Navigating local challenges and learning from other regions.

The Group of Twenty (G20) South African Presidency and the Bank for International Settlements’ Committee on Payments and Market Infrastructures (CPMI) co-hosted a side event on 26 February 2025, during the G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors (FMCBG) meetings in Cape Town. The side event focused on the G20 Roadmap for Enhancing Cross-border Payments,^[1] with a focus on addressing the persistent challenges of costly, slow and inefficient payments. The 2024 roadmap progress report highlighted the work done so far is not yet sufficient and that further efforts are needed to meet the quantitative targets for cross-border payments. Enhancing progress on the G20 Roadmap for Enhancing Cross-border Payments is one of six priorities under the Financial Sector Issues workplan for 2025.

Discussions aimed to identify sub-Saharan Africa-specific challenges and explore solutions from other regions. The key highlights of the event included:

• Session I on challenges: Panellists discussed sub-Saharan Africa-specific challenges, including fragmented regulatory frameworks, high costs, non-interoperable systems and limited competition. Promising initiatives to enhance cross-border payments include interlinking fast payment systems, boosting automation and adopting ISO 20022 standards. The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) also noted its efforts in revising its standards, particularly for Recommendation 16 on payment transparency, to address cross-border payment challenges. The roadmap aims to make cross-border payments faster, cheaper, more transparent, and inclusive while ensuring they remain safe and secure.
• Session II on opportunities: The session explored how experiences with interoperability between payment systems in other regions could benefit SSA. Lessons were drawn from successful implementations in other corridors and regions, such as Singapore’s PayNow, India’s Unified Payments Interface and the Eurosystem’s TARGET Instant Payment Settlement (TIPS). Panellists highlighted the importance of central bank leadership, technical standardisation and partnerships with non-bank payment service providers to enhance efficiency in cross-border payments.

South African Reserve Bank Governor Lesetja Kganyago called for greater interoperability and regulatory alignment in SSA and expressed confidence that insights from practical solutions in other regions could help enhance cross-border payments in the region. Governor of the Bank of Italy and CPMI Chairperson, Fabio Panetta, underscored the need for state-of-the art domestic infrastructure, technological innovation, and collaboration to improve the cross-border payment ecosystem.

The FSB will deliver a Roadmap progress report for 2025, which will include an analysis of data discrepancies between the observed annual key performance indicators (KPIs) report and the targets set in the G20 Roadmap (October 2025).

Watch a recording of the session below: