Alan Marquard, executive vice president of applications at Mastercard, recently discussed the company’s progress toward achieving its 2027 goals during a session on G20 targets at Sibos in Beijing. He expressed concerns about the current trajectory, noting, “We’re four years into the journey to 2027, and we’re nowhere near there. I find that completely unsurprising. The metrics were set as quantitative benchmarks at a global level without clarity on who is responsible for achieving them.”
The session, titled ‘Collaborating to achieve the G20’s goals,’ featured contributions from several experts, including Philippe Depasse, senior product owner for international payments at the Commonwealth Bank of Australia; Jun Jiang, deputy division head at ICBC; Marquard; and Jan Paul Van Pul, senior payments advisor at ING, with moderation by Tony Wood, partner at Deloitte.
Marquard highlighted the need for more precise metrics on commercial payments, emphasizing that the pain points are specific to different payment flows. He also underscored the importance of public-private partnerships, stating, “I think we’ve made great progress in the last four years, but it’s largely due to fintechs entering the market. Banks are responding to this competition, and the roadmap provides an overall expectation to act. While the roadmap has been beneficial, there’s still much more that can be done regarding the actual target metrics.”
Van Pul echoed Marquard’s call for increased collaboration between the public and private sectors, stressing the critical nature of G20 criteria such as transparency, speed, and accessibility for businesses involved in international payments. He noted that the introduction of Swift APIs has significantly changed the landscape of international payments.
According to Jiang, the FSB has set a target for 75% of cross-border payments to reach the end beneficiary within an hour by 2027. She reported that about 50% of payments via Swift GPI are currently arriving at beneficiaries’ accounts within five minutes. Jiang asserted that achieving G20 targets hinges on collaboration and the full adoption of industry-wide standards like Swift GPI, a standard that ICBC is also leveraging with its GPI trackers for visibility on payment tracking through its digital platforms. She identified the transition to ISO 20022 as a pivotal step toward creating frictionless payments.
Van Pul reflected on the benefits of new entrants in the market, stating, “As a bank, I appreciate the competitive edge brought by companies like Revolut, Wise, and PayPal. Their presence compels banks to adopt a more proactive approach to client engagement and service improvement.”
He also highlighted growing developments in digital assets in Southeast Asia and the evolution of instant cross-border payments facilitated by BIS Nexus.
Depasse reinforced the collective focus on collaboration and transparency in working toward G20 goals and emphasized the necessity for consistent implementation and business intelligence tools for tracking payments. He mentioned Commonwealth Bank’s development of G20 dashboards within the GPI Observer Insights, which provide crucial insights for assessing alignment with G20 objectives.
During discussions on market-specific collaborations, Marquard pointed out that Australian fintechs are exceeding the minimum compliance requirements for AML, improving the dynamics between fintechs and financial institutions thanks to thorough due diligence in the onboarding process. Jiang noted a mutual learning experience between fintechs and banks in China, with fintechs offering scalability and innovation, while banks provide a solid compliance foundation.
In conclusion, the panelists unanimously agreed on the significance of collaboration and industry-wide standardization as essential elements for successfully achieving the G20 targets in the future.