Future of payments: 6 key takeaways after Sibos 2025

Today’s cross-border payments environment has changed dramatically over the past decade. Transactions that once took days can now be processed in real or near-real time, bringing the possibility of improved cash flow, lower costs and new levels of strategic flexibility. At Sibos 2025, CommBank explored these and other developments bringing unprecedented opportunities for our customers and their businesses. Here’s an overview of what you can expect.

1. Getting money into Australia faster

Security, transparency, speed, reliability, accessibility and the cost of the transaction all contribute to the experience of cross-border payments.

“These are determined by the underlying infrastructure, or rail, that moves money from one country to another,” says Ethan Teas, Executive General Manager of Payments at CommBank. “Here in Australia, we’re fortunate to have the real-time New Payments Platform (NPP) rail.”

Compliant with the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 20022 standard, NPP aligns with the Cross-Border Payments and Reporting Plus (CBPR+) initiative that governs how financial institutions exchange structured data for international transactions. Unlike many other real-time payment systems, NPP places no restriction on transaction value, volume, or the richness of the data.

Overseas banks can leverage Australia’s NPP by working with their banking partner in Australia. “CommBank’s International Payments Service (IPS) enables cross-border payments through the NPP,” says Teas. “This allows our correspondent banks to benefit from near real-time settlement when sending money into Australia. That’s exciting because we’re helping customers around the globe to get money into Australia faster.”

Susan Yang, General Manager for High Value and International Payments at CommBank, highlights that the ISO program has been transformative. “Like many institutions globally, CommBank has used the ISO program as a catalyst to transform the whole technology stack and our product offering, rather than just be satisfied with being compliant. We’ve rebuilt our cloud-enabled systems end-to-end and enhanced our digital channels to deliver real value to customers,” she shares.

“CommBank has used the ISO program as a catalyst to transform the whole technology stack and our product offering, rather than just be satisfied with being compliant.” 
– Susan Yang, General Manager for High Value and International Payments, CommBank

2. Stay in line with global markets

Cross-border payments in Australia were traditionally built around local banking hours and only began evolving beyond that in recent years. To give customers greater availability to incoming international payments, CommBank is now gradually building towards a 24/7 cross-border payments experience, regardless of currency.

“We place our customers at the centre of everything we do,” says Yang.

“We understand the importance of a customer journey being consistent and predictable, and that’s why we’ve extended the processing hours for non-AUD international payments to 20 hours, five days a week. With this new enhancement, the CommBank customer journey when receiving money from overseas is getting even closer to an “always on” experience, agnostic of currency.”

By extending processing and operating hours to overlap with key global markets, CommBank aims to reduce settlement delays, improve liquidity management and deliver faster access to funds for businesses who trade globally.

“We place our customers at the centre of everything we do. We understand the importance of a customer journey being consistent and predictable, and that’s why we’ve extended the processing hours for non-AUD international payments to 20 hours, five days a week.”
– Susan Yang, General Manager for High Value and International Payments, CommBank

3. Enhancing service and security

CommBank’s leadership in both the application and the responsible use of AI is evident throughout its operations. “As well as investing in resiliency, CommBank also makes sure that we have a continuous focus on delivering innovative solutions to our clients. Our industry-leading technology helps us achieve those outcomes,” says Barry Parker, General Manager for Payments Technology & Operations, CommBank.

“With CommBank being a market leader in AI, we’ve got a great opportunity to continue driving forward in this space.”

“[At CommBank] We have a continuous focus on delivering innovative solutions to our clients. Our industry-leading technology helps us achieve those outcomes. “With CommBank being a market leader in AI, we’ve got a great opportunity to continue driving forward in this space.” 
– Barry Parker, General Manager for Payments Technology & Operations, CommBank

The structured data enabled by ISO 20022 also plays a critical role in making AI models more efficient and accurate, particularly in fraud detection, notes Yang. “We’re seeing the potential of using structured data from ISO to make AI models more efficient and accurate in fraud detection,” she says.

For example, CommBank uses AI to automatically detect and repair errors in payment message formatting, improving accuracy and reducing manual intervention. Automation and AI also play a critical role in ensuring payment flow safety.

“This is an area of intense focus for us,” says Teas

4. Facilitating safer payments

As Australia’s biggest bank, CommBank’s access to high-quality data from many different sources affords a strategic advantage.

One example is the bank’s ability to use data in payment messages for fraud and security use cases. CommBank developed the NameCheck API to check whether the account names and numbers provided in a transaction correspond, which helps to prevent misdirected payments, scams and human errors. This technology has been made available for other banks, fintechs and fraud-monitoring platforms to ensure payments are safer for all Australians.

“At CommBank, we've had an almost 70% reduction in customer scam losses in the last two financial years,” says James Roberts, General Manager Fraud and Scams Strategy and Governance at CommBank. “A lot of that is due to some of these AI initiatives we've implemented.

“At CommBank, we've had an almost 70% reduction in customer scam losses in the last two financial years. A lot of that is due to some of these AI Initiatives we've implemented.”
– James Roberts, General Manager Fraud and Scams Strategy and Governance at CommBank

CommBank’s partnership with Dandelion Payments is also a key milestone in enhancing cross-border payment safety and efficiency. Through a single integration with Dandelion, CommBank customers gain access to an expansive global network, providing real-time payment tracking, instant payouts and improved compliance features such as account status checks and beneficiary name matching.

5. Improved outcomes through customer insights

CommBank is also leveraging AI to better understand its customers and respond to their needs at pace. Compiling and assessing customer feedback was once a lengthy, drawn out process, but AI offers an avenue to accelerate the exercise.

“It brings tremendous speed to our feedback loops, reading and processing client feedback to help us improve outcomes for our customers,” says Teas.

“By incorporating generative AI and large language models (LLMs), we now have incredibly fast access to those insights in a form that benefits everyone, including our engineers.”

“By incorporating generative AI and large language models (LLMs), we now have incredibly fast access to those [customer] insights in a form that benefits everyone, including our engineers.”
– Ethan Teas, Executive General Manager of Payments, CommBank

6. Beyond the traditional correspondent banking model

For decades, the correspondent banking model has been serving as the default for cross-border transactions. It allows banks to transfer funds to countries where they lacked a direct presence by leveraging relationships with correspondent banks that offered clearing accounts in that destination. While this model remains the primary method for clearing international payments, it is increasingly being replaced by faster, more transparent alternatives.

“Closed-loop systems, where both the sender and receiver transact within the same network, are gaining traction,” says Teas. “Stablecoins, the blockchain-based digital currencies pegged to a specific asset, such as the US dollar, are in the news, but there are still a lot of questions around what role they’ll play in the cross-border payments of the future. The one we’re looking at most closely is FPS i.e. the interlinking of fast payment systems, which is about connecting domestic real-time payment networks across borders. We see this as one of the most promising opportunities to modernise and connect.”

Sophie Gilder, Managing Director of Blockchain and Digital Assets at CommBank adds to this point, highlighting that she feels a relationship between stablecoins and banks will be increasingly important moving forward.

“In prior years, it was common to hear stablecoins are a great way to avoid banks. I don’t believe that’s true now. For stablecoins to reach their potential, they need traditional finance. Banks may hold reserves, provide on- and off-ramps and liquidity, or even act as issuers,” she says.

“For stablecoins to reach their potential, they’ll need the support of traditional finance.”
– Sophie Gilder, Managing Director of Blockchain and Digital Assets, CommBank

Additionally, Swift’s blockchain-based ledger initiative represents a significant step forward in connecting domestic real-time payment systems across borders, enabling seamless, 24/7 transactions globally.

From ISO-enabled data to AI-driven accuracy and blockchain-based infrastructure, the future of payments is one of transparency, speed and trust. For CommBank business customers, it ultimately means having the capability to move money confidently and seamlessly across an increasingly instant, interconnected economy.