Apr 3rd 2019

Even Erno Rubik would feel like Edward Scissorhands here. In the global-payments space

Putting everything on its right axis – speed, precision, real-time nuances, user-friendliness, global ease, reliability, availability and unrelenting security on top of all this – yes, easier said than done.

In the matrix of cross-border payments, some cube always gets left out. It never adds up – everything together.

That’s the gap that is putting names like IBM, Stellar and even Russia government in the same breath as SWIFT.

SWIFT or the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication – The banking cooperative’s services tracing as far back as 40 years ago that spread to around 200 countries by ironing out kinks in payments. Yes, the same SWIFT has new competitors to worry about, and from unexpected places – enterprise giants like IBM and countries like Russia and China that are exploring new networks for payment systems at full tilt now.

Near instant transactions and a new level of transparency – those are the chinks that contenders to SWIFT are aiming at though.