Competing cross-border payment networks: Another arena for geopolitical competition

Hung Q. Tran

No 2637, Policy briefs on Economic Trends and Policies from Policy Center for the New South

Abstract: Various competing cross-border payment networks have become vehicles for geopolitical competition. As tensions have risen, many countries want to secure access to cross-border payment systems by joining with like-minded countries to form interoperable networks, either via tokenization or Instant Payment Systems (IPSs). Three major projects are under development, serving the strategic interests of the US, China and the Rest of the World—corresponding to the three trading spheres taking shape in the world trade architecture. Cross-border payment networks have been transformed from financial infrastructures into vehicles for geopolitical competition. This process has been driven by major powers like China, Russia and others striving to enhance their economic resilience and national security by finding ways to reduce reliance on the current US dollar-based international financial and payment system. Recently, those efforts have gathered momentum as the US has increasingly used access to the dollar-based payment system (mainly via the SWIFT financial messaging network) as a statecraft tool to pursue its national strategic objectives. Concretely, groups of neighboring or like-minded countries have collaborated on projects to test interoperable networks enabling cross-border payments among themselves, preferably using their own currencies instead of relying on the dollar. As part of this trend, China has launched its Cross-border Interbank Payment System (CIPS) and Russia its System for the Transfer of Financial Messages (SPFS)—as alternatives to SWIFT.

Date: 2026-09
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