The Network Layer Global Payments Never Had

For decades, global payments have relied on two successful types of networks: SWIFT for financial messaging between banks, and card networks such as Visa and Mastercard for consumer and merchant payments. Both solved fundamental problems. SWIFT connected banks across borders through standardized messaging. Visa and Mastercard created global card acceptance and enabled digital commerce at enormous scale.

Both have evolved considerably, but their foundations reflect the jobs they were originally built to do. Payments, however, are evolving fast - and increasingly in a different direction.

According to Capgemini’s World Payments Report 2025, global non-cash transaction volumes are expected to almost double, from 1,411 billion in 2023 to 2,838 billion by 2028. Instant payments alone are projected to account for 22% of that volume. Cards will remain central to global commerce. But growth is increasingly shifting toward real-time, account-based and wallet-based payment flows.

That raises a question. If we were designing a network specifically for direct cross-border payments today, would we design it the same way?

Probably not.

Two Global Networks - Neither Built for Direct Cross-Border Payments

SWIFT is fundamentally a messaging network. It allows banks to exchange payment instructions across borders, but it does not move the money. The funds move separately through the correspondent banking system, potentially involving several banks, accounts and processing steps before reaching the receiving bank.

The message moves quickly. The money has more layers to travel through. Card networks solve a different problem. Visa and Mastercard built global acceptance for consumer and merchant commerce, and from the checkout screen the payment feels instant. Behind that experience sits a multilayer process involving authorization, clearing and settlement between issuers, acquirers and other participants – adding processing steps, time and costs such as interchange and scheme fees.

Services such as Visa Direct and Mastercard Cross-Border have extended these networks into push payments, but they build on an infrastructure originally designed for card-based commerce rather than direct cross-border payments between financial institutions.

Both networks do what they were built for – and at enormous scale. But neither was originally designed for the way cross-border payments are evolving today: real-time, account-to-account and wallet-to-wallet.

The Missing Layer in Cross-Border Payments

Centiglobe Connect was built specifically for this new payment landscape: real-time cross-border push payments between financial institutions. Centiglobe Connect is a shared cross-border payment network that connects banks, PSPs, EMIs and wallet providers directly, without financial intermediaries between Network members.

Unlike the SWIFT/correspondent banking model, the payment instruction and cross-border value transfer take place through the same network. And unlike card networks, Centiglobe was designed from the outset for direct push payments between financial institutions – not adapted from infrastructure built for card-based commerce. Payments are initiated, routed and confirmed in real time, with the cross-border value transfer between members enabled by network-based, bank-agnostic tokenized deposits.

The local parts of the payment remain local. The sending member collects funds through its existing local payment capabilities, while the receiving member pays out through its local payment system. Centiglobe provides the cross-border network between them. The goal is not to replace every existing rail. The goal is to connect them better.

Three Networks - Built for Different Jobs

Why the Difference Matters

The number of layers in a payment matters. Each additional intermediary or process can add time, cost and complexity – and make it harder to see exactly where a payment is and when it will arrive. Centiglobe changes that structure. The cross-border value transfer takes place directly between members, without financial intermediaries in between. That means fewer hand-offs and a more immediate and predictable payment. There is also a liquidity consequence. Traditional cross-border payment models can require funds to be positioned across different banks, accounts and markets. With Centiglobe, centralized collateral supports payments across the shared network, reducing reliance on separate prefunding arrangements and improving liquidity efficiency.

And the need for direct connectivity is growing. Payments increasingly need to move between institutions, accounts, wallets and markets, while local instant payment systems continue to expand. The challenge is no longer simply to make each system faster, but to move payments across borders between them without adding financial intermediaries. So the difference is not simply how quickly a payment moves through the chain. It is whether that chain of intermediaries needs to be there in the first place.

Built Later. Built for a Different Payment Landscape.

There is an advantage to building a payment network later than SWIFT, Visa or Mastercard: you get to start with a different set of assumptions.

Both have evolved enormously, but their foundations still reflect those original purposes.

That does not mean SWIFT or the card networks are going away. They continue to serve the purposes they were built for. But as cross-border payments increasingly move toward real-time, account-to-account and wallet-to-wallet flows, the network model needs to evolve with them.

SWIFT moves messages. Cards enable commerce. Centiglobe moves value directly between members.

Different networks, built for different jobs.