The consolidation of instant transfers in local retail has paved the way for a new phase in the international financial infrastructure. Real-time payments are moving from individual use to redefine foreign trade, tourism, and global corporate treasury management.
Regulatory progress accelerates this transition on a global scale. In Europe, driven by the European Instant Payments Regulation, the use of SEPA Instant (SCT-Inst) jumped from around 15% in 2023 to more than 35% in the first quarter of 2026. For the productive sector, the gain is supported by continuous 24/7 operation and real-time cash flow visibility. Connected by APIs to management systems, instant payments enable event-driven cash management, for example, suppliers can receive at the exact moment of demand, which optimizes working capital outside traditional banking hours.
Latin America has become a testing ground for global best practices in regulatory interoperability. In Colombia, the Bre-B system reached 83% of adults in its first year of operation, processing more than 8 million daily transactions and accumulating almost $80 billion in transaction volume, driven by the requirement for mandatory connection between all institutions from the outset. It took Pix in Brazil almost three years to reach the 65 per cent penetration rate that Bre-B achieved in just one year. In Peru, the Central Reserve Bank’s (BCRP) determination for interoperability between Yape and Plin digital wallets resulted in a 74% growth in QR Code transactions between 2024 and 2025, driving financial inclusion and the formalization of micro and small businesses.
In Asia-Pacific, a region where digital transactions are growing at 20.4% per year and the fintech market is expanding at 22.9% per year, network integration establishes fast regional payment corridors by linking PayNow (Singapore), PromptPay (Thailand) and the UPI network (India). Furthermore, the rise of super apps consolidates the inclusion of SMEs, which represent more than 90% of Asian companies. Notable examples include GCash in the Philippines, with 94 million registered users and 6 million merchants, and Wing Bank in Cambodia, where small business owners obtain pre-approval for digital loans of up to $50,000 in minutes based on real-time sales data via QR codes.
This synergy between payment systems inspires Pix’s cross-border expansion on two fronts. In retail and tourism, private commercial agreements enable payment by QR Code directly in local currency in eight countries: Argentina, Uruguay, Chile, Paraguay, Spain, France, Portugal, and the United States. At the institutional level, the Brazilian Central Bank and the European Central Bank are considering connecting Pix to TIPS, the European instant settlement system. With Pix processing an average of 250 million daily transactions in Brazil, the technical bridge aims to authorize cross-border remittances and purchases with funds made available in local currency within a matter of seconds.
Given the limitations of traditional foreign exchange markets, Latin America and Asia also lead the use of regulated digital assets. Tokenized deposit initiatives, such as BCP’s trials in Peru, and the use of institutional stablecoins are emerging as complementary alternatives for cross-border corporate settlement. The integration of these technologies can reduce intermediation costs and strengthen the governance of global financial flows.
In this context, the credit operation in Asia stands out with the collaboration between credit reference bureaus, with two data sharing agreements: South Korea-Cambodia and Singapore-Cambodia whereby data is shared with the borrower’s consent, promoting financial inclusion to immigrants without a local credit history.
The integration between instant public networks, proactive regulation, collaboration between bureaus and tokenized assets opens up new possibilities for international financing. Integrated, these technologies can increase transparency, efficiency and predictability for the credit and business ecosystem on a global scale.
Author: Elias Sfeir
Executive President of ANBC – Brazilian Association of Credit Bureaus. Representative of Latin America in the World Bank Credit Committee. He also represents Brazil and Latin America in credit organisations accross the world, such as ACCIS, BIIA and ALACRED.
Source: ANBC (supplied)
