XRP News Today: FPC Urges U.S. Payment Providers to Adopt ISO 20022 for G20 Cross-Border Goals

The U.S. Faster Payments Council (FPC) has released a confidential report outlining recommendations for domestic payment providers to support the G20’s goals for enhancing cross-border payments by 2027 and 2030. The G20’s roadmap focuses on significant progress in cost reduction, speed, transparency, and access.

The report emphasizes the adoption of the ISO 20022 messaging standard as crucial for creating more interoperable and structured global payment systems. This standard facilitates richer and more consistent messaging across financial institutions, which is essential for seamless cross-border payments. The FPC recommends that U.S. domestic providers align with SWIFT’s migration timelines to ISO 20022, ensuring compatibility with new infrastructure and legacy systems during the transition phase.

In addition to ISO 20022 adoption, the report highlights the importance of interlinking domestic real-time payment systems with international networks. This is seen as essential for enabling the kind of 24/7, instant cross-border functionality envisioned in the G20 roadmap. Partnerships with organizations like The Clearing House (RTP) and the Federal Reserve’s FedNow service are cited as part of this broader objective to improve global payment system compatibility.

The FPC also identifies improved interoperability as a key enabler of more efficient cross-border transactions. It recommends the development and adoption of standardized APIs and more consistent infrastructure to facilitate better integration between domestic and international payment rails. A section of the report focused on reducing costs and increasing efficiency specifically mentions the use of blockchain and distributed ledger technologies (DLTs) as a mechanism to minimize intermediary costs. These technologies are instrumental in eliminating unnecessary layers within the payment chain, thereby reducing delays and fees.

In a portion of the report labeled “Promote Inter-Industry Collaboration,” the Council urges alignment with global financial technology initiatives. It recommends partnerships with innovative fintechs and startups working on cross-border solutions, specifically Ripple and Stellar. These firms are widely associated with using XRP and XLM to facilitate digital asset transfers across jurisdictions. The mention of these companies in a confidential policy document indicates a growing institutional openness to incorporating blockchain-based settlement layers into traditional payment infrastructures.

The FPC also stresses the need for transparency in pricing and settlement, calling for improvements through real-time tracking of cross-border payment statuses. This includes providing customers with visibility into fees, exchange rates, and delivery timelines. The report encourages using solutions like SWIFT GPI and blockchain analytics to enhance transparency.

Another priority area covered in the document is financial inclusion. The FPC recommends expanding services to smaller financial institutions and non-bank providers to ensure that underserved communities can benefit from advancements in the cross-border payment ecosystem. Compliance and risk management are also addressed. The report points to the importance of adhering to global standards such as the Financial Action Task Force (FATF)’s AML guidelines and the European Union’s GDPR framework for data protection. Regulatory alignment is necessary to counter fraud, terrorism financing, and other illicit activities in global payments.

Finally, the FPC underlines the importance of stakeholder engagement and education to drive adoption. It argues that the successful deployment of modernized cross-border systems will depend on clear communication of the benefits to end users and industry participants. Crypto researcher SMQKE, who publicized the findings, noted the explicit reference to Ripple and Stellar in connection with the G20 targets. This acknowledgment in a strategic document from a recognized U.S. payments authority lends further weight to the potential role of digital assets such as XRP and XLM in future cross-border frameworks.