Citi Wants the World’s Payment Systems to Finally Learn to Talk to Each Other

The past decade has transformed cross-border payments from a slow, opaque process into one that is faster, cheaper and increasingly transparent.

Yet the dream of seamless global transactions that are instant and low-cost remains aspirational. The biggest culprit is a patchwork of regimes that has introduced complexity and fragmentation even as new technology, functionalities, infrastructures and instant payment schemes emerge.

“The term ‘cross-border’ signifies that a payment traverses different legal entities, jurisdictions, regulatory frameworks, sanction regimes, and, in [some] cases, FX currency controls [also apply],” Emanuela Saccarola, Citi’s head of Cross-Border Payments, Services, told PYMNTS. “This introduces additional challenges, including liquidity management, navigating multiple time zones, managing cut-off times and complying with the relevant regulations, which may not always be consistent.”

The result is an uneven landscape where innovation can often happen in fragments rather than in harmony. While domestic real-time payment systems, like India’s UPI, Brazil’s Pix, Singapore’s FAST and others, have been proliferating globally, only a few can yet interact across borders. The race now is to provide access to these systems from a cross-border perspective so that payments providers can connect those domestic systems into a global grid, one that can operate around the clock.

Financial institutions aren’t standing still. Citi, for example, has spent the past decade reengineering its infrastructure. The bank is tightening traditional systems with the aim of speeding settlement times for wires and ACH, improving cut-offs, and embedding real-time tracking capabilities, while simultaneously extending its reach into new payment frontiers.

A key focus is the expansion of cross-border instant payments, using Citi’s network and direct participation in local instant payment schemes, Saccarola said.

“Delivering instant, 24/7 and full-value payments is critical,” she said, adding that this is becoming especially true as more payments potentially move toward digital endpoints rather than bank accounts.

The New Architecture of Global Money Movement

Perhaps the most significant change reshaping the landscape is the rise of digital wallets. Once seen as consumer tools for small payments, wallets have evolved into critical infrastructure for cross-border disbursements.

“By enabling our clients to make payments to individuals and small merchants globally via digital wallets, we are effectively meeting their diverse payment needs and providing more options into existing markets,” Saccarola said, citing research that found nearly 70% of the global population is expected to use some form of digital wallet in the next two years.

Citi’s own collaboration with Dandelion exemplifies a shift in strategy across global banking, one that is less about owning the entire value chain and more about orchestrating it. The collaboration supplements Citi’s proprietary network, through which about 95% of its payments already flow, with an agile layer of third-party connectivity. The approach achieves scalability and wallet reach without sacrificing control.

“[Collaborating] with Dandelion allows us to seamlessly integrate with our existing infrastructure, enhance agility, and add wallet capabilities driven by client demand,” Saccarola said.

Wallet payments, once a consumer phenomenon, are now penetrating corporate and institutional segments, especially in the B2C and B2B (small business) space.

“A significant use case for wallet payments is within our Banks sector, where many banks are heavily investing in enhancing their remittances offering,” Saccarola said, adding that banks highly value the ability to pay into wallets, alongside cross-border instant payments and payments into cards.

It’s not just banking, either. In eCommerce, wallets are fueling merchant payouts, gig worker earnings and cross-border freelancer payments. Even traditional segments like insurance and travel are experimenting with wallet disbursements as faster, cheaper alternatives to more traditional payment methods and often leapfrogging and moving from checks to wallets.

The Future Moves From Fragmentation to Flow

As payments move in seconds, the supporting infrastructure must operate at near-instantaneous speeds without compromising control. Citi’s approach combines multiple settlement models and liquidity tools, like its Treasury Funding and cross-currency liquidity solutions, to ensure payments are fast and final.

Real-time validation is essential, Saccarola said. In an instant environment, there are no “repairs.” Once a payment is processed, it’s irrevocable. That reality drives the need for automated credit checks, advanced screening and foreign exchange booking processes that run continuously. Citi now operates nearly 24/7, and its partners are expected to match that cadence. This represents a shift from the traditional time-windowed world of correspondent banking.

While technology is revolutionizing speed and reach, clients still face strategic choices about cost and value. Citi’s own advisory approach reflects a new kind of financial optimization: selecting the best rail for each use case. Wires remain the right fit for high-value or regulated payments, such as taxes and vendor settlements, but for retail flows and small-value disbursements, ACH, instant payments and wallets or cards are increasingly preferred.

In parallel, Citi is introducing tokenized deposits through its Citi Token Services, allowing clients to move U.S. dollars across its branch network in real time. The goal is to extend the same efficiency of real-time retail payments to the world of corporate treasury. It’s a preview of how on-chain settlement could reshape institutional money movement.

As the ecosystem expands, the real prize lies in interoperability, or the ability for different payment systems, digital currencies and providers to operate seamlessly with one another.

“Globally, broader interoperability must be a key priority,” Saccarola said.

For its part, Citi envisions a future where stablecoins, tokenized deposits, central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) and traditional fiat coexist and interact across multiple rails, she said. If the last decade was about digitizing money, the next will be about synchronizing it.

When that synchronization finally arrives, the term “cross-border” may feel as outdated as the checks it replaces, Saccarola said.