What banks already have that fintechs can't replicate in cross-border payments

Over the past year, I've had numerous discussions with treasury and payment teams at major banks. They often ask, "How can we compete with wallet-native fintechs in cross-border payments?" However, I tell these teams that we should no longer ask this question. Banks can now play to win, not catch up. The key lies in Swift's payments scheme, which has over sixty banks as participants.

This rulebook mandates full-value delivery, upfront fee transparency, and end-to-end tracking on international transfers. It's already operational across major corridors. Banks can extend their reach by connecting to existing networks for digital wallets globally, rather than building new ones from scratch. This connectivity is crucial, not just for traditional remittance corridors, but also for business-to-business payments, platform-to-creator transactions, and small firms invoicing overseas customers.

The five key advantages that banks hold over fintechs in cross-border payments are: 1) Every cross-border payment eventually reaches a bank account, 2) Banks have full trust from customers due to their regulatory oversight, 3) Banks operate under heavy supervision, which customers rely on, 4) The move to ISO 20022 messaging, which provides richer, structured data for payments, 5) Banks control the entire journey from account to account, offering full visibility and control.

Banks can leverage their existing real-time domestic rails, which are now being extended to handle the cross-border part of transactions. For instance, the Clearing House's RTP network is set to support correspondent bank activity for one-leg-out international payments by September 2026. Bank of America has also announced a cross-border real-time payments service built on Swift and its CashPro platform.

These moves do not require building new global rails. Instead, banks offer full visibility and control from start to finish, a position no correspondent chain or third-party wallet provider can match. While the opportunity is clear, it requires banks to invest in using their advantages.