With improving cross-border payments at the top of the agenda for global policy-makers, the Financial Stability Board (FSB) set some definitive targets for cutting costs, while enhancing transaction speed and transparency.
Alongside a progress report on efforts to enhance payments, the FSB published specific quantitative global targets for addressing the challenges faced by cross-border transactions.
The targets are designed to set specific goals for policy-makers and create accountability, it said.
“The targets, which follow a public consultation launched in May, are small in number, simple, and focus on improvements in the end-user experience,” the FSB said.
It will develop an approach for monitoring progress toward the targets in 2022.
To this point, efforts to enhance cross-border transactions have largely focused on analyzing existing and emerging payments systems.
However, the FSB said concrete improvements “will not be achieved merely on paper through analyses and recommendations.”
“The next stage of work in 2022 includes the development of specific proposals for material improvements of underlying systems and arrangements, as well as the development of new systems,” it said.
The work involved will require global coordination, public-private cooperation, and political support, the FSB said, along with investment in new systems, processes and technologies.