U.S. Faster Payments Council Unveils New Strategy for Cross-Border Interoperability

The U.S. Faster Payments Council (FPC) has released a comprehensive report addressing the persistent friction in global money movement, identifying interoperability as the critical missing link. For fintech leaders, the findings highlight how fragmented systems continue to stifle the potential of ISO 20022 and real-time rails, offering a blueprint for bridging the gap between domestic speed and international complexity.

What was announced

The report, titled Interoperability: Bridging the Cross-Border Gap in a Faster Payments World, was developed by the FPC Cross-Border Payments Work Group with sponsorship from Mastercard. It provides an end-to-end analysis of the payment journey, categorizing challenges into first-mile, middle-mile, and last-mile segments. Despite the global shift toward ISO 20022 messaging standards and the rise of digital settlement models, the report notes that operational complexity and high costs remain entrenched due to a lack of systemic coordination.

The analysis evaluates two primary architectural paths for the industry to achieve better interoperability. The first is shared connectivity models, exemplified by initiatives like Project Nexus, which aim to link domestic instant payment systems through common messaging, routing, and participation frameworks. The second involves shared ledger models, utilizing stablecoins and deposit tokens to enable settlement through common digital infrastructure. The FPC assessed these approaches against several key metrics, including cost, speed, access, liquidity efficiency, security, and consistency.

The findings suggest that no single technology will serve as a universal solution. Instead, the report identifies specific areas requiring urgent industry attention, including foreign exchange coordination, the portability of compliance data, and the alignment of governance across different jurisdictions. It concludes that the future landscape will likely consist of multiple interoperable approaches tailored to specific corridors and use cases rather than a single, monolithic architecture.

"Interoperability is the foundation of truly seamless cross-border payments—connecting fragmented payment systems so money can move as easily across borders as it does domestically,"

said Mark Majeske, SVP of Faster Payments at Alacriti and Chair of the FPC Cross-Border Payments Work Group.

The companies involved

The U.S. Faster Payments Council (FPC) functions as a membership-led organization focused on the advancement of ubiquitous, secure, and efficient faster payments within the United States. Its membership spans the entire payment ecosystem, including financial institutions, technology providers, and end-users. Mastercard, which sponsored this latest research, is a global leader in payment technology and has been a frequent subject of industry analysis, with a significant footprint in both traditional card networks and emerging real-time payment infrastructures.

Alacriti, represented in the report’s leadership by Mark Majeske, is a fintech provider specializing in cloud-based payment messaging and infrastructure. The company has become a notable player in the U.S. market for its role in helping financial institutions integrate with the FedNow Service and the RTP network. M&T Bank, where Vice Chair Jonathan Holland serves as SVP–Head of Digital Currency Product Management, is a major U.S. regional bank. These organizations represent the diverse cross-section of the industry—ranging from legacy giants to specialized infrastructure providers—required to address the technical and regulatory hurdles of cross-border interoperability.

What FF News has reported before

FF News has closely followed the FPC’s efforts to modernize international value transfer, including the U.S. Faster Payments Council Unveils Strategic Roadmap for Stablecoins in Cross-Border Payments, which laid the groundwork for the digital settlement models discussed in this latest report. Alacriti’s role in the real-time ecosystem has also been a recurring theme, with reports on how NET Credit Union Expands Instant Payments via Alacriti’s FedNow and RTP Integration and how Dade County FCU Modernizes Loan Infrastructure with Alacriti Real-Time Payments. Additionally, Alacriti’s internal growth was highlighted in Alacriti Appoints Michael Lovell as CFO to Scale Cloud Payments Infrastructure, signaling the company's scaling efforts as domestic faster payments gain traction.

What this means

This report signals a shift in the industry's focus from whether cross-border payments can be modernized to how fragmented systems can coexist. The emphasis on shared ledger models versus shared connectivity places significant pressure on traditional correspondent banking networks to justify their costs and processing times. While ISO 20022 was once hailed as the ultimate fix, the FPC’s focus on liquidity and compliance data portability suggests that technical standards alone are insufficient without a unified governance framework. The market is moving toward a multi-rail reality where the competitive advantage will lie not in owning a single network, but in the ability to orchestrate transactions across them.