost and slow speed. In October 2021 the G20 leaders endorsed 11 global targets for three market segments: wholesale payments, retail payments and remittances. In February 2023 the FSB revised the roadmap around 15 priority actions in three themes: interoperability and extension of payment systems, legal, regulatory and supervisory frameworks, and cross-border data exchange and message standards. The FSB's page on cross-border payments keeps the documents.

For retail payments the average cost should fall to 1 percent by the end of 2027, with no corridor above 3 percent, and 75 percent of payments should reach the payee within one hour, the rest within one business day, as The Paypers summarizes. For remittances the cost target is 3 percent for a 200-dollar transfer by 2030, with no corridor above 5 percent. Every end user should have at least one way to send or receive a cross-border electronic payment. The hub answer on how cross-border payments work lists the targets in a table.

The FSB's report of October 9, 2025 says most of the policy work is done but has not yet translated into tangible improvements for end users. Wholesale payments got faster and remittances arrive faster, while the average cost of remittances stays high. The Paypers reads the 2025 indicators this way: 35.4 percent of retail payments arrive within one hour, 39.6 points short of the target, and 62.9 percent of services disclose both cost and speed. The FSB will now concentrate on monitoring and on the implementation of what has been agreed, including the FATF's revised Recommendation 16 on payment transparency.

The roadmap reaches European payments through rules and infrastructure. The richer data of the ISO 20022 migration serves the data theme. The ECB cites the roadmap as the reason for linking its instant payment service TIPS with fast payment systems abroad, the subject of cross-border instant payments. Inside the EU, euro payments to another member state already cost the same as domestic ones, which the page on cross-border payments in Europe explains. The gap sits in payments to countries outside SEPA and in other currencies.

Eleven quantitative targets for cost, speed, access and transparency in three segments: wholesale payments, retail payments and remittances. Most are due by the end of 2027; the remittance cost target of 3 percent runs to 2030.

The FSB does not expect it. Its 2025 progress report states that satisfactory improvements at the global level are unlikely in line with the 2027 timetable, mainly because cost and transparency for end users have barely moved.

The Financial Stability Board coordinates it through its Cross-Border Payments Coordination Group, together with the BIS Committee on Payments and Market Infrastructures, which also supplies data on correspondent banking.