Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase have joined an initial group of around 60 banks adopting Swift's new cross-border payment framework.
According to American Banker, the framework, which Swift first proposed four months earlier, in 2026, is designed primarily to support smaller cross-border transactions such as remittances. It combines near-real-time settlement, a transaction tracker, and a fixed fee structure as an alternative to the variable rates historically charged by correspondent banks. Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase are among roughly 60 banks across 25 countries that have adopted the standard so far, according to Swift.
The initiative comes as non-bank providers have expanded their presence in smaller-value international payments, often relying on stablecoins or related distributed ledger technology to reduce processing time and cost. Moreover, some banks have traditionally been reluctant to operate in this segment because of the low margins involved, tied more to delivery costs than to revenue potential, but they are also becoming more engaged as a way to offer a broader range of services beyond payments themselves.
Swift's framework operates over the organisation's existing international messaging network, connecting the parties involved in a transaction. Sending banks can show customers the cost, exchange rate, and estimated processing time for a transfer, supported by a tracker that lets customers monitor a transaction's status. Furthermore, receiving banks credit funds to customers in near-real-time where local market infrastructure permits it.
AJ McCray, head of global payments products at Bank of America, said the framework allows a cross-border payment to resemble a domestic transfer more closely. According to McCray, Swift's differentiator against newer blockchain-based or digital-asset schemes lies in its established network of 11.000 banks, which provides scale, alongside the simplicity of working with existing fiat currency.
Tokenised deposits as a complementary approach
Swift has also pointed to tokenised deposits, a digital currency format some banks favour over stablecoins because of a perception of lower risk, as a further option for improving cross-border payments. In materials shared with American Banker, Swift said tokenised commercial bank money offers banks a way to introduce new digital capabilities while remaining within established, regulated deposit models, even where the underlying infrastructure requires new technical components such as distributed ledger environments.
The framework arrives as interest in blockchain-based cross-border payment products continues to grow across the banking sector; roughly 40% of banks are either live with, or in some stage of developing, such a product, according to American Banker analysis. That same analysis concluded that cross-border payments are unlikely to be served by a single method, suggesting that traditional currency transfers, stablecoins, tokenised deposits, and other approaches will need to coexist.
