Cross-border payments are becoming increasingly important to global trade, investment, remittances and digital commerce. Yet, despite advances in payment technologies, differences in currencies, regulatory requirements and financial infrastructure continue to create costs, delays and uncertainty across jurisdictions.
Beyond Speed and Cost: Strengthening India’s Cross-Border Payments Ecosystem, a report by The Dialogue and the U.S.-India Business Council (USIBC), examines the factors shaping India’s cross-border payments landscape and makes the case for looking beyond conventional measures of speed and cost to consider trust, transparency, resilience and inclusion as integral measures of payment-system performance.
The report was launched at a leading global fintech conference and thought-leadership platform, Global Fintech Fest 2026, in Mumbai during the closed-room roundtable, Advancing India’s Leadership in Trusted Cross-Border Payments, convened by the New, Emerging and Strategic Technologies (NEST) Division, Ministry of External Affairs, Government of India and The Dialogue, in collaboration with the U.S.- India Business Council (USIBC).
About the Report
Authored by Soham Jagtap with Raunaq Sharma as Contributing Author, the report provides a landscape analysis of the evolving cross-border payments ecosystem, examining global trends, regulatory safeguards and the operational realities experienced by businesses, financial institutions and payment providers.
It explores how compliance requirements, documentation, payment delays, limited transaction visibility and fragmented processes can influence trust and business confidence. It also considers emerging approaches, including digital identity, compliance technologies, global standards, interoperable infrastructure and institutional collaboration, that can reduce avoidable friction while preserving financial integrity.
At its core, the report argues that a payment being faster or digitally transmitted does not, by itself, make the system more trusted or inclusive. Building the next generation of cross-border payments will require technological innovation to be accompanied by regulatory alignment, institutional trust and meaningful end-to-end access.
Key Themes
The report examines five interconnected dimensions of the cross-border payments ecosystem:
- Trust as a foundation for efficiency alongside speed and cost
- Regulatory and infrastructural fragmentation and its implications for cost and uncertainty
- Digitalisation and financial inclusion, particularly the distinction between digital transmission and meaningful end-to-end access
- Interoperability and institutional cooperation across systems and jurisdictions
- Emerging technologies and new settlement models and their potential to improve speed, cost, transparency and inclusion while maintaining safeguards
From the Report
“A faster, cheaper, more transparent and more inclusive cross-border payments system is possible. It will require a combination of technological innovation, regulatory alignment, interoperable infrastructure and trusted international cooperation.“
Launch at Global Fintech Fest 2026
The report was launched on 9 September 2026 at Global Fintech Fest 2026, Mumbai, alongside a high-level roundtable on India’s role in advancing trusted cross-border payments.
The discussion brought together senior representatives from the Ministry of External Affairs, Government of India; NPCI International Payments Limited; International Financial Services Centres Authority (IFSCA); and SWIFT, reflecting perspectives across government, regulation, payment infrastructure and the global financial ecosystem.
