Sibos Frankfurt 2025 showed that the transformation of finance is not confined to banks. The technology firms powering their systems are moving just as quickly to modernise the infrastructure beneath the industry’s most critical processes. Their message was consistent: innovation begins with resilient architecture. From payments and trade to reconciliation and digital assets, the conversation centred on three forces reshaping financial services—AI, cloud and interoperability. Collectively, these partners are no longer suppliers of tools but co-architects of the next financial fabric. Infrastructure as the bedrock of innovation At the heart of Sibos discussions was the growing recognition that future innovation depends on strong, adaptive infrastructure. Akber Jaffer, chief executive officer of SmartStream, described how his organisation has been “spending a lot of time putting research and development into ensuring its infrastructure is future ready.” He said, “A lot of the enabling technologies—cloud, application programming interfaces (APIs) and artificial intelligence (AI)—are really focused on infrastructure.” SmartStream has been refactoring legacy components into microservices and adopting new security standards to comply with the European Union’s Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA). For Jaffer, this work is about positioning the company as “a data-driven operations partner” rather than a reconciliation provider. “We are trying to unlock those data so customers are able to action them and really get value from them,” he explained. He emphasised that AI cannot be separated from its technological base. “It’s very hard to have applied use cases for AI unless you are operating on the cloud and have very good APIs.” SmartStream’s AI initiatives focus on ingesting, cleansing and reconciling data in real time to improve straight-through processing and reduce manual exceptions. Akber Jaffer, Chief Executive Officer, SmartStream Jaffer added that much of the innovation comes from its client community. “There are many great ideas from our customer cohorts that we like to bring back into the organisation,” he said. “It ensures that innovation remains practical and compliant.” For him, infrastructure is not merely plumbing; it is the strategic foundation that allows AI, distributed ledger technology (DLT) and tokenisation to flourish securely and at scale. From orchestration to programmability Discussions in Frankfurt revealed that the next evolution of payments depends on how well institutions can orchestrate transactions across multiple rails and regions. Philip Bruno, chief strategy and growth officer at ACI Worldwide, spoke about the company’s new cloud-native ACI Connetic payments hub, which supports real-time gross settlement (RTGS), instant and card payments. By consolidating multiple systems into a single platform, Bruno explained, banks can “retire legacy applications, deploy new services faster and lower total cost of ownership.” ACI processes 10% of Swift’s cross-border payments, operates central infrastructures in 12 countries and works with 26 instant-payment networks globally. Bruno defined orchestration as “the ability to do many cross-border transactions in instant payments rather than routing each one in isolation.” Through agentic repair, ACI predicts failures and prevents them before they occur, creating reliability similar to predictive maintenance in other industries. Philip Bruno, Chief Strategy & Growth Officer, ACI Worldwide He also described what he called a “three-horse race” among cross-border instant payments, stablecoins and tokenised deposits. “The programmability aspect of stablecoins will drive many of the use cases,” he said, pointing to trade finance, cash concentration and conditional payments. Tokenised deposits, though regulatory-compliant, “lack some of that utility.” Bruno said the key is flexibility: “We’re building our systems so banks can adopt whichever rails regulators and markets endorse.” Innovation, however, must be matched by security. ACI’s Payments Intelligence suite now provides full compliance capability for anti-money-laundering, sanctions and operational risk. “Our clients rely on us for critical infrastructure,” he said. “Trust is the differentiator.” Embedding intelligence and explainability AI was described throughout Sibos as both catalyst and challenge—the technology enabling efficiency yet demanding transparency. Mick Fennell, line of business director for payments at Temenos, likened AI integration to “a fruitcake with AI baked in,” emphasising that intelligence must be intrinsic to architecture, not an afterthought. Temenos’ new money-movement and management solution targets banks and regulated non-banks seeking speed and compliance. “It takes a village to raise a payment,” Fennell said, stressing collaboration across systems and partners. He noted that instant payments have changed behaviour and expectations. “People now expect the same convenience cross-border as they have domestically.” Temenos addresses this through partnerships that combine AI, APIs, ISO 20022 and cloud with crypto and stablecoin capabilities. Fennell described the November ISO 20022 deadline as “just another step on the journey to modernisation.” Structured data, he explained, extends well beyond payments to customer and account information, allowing new services to emerge. AI is already producing tangible results. At a tier-one European bank, Temenos’ machine-learning models cut false positives in fraud detection from about 6% to below 2%. Crucially, the company acquired explainable-AI technology in 2019 to ensure regulators and clients understand how decisions are made. Mick Fennell, Line of Business Director – Payments, Temenos “We are not delivering a black box,” he said. Governance committees oversee development and delivery to maintain oversight. “Transparency creates trust as AI becomes more deeply embedded,” Fennell said. For him, the balance between automation and accountability defines sustainable innovation. Interoperability, compliance and co-creation Trade finance, historically slow to digitise, is being reshaped by interoperability and compliance imperatives. Manish Joshi, managing director for Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa at Finastra, introduced the Trade Innovation Nexus integration layer designed to make platforms more open and flexible. “Nexus allows our clients to make much better use of the fintech space,” he said. By separating the integration layer from the core, banks can “innovate without compromising stability.” The modular approach mirrors payment orchestration, letting institutions plug in partners quickly. Joshi identified paper and fraud as the main pain points. Digitising documentation through Nexus “maximises operational efficiency and reduces errors and fraud potential,” while built-in data-capture tools simplify compliance reporting. Manish Joshi, Managing Director – Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa, Finastra He observed that cloud deployment is now standard. “Cloud is pretty much a given,” he said, “but AI is the next frontier.” Finastra’s roadmap includes AI-enabled document checking and workflow optimisation to reduce manual intervention. “We need to work with the larger ecosystem so clients can use our platform alongside other fintech workflows,” Joshi said. “Everybody can flourish.” He characterised transformation as a journey: “Trade finance is moving quickly with new experiments in AI, agentic AI and distributed ledger technology.” For Joshi, interoperability and compliance are no longer opposing forces but complementary drivers of progress. Modernisation and partnership for frictionless payments Andrew Murray, head of international banking and payments at FIS, reflected on more than three decades in the industry and called the present moment “one of the most transformative.” A recent FIS survey found that over half of 1,000 senior executives identified “money in motion” as the area with the greatest friction. Removing that friction, Murray said, “brings clear benefits to treasury management, real-time liquidity and operational efficiency.” He highlighted FIS’s focus on modernisation through partnerships. “It is about supporting clients with upcoming changes in security and compliance while enhancing processes around real-time models,” he said. FIS has already announced partnerships with firms such as Circle to enable tokenised payments, but Murray stressed, “It takes an ecosystem partnership approach to move ahead and implement change.” Banks, fintechs and regulators all play essential roles in ensuring interoperability and trust. Andrew Murray, Head of International Banking and Payments, FIS For him, AI underpins automation but requires cultural change. “AI is a game-changer for automation, but it is not just about technology; it is about workflow transformation, cultural change and training.” Balancing compliance and customer experience is critical. “The money lifecycle supported by FIS is mission-critical—from capital markets to card issuing and fraud management—it all needs to come together.” Richer ISO 20022 data, he added, can enhance both compliance and personalisation. “The benefits will only be realised if the industry works collectively.” Comparing Sibos 2001 with 2025, he predicted, “Detection of fraud will be immediate, and cash may even be phased out.” For Murray, enduring success “depends on genuine partnerships rather than traditional vendor relationships.” Connecting real-time and digital-asset ecosystems The conversations around digital assets underscored how blockchain is moving from experimentation to scaled deployment. Stephen Richardson, chief strategy officer and head of banking at Fireblocks, described his company as providing “the core banking for digital assets,” giving financial institutions the ability to integrate blockchain without building everything in-house. “We help banks explore tokenised deposits and stablecoins for cross-border settlement,” he said. “Large clearing banks have gone live, but the majority are still working out their strategy.” Richardson argued that programmability will drive adoption. “When you can attach conditions to the payment, entirely new workflows become possible.” He also pointed to persistent challenges: KYC and AML risk, operational unfamiliarity and custodial complexity. Fireblocks mitigates these through secure wallet infrastructure and compliance features, reframing custody as “secure access to the blockchain.” Stephen Richardson, Chief Strategy Officer & Head of Banking, Fireblocks Supporting more than 120 blockchains and partnering with networks such as Circle Payment Network, Fireblocks promotes openness as essential to innovation. “The question for new shared ledgers is how open will they be?” Richardson said. “Open ecosystems drive innovation; closed ones risk fragmentation.” He added that user experience must match that of mainstream banking. “Corporate clients should see seamless integration into their enterprise systems; retail users should not need to know whether money is fiat or digital.” For Richardson, the convergence of traditional and digital finance is now practical reality. Embedding instant cross-border capability Cross-border payments have become the benchmark for measuring progress towards the G20’s 2027 goals. Samarth Bansal, general manager for Asia Pacific at Wise Platform, described his organisation’s journey from retail remittances to embedded infrastructure. “Our mission was to make cross-border payments cheaper, faster, transparent and more convenient,” he said. Wise now moves EUR 165 billion (about $176 billion) annually in more than 40 currencies, with 70% of transfers settling within 20 seconds. Through Wise Platform, banks and fintechs such as Aspire, Bank Mandiri, Standard Chartered and Shinhan Bank integrate its capability directly into their systems. Samarth Bansal, General Manager – Asia Pacific, Wise Platform “People no longer want to leave their banking app to make an international transfer,” Bansal explained. “They expect the same convenience as domestic payments.” Wise connects directly to seven domestic clearing systems, acts as a direct correspondent on selected corridors and works closely with regulators. “It allows us to move money faster, at lower cost and with greater certainty.” Collaboration with Swift enables Wise partners to send structured ISO 20022 messages, improving reconciliation and compliance. “The same expectations that drove domestic instant payments are now extending to cross-border,” he said. For Bansal, the goal is to make instant, low-cost cross-border transfers the norm, not the exception. “Speed of a text message is becoming the standard by which customers measure value.” Expanding access through wholesale connectivity Access and reach were also recurring themes in Frankfurt. Juan Bianchi, executive vice-president and chief executive officer of Euronet’s Money Transfer Segment, highlighted how Dandelion, Euronet’s wholesale payment network, links 3.2 billion mobile wallets, 626,000 cash points and 4.1 billion bank accounts worldwide. “Our priority is to deepen relationships with existing customers and introduce our offering to the wider banking ecosystem,” he said. Rather than replacing existing correspondent networks, Dandelion augments them by providing access to emerging markets and exotic currencies. “We let banks tap into our network and offer new corridors instantly.” Juan Bianchi, Executive Vice President & CEO, Money Transfer Segment, Euronet Recent partnerships with Citibank and Commonwealth Bank of Australia enable both to use Dandelion for seamless cross-border movement. The network currently supports 123 currencies and manages around $75 billion annually. Bianchi said the company is also preparing for stablecoins and digital ledgers, particularly to streamline settlement. He noted that adoption will likely start in wholesale banking. “Banks will use tokenised deposits and stablecoins for corporate and treasury flows before any retail mass adoption.” Given its exposure to developing-market currencies, Dandelion’s treasury team manages foreign-exchange volatility closely. “Businesses and consumers now expect money to move at the speed of a text message,” Bianchi said. “Our infrastructure-as-a-service model is designed to meet that expectation.” A converging path towards resilience and openness Across every conversation, a common agenda emerged. Technology partners are converging on secure infrastructure, applied intelligence and open collaboration. Each contributes a different layer—SmartStream strengthens operational foundations, ACI refines orchestration, Temenos embeds explainable intelligence, Finastra and FIS modernise trade and payments, Fireblocks bridges digital assets, Wise enables instant corridors and Dandelion extends global reach. Together, they are building the underpinnings of a financial system that is real-time, programmable and compliant by design. Their work reflects a structural shift: financial technology is no longer peripheral to banking but an integral part of its architecture. Towards an intelligent, interoperable financial fabric Sibos Frankfurt 2025 confirmed that the evolution of global finance now depends on deep collaboration between institutions and their technology partners. AI, cloud and tokenisation are converging into a single transformation story—one where resilience and openness determine success. The next stage is not about isolated innovation but shared infrastructure. As regulatory demands intensify and clients expect instant, transparent services, the institutions that thrive will be those capable of aligning technology, governance and partnership into a cohesive framework. These companies showed that the new financial fabric is already taking shape: intelligent, interoperable and inclusive—designed to move money and data securely across every border, network and asset class, at the speed of trust.
