Interoperability and real time: the new map of cross-border payments

Nicolás Bourbon, Co-Founder of kamiPay, discusses how the new layer of innovation in interoperability and real-time payments will further impact cross-border payments.

In the 1990s, when the Internet was just beginning to transform the foundations of the global economy, a group of authors published a visionary text: The Cluetrain Manifesto. Its first thesis – as simple as it was disruptive – stated that ‘markets are conversations’. That phrase captured an idea that companies would take years to fully understand: power was shifting toward users, and immediacy would become the new standard of interaction.

More than two decades later, we are witnessing a transformation of similar magnitude. The first digital revolution taught us that information wants to be free. The second one is teaching us that money, at its core, is information – a stream of data that moves frictionlessly when the underlying infrastructure allows it. Real-time payments (RTPs) systems are doing for value what the Internet did for communication: eliminating delays, reducing intermediaries, and returning control to the end user.

In Latin America, Pix in Brazil embodies this paradigm shift better than any other system. Its adoption has been so rapid and deep that today more than 75% of the Brazilian population uses it regularly. In just over two years, Pix surpassed 85 billion transactions, becoming the most successful payment system in modern history in terms of adoption.

Beyond the numbers, Pix set the standard for the modern payment experience: instant, free, available 24/7, and frictionless for users. What took a decade in other countries happened in Brazil within months. Millions of people and businesses have incorporated this dynamic into their daily lives – and now they expect the same when it comes to sending or receiving money across borders.

In other words, they expect paying and getting paid to be as simple as making a local transaction. However, the challenge for cross-border payments is not just speed. Equally important are transparency (knowing how much arrives and when), efficiency (fewer intermediaries, lower costs), and trust (no hidden fees or unexpected deductions).

In the late 1990s, the fax symbolised a world that could no longer keep up with digital communication. Today, the traditional SWIFT system represents that same slowness when compared with the new standard of immediacy. But more than a technological replacement, what is emerging is a change in mindset – the recognition that, like information, money should move without friction, in real time, and beyond borders.

The architecture of real time

The success of real-time payments cannot be explained by speed alone, but by architecture. The most transformative systems are not those that simply add a new interface to the old interbank framework, but those that are designed API-first – built from the ground up as open, scalable, and interoperable platforms.

Pix, once again, is the paradigmatic case. When the Central Bank of Brazil (BCB) conceived it, it did not create an app but a public infrastructure of open APIs. Requiring banks, fintechs, and processors to connect through these interfaces was a strategic decision: it ensured that all participants in the financial system spoke the same technical language. At the same time, the regulator allowed each institution to design its own user experience on top of that shared foundation. The result was a model radically different from traditional payment schemes:

• Pix operates within any bank or fintech app, with no additional intermediaries.
• End users enjoy a consistent, instant, and reliable experience – whether they use Nubank, RecargaPay, or Mercado Pago.
• All participants follow standardised rules and formats, enabling native interoperability and continuous innovation.

This modular design allows the system to evolve seamlessly. When the BCB launches Pix Parcelado (instalment purchases), integrated institutions will not need to rebuild their infrastructure – it will be enough to extend an endpoint or adopt a new API version. That ongoing adaptability makes Pix a living organism within the financial ecosystem.

The same principle – that of open and standardised infrastructures – is inspiring the development of other systems across the region: SPEI and DiMo in Mexico, Transferencias 3.0 in Argentina, and Bre-B in Colombia all follow the same logic of modular design and mandatory API-based connectivity.

As API evangelist Kin Lane puts it, ‘APIs don’t just support what already exists – they open the space to create what we haven’t yet imagined’. In that sense, Pix is not just a payment system: it is a platform on which innovation is built.

The new layer of innovation: fintechs, APIs, and borderless payments

Pix was born from a national ambition: to create an instant payment system for Brazilians. The Central Bank of Brazil launched it with an open, public vision – and the result was a domestic revolution. But what happened next is even more interesting: innovation did not stop at Brazil’s borders.

Pix’s API-first design enabled new players – digital banks, processors, and startups – to build on top of its infrastructure, extending its reach to scenarios the regulator itself had not imagined. What began as a domestic network evolved into a cross-border infrastructure, capable of connecting different economies under a shared technical language.

That open logic allowed tech startups to enter a market historically dominated by closed, expensive networks. No longer did one need to be a banking giant to move money between countries – it was enough to know how to integrate an API. This has given rise to a new generation of companies that link national RTPs systems through a blockchain-based technology layer, managing conversion, settlement, and fund traceability in real time. The result is an unprecedented degree of interoperability:

• A Brazilian can pay in reais at a merchant abroad, and the business receives funds in its own local currency within seconds.
• A foreign tourist in Brazil can pay in their local currency, and the merchant receives reais instantly via Pix.

For users, the experience feels local; for the financial system, it represents a paradigm shift – international payments operating with the same immediacy as domestic RTPs.

As mentioned earlier, APIs make possible what we have not yet imagined – and this is exactly that scenario. RTPs systems originally designed for domestic use are now proving capable of transcending borders, becoming the foundation for a new generation of interoperable, real-time financial rails.

The future has no geographic limits

What began as a domestic improvement in a few countries is now evolving into a global network of instant liquidity, where borders are becoming increasingly irrelevant to the movement of value.

That transformation is already underway. The convergence of national RTPs systems, blockchain technology, and open API standards is giving rise to a global financial infrastructure that is more transparent, programmable, and efficient. In this new landscape, money moves with the same logic as information – in real time and without friction.

In this environment, advantage will not belong to those who control the rails, but to those who build the bridges. The most agile fintechs are already proving that it is possible to connect economies, currencies, and regulatory frameworks into a single experience. The user does not need to understand what happens behind the scenes; they perceive what matters most to them – speed and trust.

The impact will be profound. For merchants, it means selling without borders. For travellers, paying without friction. For emerging economies, attracting capital and talent without the barriers of legacy finance. And for millions of people, accessing for the first time a global payment infrastructure that is transparent, inclusive, and efficient.

Just as the Web transformed communication, interconnected RTPs are transforming the transmission of value. They are rewriting what we mean by money, by access, and by borders.

The future of payments will be neither local nor global – it will be instant. An ecosystem where every transaction becomes a conversation between open systems, and where time, at last, ceases to be a cost.

About the author

Nicolás Bourbon served as Vice President of Data Science at Nielsen, leading analytical solutions for emerging markets. He holds a degree in Physics from Universidad del Salvador and an MBA from Universidad de San Andrés, both in Argentina. His experience spans retail, market research, and Bitcoin-related projects. In 2023, he co-founded kamiPay, a fintech company focused on real-time payments and cross-border financial innovation.

 

About kamiPay

Founded in 2023, kamiPay aims to revolutionise cross-border payments. Its MVP enabled Argentine merchants to accept payments from Brazilian tourists via Pix – Brazil’s leading real-time payment system – and receive funds instantly in pesos or digital dollars at the best exchange rate. Later, kamiPay introduced the reverse use case, allowing Argentine travellers to pay in Brazil using pesos, seamlessly converted through Pix. The company has since evolved by ‘API-fying’ its solution, offering its technology as an infrastructure layer for fintechs, management systems, booking engines, POS providers, and export–import operations. For more information, visit www.kamipay.io.