Swift and participating banks and payment providers are developing a way for consumers to send international payments using familiar identifiers. FedNow is preparing to support the US leg of cross-border payments, while BNY and JP Morgan Payments are expanding access to digital wallets and local bank-account networks.

Elsewhere, UK banks completed live tokenised deposit transactions. Citi extended its tokenised liquidity service into Japan and the UAE, while Bank of America introduced treasury analytics and Crédit Agricole CIB began developing AI features for trade finance.

Read more on the week’s key developments

1. Swift and 14 organisations develop pay-by-alias framework for cross-border payments

Swift and 14 participating organisations announced an initiative on 28 September to extend the experience of domestic instant payments into cross-border transactions. The work aims to let consumers send money internationally using familiar identifiers such as mobile phone numbers, email addresses and virtual payment addresses. Participants include Australian Payments Plus, which operates PayID, Bizum, DBS, BBVA and TerraPay. The initiative draws on the experience of domestic systems such as Spain’s Bizum, Australia’s PayID and Brazil’s Pix. It builds on Swift’s consumer payments framework, launched in June 2026, which now involves more than 100 banks and aims to improve the predictability and speed of retail cross-border payments. Swift said 75% of payments on its network reach receiving banks within 10 minutes, although the new pay-by-alias capability remains under development.

The initiative targets the gap between simple domestic payment experiences and more complex international transfers. Domestic systems such as Pix, Bizum and PayID have reduced reliance on account numbers through proxy identifiers, but these models have largely remained within national markets. Swift’s approach seeks to extend that experience across borders while retaining existing bank payment and settlement infrastructure.

2. FedNow Service prepares to support cross-border payments

Federal Reserve Financial Services announced on 23 September that it is preparing to enable cross-border payments through the FedNow Service. The capability would allow participating financial institutions to send and receive transactions involving parties outside the US, with FedNow processing the US domestic leg. The international portion would continue to move through established correspondent banking arrangements. Potential uses include international payroll, corporate payments, global treasury management and time-sensitive disbursements. A group of organisations will test enhanced message formats before they become available more broadly. The capability remains subject to approval of changes to Regulation J and Operating Circular 8.

The development would extend instant-payment infrastructure into cross-border workflows without replacing the correspondent banking model. Cross-border payments still rely on intermediaries, settlement systems and compliance processes across jurisdictions. FedNow could settle the US leg instantly and carry information needed for the wider transaction, while banks retain their existing international routing arrangements. That does not mean the payment would settle instantly from end to end.

3. BNY enables banks to send cross-border payments to digital wallets

BNY announced a Pay-to-Wallet capability on 28 September that allows banks to send cross-border payments from bank accounts to participating retail wallets using existing Swift messages and correspondent banking infrastructure. It combines BNY’s USD clearing network and round-the-clock processing, with KB Kookmin Bank among its initial users in Asia-Pacific. The service allows banks to reach wallet-based recipients without building separate integrations with individual wallet providers. BNY cites industry estimates that digital wallets account for 50% of point-of-sale transactions in Asia-Pacific, projected to exceed 60% by 2027.

BNY’s initiative addresses a structural mismatch in cross-border payments. Recipients increasingly use digital wallets, while correspondent banking infrastructure remains largely account-based. By using existing Swift messaging and correspondent banking channels, the service attempts to bridge these two systems. The commercial opportunity depends on whether banks can achieve sufficient wallet coverage across major remittance and commerce corridors and whether they view wallet access as an extension of their payment networks rather than a competing distribution channel.

4. JP Morgan Payments expands cross-border reach through Thunes partnership

JP Morgan Payments announced an expansion of its cross-border payment capabilities on 22 September through a collaboration with Thunes. The companies aim to enable clients to send payouts to bank accounts and mobile wallets across more than 100 corridors through the Xpedite Remit service. The offering combines JP Morgan Payments’ connectivity to local real-time payment networks with Thunes’ Direct Global Network, providing access through a single account and connection. It supports uses including supplier settlements, bill payments and remittances, with intended payout reach in markets including India, Mexico, Brazil, Indonesia, Kenya, Nigeria and the Philippines. JP Morgan Payments said the solution could reach approximately 12 billion mobile wallets and bank accounts across Thunes-supported corridors.

The partnership addresses the challenge of providing consistent cross-border payment experiences across fragmented domestic payment systems. By combining JP Morgan Payments’ institutional infrastructure with Thunes’ local connectivity, the model reduces the need for clients to manage multiple market-specific integrations.

5. UK banks complete first live customer transactions using tokenised sterling deposits

Seven UK banks participating in the Great British Tokenised Deposit (GBTD) initiative announced the completion of their first live customer transactions using tokenised sterling deposits on 24 September. Convened by UK Finance, the initiative involves Barclays, HSBC UK, Lloyds Banking Group, Monzo, Nationwide, NatWest and Santander. The transactions included two remortgage completions, where funds were locked and automatically released at completion, and a consumer marketplace transaction where payment was held until conditions linked to the exchange of goods were met. The pilots were executed on the GBTD platform, developed by Quant as shared infrastructure for tokenised commercial bank money.

The pilots move tokenised deposits beyond infrastructure testing into defined transaction workflows where programmability changes how funds are controlled and released. Linking payment release to conditions such as completion could reduce separate checks and settlement delays. The remortgage examples are particularly relevant because they involve multiple parties and settlement coordination. However, the pilots do not yet demonstrate commercial scale.

6. Citi expands tokenised liquidity infrastructure into Japan and the UAE

Citi announced on 28 September that it had expanded Citi Token Services into Japan and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), extending its tokenised deposit-based liquidity and payment capabilities to seven markets. Corporate and institutional clients with accounts in Japan and the UAE can transfer funds to Citi accounts in other enabled locations without being constrained by traditional cut-off times or holiday calendars. The service supports USD transactions in Japan and both USD and EUR transactions in the UAE. Citi uses a private permissioned blockchain to enable near-instant movement of funds and said the platform continues to process billions of dollars in transactions. It is now live in the United States, Ireland, Hong Kong, Singapore, the United Kingdom, Japan and the UAE.

The expansion shows Citi moving tokenised liquidity infrastructure from selected markets into a broader cross-border operating footprint. The value for corporate and institutional clients is not simply faster transfers, but the ability to reposition funds across jurisdictions to support liquidity and collateral needs outside traditional banking cut-off times. However, Citi has not disclosed transaction volumes by market, participating client numbers or the share of treasury activity currently processed through tokenised infrastructure.

7. Bank of America adds AI-powered payment analytics to CashPro treasury platform

Bank of America announced Payments Insights on 28 September, a new capability within its CashPro Data Intelligence suite that provides corporate and commercial clients with analytics on payment efficiency, cross-border flows and working-capital performance. Initially available for clients’ US accounts, the tool uses AI-powered analytics, proprietary peer benchmarking and visualisations to help treasury teams examine payment methods, cross-border flows and currency choices. Payments Insights expands CashPro’s existing data intelligence capabilities. CashPro processed 213 million payments in the first half of 2026, up 10% year on year.

The development shifts treasury platforms from transaction processing towards decision support by using payment data to identify operational patterns, currency usage and potential working-capital opportunities. For large corporates, the value is not additional payment capacity but better visibility across fragmented payment activity, particularly when comparing payment methods, cross-border flows and currency choices within the available US-account data.

8. Crédit Agricole CIB and Komgo develop AI capabilities for trade finance workflows

Crédit Agricole CIB and Komgo announced on 24 September that they are collaborating to integrate AI capabilities into Optimtrade, the bank’s digital trade finance portal launched earlier in 2026. Built on Komgo’s technology, Optimtrade provides corporate clients with a platform to manage trade finance operations. The planned AI features would let users upload underlying documents, extract relevant information and generate draft instructions for bank guarantees, letters of credit and standby letters of credit. The companies will also explore natural-language queries about outstanding instruments, exposures and maturities, and whether client AI agents could access Optimtrade services through Model Context Protocol (MCP).

The planned features target the manual work of converting commercial documents and client instructions into structured bank workflows. If deployed successfully, AI-assisted instruction preparation could reduce repetitive data entry and shorten transaction initiation times, particularly for instruments requiring multiple documents and approvals. The announcement describes capabilities under development rather than a live client service, with no evidence yet on processing-time reductions, client adoption or accuracy rates.

9. KfW IPEX-Bank finances European passenger trains for Saudi Arabia

KfW IPEX-Bank is acting as initial mandated lead arranger and bookrunner for a CHF 254 million (about $307 million) export credit facility for Saudi Railway Company. Announced on 24 September, the bank leads a consortium with Commerzbank and UBS Switzerland as arrangers, with Swiss Export Risk Insurance (SERV) acting as the export credit agency. The financing supports the purchase of ten passenger trains from Swiss manufacturer Stadler Rail for Saudi Arabia’s East Network, connecting Riyadh with the Eastern Province. The transaction provides export financing for European rail equipment and supports additional passenger capacity on the network.

The transaction demonstrates how export-credit structures allow banks to finance industrial exports that may require additional risk mitigation. SERV’s participation brings Swiss export-credit support to the Saudi financing, although KfW did not disclose how much of the facility it covers.

10. EXIM signs $7 billion US–Argentina framework for energy and critical minerals financing

The Export-Import Bank of the United States (EXIM) signed a US–Argentina Build the Future Framework that could mobilise up to $7 billion in financing through 2027. Announced on 23 September, it covers priority sectors including critical minerals development and processing, energy security, grid modernisation, digital connectivity, commercial space and advanced technologies. EXIM’s financing products include export credit insurance, working-capital guarantees, loan guarantees and direct loans. The cooperation aims to support the deployment of US equipment, technology and expertise in Argentina’s strategic sectors.

The framework links potential export financing to strategic supply-chain priorities alongside individual transactions. Its focus on critical minerals, energy infrastructure and technology places US export support within broader industrial objectives. The announced $7 billion represents a financing ceiling rather than committed transactions.