Most conversations about improving instant payment systems focus on iteration: faster rails, lower costs, broader interoperability. This roundtable asks a more foundational question: are there aspects of how these systems are typically architected that are worth revisiting at the root, rather than only refining at the edges?

Many systems today rely on a model where a payment is sent, and if something doesn’t match up, the two sides exchange after-the-fact messages to reconcile what happened. This reconciliation-heavy approach carries real ongoing cost, and emerging approaches, including early pilot evidence, suggest that dependence on it can be reduced through pre-validation, where payment data is checked and verified before a transaction is executed. Such design choices made early in a scheme’s architecture can shape how easily it extends to full inclusion later.

This session aims to bring together development institutions, instant payments players, central banks, and relevant voices to discuss whether the iterative path – where systems are made incrementally better over time – or the fundamental path – where systems are rebuilt from the ground up – is a more viable solution for national payments systems looking to embark on pre-validation.

The roundtable aims to produce a practical roadmap for countries looking to implement prevalidation across financial institutions. Where available, early pilot data will serve as evidence, discussed frankly under the Chatham House Rule.

As payment networks become increasingly connected, attention is shifting from interoperability in principle to interoperability at scale.

This concluding design thinking workshop will explore how commercial models and switch-to-switch connectivity can unlock seamless cross-border merchant payments, bringing together public and private sector stakeholders to co-create the next generation of interoperable payment infrastructure.

The session synthesizes all three workshops into an executable blueprint, delivering the capstone contribution to the policy Insights Report to be published by GFTN.

You may register your interest in the workshop here and we will be in touch.

What would it take to make cross-border payments an enabler of SME growth?

Six years into the G20 Cross-Border Payments Roadmap, high costs, slow settlement, and complex compliance requirements continue to hold small businesses back. Meanwhile, agentic AI, stablecoins and real-time payment networks are opening new possibilities for paying across borders. In the face of tariffs and fragmentation of trade, improving payments offers governments a practical way to support trade through domestic action.

Drawing on From Friction to Flow 2.0, a new Nextrade Group study of 1,100 SME importers across Brazil, Indonesia, South Africa and Thailand and dozens of policies shaping crossborder payments around the world economies, this workshop will explore where reform can make the greatest difference. The report’s Cross-Border Payments Enablement Index benchmarks 34 economies across six policy pillars, providing a roadmap for reforms that enable businesses to trade more effectively.

Participants will work with the findings to identify priority barriers and develop actionable, country-specific reform roadmaps. The focus: turning evidence into practical steps to reduce friction, improve payment flows and unlock opportunities for SMEs.