Payments benchmarks – the latest data and analysis
Payments
Payments Benchmarks 2025 report – cross-border connections
Benchmarks highlight progress on instant payments, ISO 20022 adoption and bilateral links
One of the major unsolved challenges of global payments is how to establish efficient, multilateral, cross-border payments. However, the Payments Benchmarks 2025 highlight the progress central banks are making, from upgrades to real-time gross settlement systems, to adoption of the common ISO 20022 messaging standard and bilateral connections between instant payment systems.
Charts
Asia-Pacific leads payments diversification
Benchmarking data shows wide disparity between geographies as payment systems evolve. The majority of Asia-Pacific economies (62.5%) are seeing the payment system diversify. By contrast, in Europe the payments market is largely unchanged over the past year.
For the full breakdown, use the benchmarking service’s interactive charts to explore the data.
Model banks analysis – Payments 2024
Breakdowns of key data from the payments benchmark shed light on how the function is governed
Payments data
View the full breakdown of responses to the Payments Benchmarks.
Working group minutes: a phased approach to 24/7 RTGS
Longer hours imply risk trade-offs and need to overcome resistance from banking industry
Payments Benchmarks 2025 report – cross-border connections
Benchmarks highlight progress on instant payments, ISO 20022 adoption and bilateral links
Handful of central banks have bilateral payment links
Projects are nascent and growing, but some countries seek multilateral links instead
Central banks favour instant payments over CBDCs
Interoperability of systems and financial inclusion drive decisions among survey respondents
Half of central banks have yet to adopt ISO 20022 in RTGS systems
Adoption rate increased sharply in 2025 with more planning to upgrade soon
Instant payment system adoption grows 16.5% year on year
Most central banks either have a system or plan to launch one
Near-24/7 RTGS systems more susceptible to outages
Central banks with longest uptime also report highest number of contingency sites
Most RTGS systems projected for upgrade within a year
Two in three RTGSs operating 13–16 hours daily to be upgraded within a year
Central banks value tokenisation for efficiency and security
Respondents see less value in crypto or stablecoin payments
Budget and RTGS operating expenses rise year on year
Share of central banks charging both fixed and varied fees for RTGS access grows
Payments Benchmarks 2025 Charts
Take a deep dive into the Payments Benchmarks charts, which have just been released for 2025.
Most central banks operate RTGS seven to 12 hours daily
Respondents processed over $6 trillion via system in 2024