Why Strategic Rivalries Are Derailing G20 Efforts to Modernize Global Money Transfers

Global cross-border payments are becoming more fragmented as market, technology, regulation, and geopolitics pull systems in different directions, according to an Atlantic Council report released ahead of upcoming G20 gatherings. The report says this shift is changing how money moves across borders and could leave households and businesses facing transfers that are slower, more costly, and less transparent.

Officials and industry participants have long treated cross-border payment frictions as a practical barrier to trade, investment, and remittances. The Atlantic Council argues that the current direction is not solving those long-standing problems and is instead worsening interoperability challenges. It describes a payments environment that is becoming more complex, with more points where transactions can stall or become harder to track end-to-end.

The report places growing emphasis on geopolitical dynamics as a driver of change. It points to the increasing “weaponization” of payment infrastructure and the parallel development of alternative arrangements designed to function outside the traditional dollar-based system. In this framing, cross-border payment choices are being shaped not only by efficiency goals, but also by strategic considerations that influence which networks, standards, and settlement assets are used.

This trend is unfolding alongside the G20’s 2020 Roadmap for Enhancing Cross-Border Payments, which set out to tackle four persistent issues: high costs, slow speeds, limited access, and insufficient transparency. The roadmap’s target completion date is 2027. The Atlantic Council says progress so far has been mixed, noting that while technical standards have moved forward, the report sees limited tangible improvement for end-users.

According to the Atlantic Council, fragmentation is showing up as reduced interoperability across multiple layers of payments infrastructure. It cites divergences in regulatory frameworks, technical standards, liquidity pools, and settlement assets.

The report says these gaps affect wholesale payments between financial institutions, retail cross-border transactions, and remittance flows, and that as systems diverge across jurisdictions, seamless processing from sender to recipient becomes harder to achieve.

What it means for markets and policy is a potentially less predictable cross-border payments environment, the report says, with higher friction and weaker transparency. The Atlantic Council warns this could raise risks to global financial stability and weaken economic integration. For end-users, it highlights practical consequences including higher costs, slower processing, reduced transparency, and the possibility of greater financial exclusion where access is uneven.

The Atlantic Council urges the G20 to go beyond setting standards and take a more active role in driving implementation. It also calls on the G20 to address the geopolitical dimensions of fragmentation directly, arguing that technical progress alone will not be sufficient against broader forces reshaping cross-border payments.

The report flags key uncertainties for the 2027 agenda, including how quickly established standards can translate into widespread change and how effectively the G20 can manage geopolitical pressures.