As digital economies expand and interconnect, the infrastructure supporting cross-border payments remains notably underdeveloped relative to domestic payment systems. Domestic digital public infrastructure (DPI), such as India’s Unified Payments Interface (UPI), Brazil’s Pix and Singapore’s PayNow, has significantly enhanced national financial inclusion and efficiency. However, comparable progress in cross-border payments has been slower, constrained by fragmentation, high transaction costs and limited access. 

Recent efforts have focused on linking national DPI through bilateral and regional mechanisms. Examples include the UPI–PayNow corridor between India and Singapore and the UPI–AANI linkage with the United Arab Emirates. On a broader scale, Project Nexus – connecting Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and the Philippines – represents an ambitious attempt to develop a regional, interoperable real-time payment infrastructure. The European Central Bank is now exploring the option of linking the Eurosystem to Project Nexus. These initiatives represent a meaningful shift: real-time cross-border payments are increasingly viable in practice, not just in principle. However, the prevailing model raises structural concerns. Each linkage requires bespoke legal agreements, technical integration and regulatory coordination. This ad hoc, corridor-by-corridor approach risks creating a digital spaghetti bowl of complex, partially interconnected networks of fragmented systems, echoing the inefficiencies seen in bilateral trade agreements. 

Without a coherent multilateral strategy, several risks emerge: 

• scalability constraints owing to duplicated integration efforts; 

• exclusion of smaller economies with limited capacity to negotiate and implement such arrangements; 

• regulatory misalignments, which could introduce vulnerabilities in consumer protection, fraud prevention, and data protection and privacy; and  

• innovation bottlenecks, as the lack of shared standards deters cross-border service development. 

A coordinated, globally inclusive response is needed. The G20 – given its position as the primary forum for international economic cooperation – is well placed to lead such an effort. Over the past decade, the G20 has consistently emphasised digital financial inclusion, as reflected in frameworks such as the 2016 High-Level Principles for Digital Financial Inclusion and the 2024 Maceió Declaration. However, these commitments have yet to yield a concrete, multilateral architecture for cross-border DPI interoperability. 

To address this gap, the G20 could establish a formal coordination mechanism focused on cross-border payments. This might take the form of a dedicated G20 Forum on Cross-Border Payment Interoperability or a specialised working group under the Global Partnership for Financial Inclusion. Such a platform would not aim to build a centralised global payment system but would rather develop shared foundations – principles, reference standards and governance models – that enable seamless interconnection among diverse national systems. 

A foundational layer of open, non-proprietary protocols, akin to the interoperability model of the Internet, could serve this purpose. Existing efforts such as the Interledger Protocol, designed to facilitate payments across different ledgers and networks, offer early examples of how such a model might be structured. The Interledger Protocol’s architecture allows transactions to flow across different systems and currencies without requiring uniformity in underlying technologies or governance structures, providing a potential reference point for broader interoperability. 

Any such effort must prioritise inclusivity. Standard-setting processes often risk being dominated by resource-rich actors. To mitigate this, the G20 should ensure robust multistakeholder engagement involving central banks, regulators, technical communities, financial institutions, civil society, academia and international organisations. This is critical to ensuring that the framework reflects global needs, particularly those of emerging and low-income economies. 

To initiate this process, G20 leaders could support a joint feasibility study to assess the current landscape and identify points of convergence across regulatory, technical and operational domains. The findings could inform the design of regional pilot projects and, ultimately, contribute to the development of a globally coherent and modular interoperability framework. 

This is not a call for global uniformity or a one-size-fits-all solution. Rather, it is a proposal for intentional, structured connectivity that is designed to reduce inefficiencies, prevent exclusion and unlock the benefits of an interconnected digital financial ecosystem. 

The G20 possesses the legitimacy, technical capacity and convening power to advance this agenda. Coordinated action now could shape a future where cross-border payments are secure, inclusive and accessible by design. Failure to act risks entrenching a fragmented system that leaves many behind. 

The opportunity – and responsibility – to build inclusive global payment infrastructure is clear. What remains is for the G20 to act decisively.