FSB's Bailey calls for international action on payment reforms

March 12, 2026 7:54 AM EDT

FILE PHOTO: Financial Stability Board (FSB) Chair Andrew Bailey arrives for the "1+10" Dialogue with Chinese Premier Li Qiang (not pictured) and heads of major economic organisations, at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in Beijing, China December 9, 2025. R

LONDON, March 12 (Reuters) - Andrew ‌Bailey, chair ​of ​global risk watchdog the Financial Stability Board (FSB), urged governments in a speech on Thursday to push ahead with ‌reforms to international and domestic payments systems, warning inefficiencies ⁠risk fragmenting the global financial system.

Speaking at an FSB payments summit, Bailey - ‌who is also governor of ‌the Bank of England - said progress had been made under a G20-backed roadmap on international payments but implementation remained uneven. "We ​have some tough challenges ahead," he added.

Cross-border payments have long been criticised for high costs, slow settlement times and limited ⁠transparency, particularly compared with increasingly efficient domestic payment systems.

In October, the FSB said global ​authorities were set to miss a 2027 target to cut the average cost of cross-border retail payments ​to no more than 1% and ‌for 75% of wholesale and retail payments to be credited within an hour of being made.

Bailey said ⁠frictions in international payments could undermine financial stability and economic growth if left unaddressed.

He also announced work towards a 2027 review of FSB ⁠recommendations on data frameworks and supervision.

Efforts to modernise global payments come as ​the crypto industry intensifies its push for more business-friendly regulation of stablecoins – crypto tokens typically pegged to currencies such as the U.S. dollar – which proponents ‌argue can offer quicker and cheaper cross-border payments.

Stablecoins are already used in parts of emerging markets ‌and international trade to bypass traditional banking rails, though regulators have ⁠warned they pose risks ‌to financial stability, consumer ​protection and monetary sovereignty if inadequately supervised.

(Reporting by Phoebe Seers; Editing by Tommy Reggiori Wilkes, Iain Withers, ‌William Maclean)



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