finance

As CBDCs struggle with low adoption, the Caribbean is pivoting to instant payment systems to boost trade and financial integration.

This article appears in the October issue of Global Finance Magazine.

The Caribbean was at the vanguard of adopting central bank digital currencies with the Bahamas’ SandDollar, one of the world’s earliest retail pilots in 2020. A year later, the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank followed suit with its DCash.

With take-up rates low, DCash has since been discontinued as central banks pivot to instant payment systems. The aim is to provide a resilient and flexible system in an area prone to natural disasters and reliant on tourism and remittances as economic drivers.

“These central bank digital currencies had quite poor uptakes. They never really took off,” said Caribbean economist Dalano DaSouza. “Barbados went the route of doing a fast payment system [BiMPay launched on June 12] and the ECCB is embarking on the same journey because they believe that’s where the transformation lies in terms of digital payments.”

The fact that DCash had an outage in 2022 that stopped new transactions for two months did not help consumer confidence and the project was discontinued in February. Jamaica’s Jam-Dex gave the first 100,000 users who signed up a J$2,500 bonus ($15.69), which accounted for about 0.09% of currency in circulation. The 310,443 registered users represent approximately 11% of Jamaica’s population. 

“The lessons learned are that full integration with the banking system is vital. A fast payment system will still be sending and accepting digital payments, but it will be done from the client’s bank account,” DaSouza said. 

WiPay, Lynk and Trinidad and Tobago adopting India’s UIP interface shows a region keen on integrating and expanding its trade opportunities. This includes the possibility of being incorporated into the African Continental Free Trade Area. This would be accomplished via the Caribbean Community’s CAPSS payment system, which is itself based on Africa’s Pan African Payment System platform.

A pilot scheme to harness the Caribbean and African payment systems is underway, involving Barbados, ECCB and the Trinidad and Tobago central banks. The African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank has been at the forefront of moves to bring the two regions together. The idea that Caribbean countries can join AfCFTA opens a market of 54 countries with 1.3 to 1.4 billion consumers with a combined GDP of approximately $3.4 trillion. 

“Potentially, by using the system to make an instant payment from the Caribbean to a vendor in Africa, you would be bypassing correspondent banks, and you would be bypassing the U.S. and their banks,” DaSouza said.

This removes a barrier to African integration, which is the current issue in the history of payments and having to use correspondent banks in the U.S., England, or Europe.

Digital trade and paperless trade systems reached 73% implementation in 2025, according to the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean. 

With the Caribbean piloting the next stage of instant payments, the hope is that this can lead to greater business opportunities, not just regionally but globally. CBDCs arguably started the digitalization of the Caribbean financial system, but now it seems time for instant payments.

“Digital payments will be critical to opening new markets and streamlining old ones,” DaSouza said.

Nic Wirtz is a contributing writer based in Guatemala.

Agentic AI has a toehold in B2C transactions, but has a way to go to capture B2B transactions, Waller said at the Sibos conference.

Artificial intelligence and autonomous AI agents will fuel the next evolutionary leap in global and cross-border payments, Federal Reserve Board Gov. Christopher Waller said during a speech at Sibos 2026 in Miami.

The payment industry’s early adoption of machine learning and large language models has helped combat payment fraud and quicken reconciliation and similar tasks, said Waller.

“Now it is helping build the foundation infrastructure for AI agents to operate more broadly in the economy,” he added. “These agents can plan and execute multistep processes using LLMs, enabling those agents to transact autonomously.”

Waller separated agentic commerce into two models: agentic-assisted and agentic-delegated. In the agentic-assisted model, the agent is primarily for product search and discovery, while the buyer remains in control. In the agentic-delegated model, “a buyer grants authority to an AI agent to shop and make payments on their behalf. The buyer may specify some constraints and set up guardrails, but the agent operates autonomously.”

Because agentic-delegated commerce could increase the risk of unintended purchases, Waller suggested deploying more extensive trust mechanisms and guardrails.

Agentic B2B Payments

Although agentic commerce has gained traction in consumer-to-business transactions with personal AI assistants, Waller said that business-to-business purchases would be fertile ground for agentic-delegated commerce. 

“The purchases are often recurring and abide by a set of rules, such as approved suppliers and budget limits, which create natural guidelines for agents,” he said. “Agents could also potentially negotiate terms with suppliers and develop payment strategies to optimize working capital.”  

However, the industry would need to develop and deploy robust controls and monitoring capabilities since B2B transactions typically carry a higher value than their consumer counterparts.

Also, unlike consumer-to-business transactions, AI agents executing B2B transactions will need to support a broad range of payment rails, including the Automated Clearing House, wire transfers, instant payments, and credit cards.

The biggest barrier to agentic commerce adoption is building trust mechanisms between buyers and sellers, which changes the payment authentication paradigm, said Waller. “The question shifts from proving that a buyer is an authorized payer to proving that an agent has the authority to pay on the buyer’s behalf. Capturing this will require new authentication approaches.” 

He also noted two key questions about the future of agentic commerce: whether it will migrate toward platform-specific or interoperable standards. The latter would work across ecommerce systems, agent interfaces, and payment methods. “In this sense, they could help to level the playing field for smaller merchants and payment providers seeking to operate in this space.”

The payment industry still needs to take significant steps before it can bring agentic commerce to fruition, including developing standards for how agents can “carry identity, consent, and payment credentials across the full ecommerce stack,” as well as striking the proper balance between convenience and friction regarding agent authorization, Waller said.

These steps will require the payments industry to balance innovation with the safety, integrity, and stability that underpin trust in payments, he concluded.

Energy market disruptions and regional uncertainty are pushing GCC countries to boost North Africa investments.

This article appears in the October issue of Global Finance Magazine.

In July, Qatar’s UCC Holding signed a $1 billion deal with Libya’s National Oil Corp. and the Libyan Investment Authority to increase output at the Ghadames Basin from 33,000 to 80,000 barrels a day.

A few weeks earlier, Oman’s OQEP signed a similar contract to explore investment opportunities in Libya, “so our production will not rely only on exports from the Strait [of Hormuz],” OQEP Board Chairman Ashraf Al Mamari told Arabian Gulf Business Insight in July. That same month, Libyan Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibah visited the United Arab Emirates and Qatar to encourage new partnerships.

Disruptions in energy markets at home are pushing Gulf countries to scale overseas investments and increase involvement in riskier destinations. With its large oil reserves, Libya is an attractive opportunity; but for years, it has been a headache for foreign investors. After Muammar Gaddafi’s fall in 2011, the country split between rival governments and became a playground for militias. Yet, despite instability, Gulf states—led by the UAE, and to a lesser extent Qatar—developed relationships with both capitals: Tripoli and Benghazi.

“Gulf states have been navigating this landscape for some time,” said Mohamed Dorda, head of business intelligence at Libya Desk, a consulting firm that advises businesses looking to enter Libya. “It’s really a matter of, first, having a foot in the door; and then, knowing where to put your feet. In Libya, they’ve been investing in the necessary political capital for quite some time now.”

Signs of Improvement

Today, the situation is showing signs of improvement. Both sides have taken steps toward greater stability, including the reunification of the central bank in 2023 and the approval of a common state budget in April of this year. Libyan authorities are now looking to reopen the energy sector to foreign investors. In February, the country resumed licensing for the first time since 2007, attracting oil majors like Italy’s Eni SpA, France’s TotalEnergies SE, Spain’s Repsol SA, and U.S.-based Chevron Corp.

The renewed interest extends beyond Libya. In recent months, the U.S. administration has stepped up engagement with North Africa, with Middle East adviser Massad Boulos visiting several countries. European nations, including Turkey, as well as China, are also moving to secure market shares.

“North Africa is becoming increasingly important in global trade because of its proximity to Europe and its capacity to help fill supply gaps created by the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East,” Dorda said. “People see that Libya and Algeria are among the strongest candidates to help meet global energy needs, and that creates opportunities.”

Algeria has drawn around $9 billion in Gulf-backed projects over the past 18 months, led by Saudi Arabia’s Midad Energy’s $5.4 billion oil and gas deal in October 2025 and by Qatar’s $3.5 billion Baladna dairy venture, now in its second phase.

Algerian state-owned hydrocarbon company Sonatrach plans to increase production and drill 1,450 wells by 2030, but it needs foreign know-how and capital to modernize infrastructure. In April, Algiers opened a new licensing round for seven oil and gas blocks. Bids are underway, and contracts are expected to be signed in January.

Chloe Domat is a contributing writer based in France.

At Sibos 2026, Bank of America announced that it had executed its first real-time payment initiated by Bradesco.

Bank of America Corp. has completed its first pilot transaction for a new cross-border real-time payments service, partnering with São Paulo–based Banco Bradesco SA to execute the transfer.

The bank announced the milestone during the annual Sibos conference in Miami on Tuesday. The payment, initiated by Bradesco through its existing connection to Swift, arrived in Hong Kong dollars in a local beneficiary’s account via Hong Kong’s Faster Payment System.

Bradesco did not respond to Global Finance’s request for comment. The transaction’s exact processing time or cost remains undisclosed. However, Bank of America confirmed that the payment was similar to a domestic instant transfer and was completed in near real time.

Need for Speed

Traditional banks are facing stiffer competition from card networks like Visa and fintechs such as Wise, which says 74% of its transfers arrive in under 20 seconds.

There are also stablecoin providers such as Circle, which all promise faster cross-border payments.

Daniel Stanton, Payments Product Head in Global Payments Solutions at Bank of America, is betting that the firm can win on ease of adoption rather than speed alone.

“The solution is designed to work with existing banking infrastructure,” said Stanton in an email. “[The bank’s] clients can gain the benefits of faster cross-border payments without a significant technology build, new connectivity or changes to their existing accounting processes,” he added.

Expanding Global Reach

Bank of America announced the service in June. It is designed for corporate, commercial, and financial-institution clients that send large volumes of small payments, such as remittances, payouts to gig workers, and payments to e-commerce vendors.

The Charlotte, North Carolina-based bank said the service offers real-time tracking, delivers the full principal amount and gives senders certainty that payments will arrive. It also connects to domestic instant-payment networks, including Mexico’s SPEI, the U.K.’s Faster Payments Service and India’s UPI. Clients can connect through their existing APIs or host-to-host channels.

Stanton said Bank of America clients will later be able to start these payments through CashPro, its digital banking platform, beginning in 2027. “We will share additional timing details closer to launch,” he added.

Bank of America first introduced CashPro to corporate and institutional clients in 2009.

“We view this as complementary to our correspondent banking business,” Stanton continued. “It expands the payment options available to financial institutions and helps us meet growing demand for faster, more transparent cross-border payments.”

As for how many payments the firm expects to handle in its first year, it is too early to tell.

“We are seeing strong interest in solutions that can improve cross-border payments without requiring clients to make significant technology investments, establish new connectivity or change their accounting processes,” he said.

Surging Demand for Seamless Payouts

In June, Bank of America cited projections that cross-border person-to-person payment flows could grow 58% by 2032. Business-to-consumer flows could grow 131% by then.

Mark Monaco, head of Global Payments Solutions at Bank of America, touted the firm’s cross-border services earlier this month.

“Corporate treasurers don’t want to manage a patchwork of domestic schemes market by market,” Monaco told Global Finance. “They need banking partners to absorb that complexity.”

Industry Milestones in Miami

Announcements like these have made Sibos the default stage for major cross-border banking breakthroughs. For example, at last year’s event in Frankfurt, Germany, Swift unveiled a shared blockchain-based ledger. Over 30 global institutions backed the initiative—a move aimed at making 24/7 cross-border payments faster and less expensive worldwide.

Swift named Bank of America as one of the 30 firms involved.

Check out an overview of Sibos 2026 in Miami.

Anthony Noto covers corporate finance and private credit. Contact him at anoto@gfmag.com

Revolut US CEO Cetin Duransoy reveals plans to target globally minded and “underbanked” Americans as it builds toward becoming a primary bank.

After receiving conditional approval from the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency for a national bank charter, Revolut Technologies Inc. appears ready to launch a full-scale challenge to traditional banks and fintechs in the United States.

After relatively quick growth in France, Spain, and Italy, Revolut aims to bring its superapp model to the U.S., where it doesn’t exist in quite the same form.

Revolut’s U.S. CEO, Cetin Duransoy, who has held senior roles at Raisin, Fundbox, Visa, and Capital One, spoke with Global Finance about Revolut’s plans for the American market. 

Global Finance: In the US, banks, fintechs, brokerages, travel products and payment apps are mostly separate. Does that surprise you? Do you see a genuine hole in the U.S. market for a company that combines all those relationships in one place?

Duransoy: It’s not surprising, given how complex these products are and how crowded and fragmented the U.S. market is. Layer on the regulatory process, and combining all these product suites—banking, brokerage, FX, crypto, travel, and more—into a single company or app becomes genuinely difficult and, for most companies, not worth the effort.

We believe you need a genuinely differentiated product to succeed in this market, and we have identified an opportunity here. By bringing all these products into one platform, we can remove the friction customers typically experience when cobbling together services from multiple providers.

GF: People often say, “The U.S. banking market is different.” Different how, exactly? And how might those differences affect Revolut?

Duransoy: The US’s fragmented, charter-based regulation can be more cumbersome than the EU’s passporting model, and U.S. customers tend to rely more on credit than their European counterparts. But the U.S. provides certain advantages, including the U.S. card network and interchange system, which subsidize rewards; FDIC insurance; and consumer-protection laws, which create a trust threshold.

Our broad product offering, 80-million-user global network, and strong global brand allow U.S. to cater to the distinct challenges of the U.S. market and understand the challenges of U.S. distribution costs. By obtaining a national bank charter, we will be on par with traditional banks, with direct Fedwire/ACH access and lending capability.

GF: When Revolut enters the U.S. market more aggressively, should Americans expect something close to the European Revolut experience—or will the U.S. product necessarily look much more like a traditional American bank competing on deposits, credit cards and lending?

Duransoy: We are always focused on product-market fit for our customers, and the U.S. will be no different. We’ve publicly shared that we will bring the best of what Revolut offers and provide the products U.S. customers want most, including checking accounts, credit cards, installment loans, FX, and stablecoins. We’ll continue innovating to deliver a distinct, more productive experience for U.S. customers.

GF: One of the things that makes Revolut unusual in Europe is that it sits at the intersection of finance, travel and lifestyle. Is that model central to how you think about the US, or is America more of a banking opportunity?

Duransoy: Yes. Combining our lifestyle products with the financial services that have made Revolut so popular remains central to our thinking. And they’re a key differentiator in many of our markets. We expect these offerings to help make us a top-of-wallet card and strengthen customer retention.

GF: Why should someone with Chase, Amex, Venmo, Robinhood, and a good travel card move meaningful parts of their financial life to Revolut? What can you offer that those companies, individually or collectively, do not?

Duransoy: We recognize that inertia is a strong force when it comes to financial services and that a customer’s bank holds critical parts of their financial life, such as their mortgage or direct deposit.

What we offer is the ability to consolidate multiple products and services into a single interface and remove the friction our customers find frustrating with other services. Revolut’s broad-based platform allows customers to seamlessly access multi-currency spending without foreign transaction fees, instant global P2P, a combined debit/credit product, budgeting, digital assets, and investing, all without transferring funds between platforms or managing multiple accounts. That’s especially valuable for people who travel internationally, have cross-border family ties, or are underserved by traditional credit underwriting.

GF: Which types of lending will Revolut prioritize in the US?

Duransoy: We intend to initially prioritize unsecured and secured credit cards and installment loans.

GF: What does Revolut understand about the consumer relationship that you think many American banks and fintechs still lack?

Duransoy: We treat our global app as the product. We iterate quickly, aim for gamified engagement, and offer frequent feature releases, in contrast to most U.S. bank apps, which have slower release cycles.

We also build for financial lives that span borders and currencies, rather than assuming a single-currency, single-country customer. American banks were largely built for a domestic customer, and that assumption is increasingly out of step with a more mobile, globally connected population.

GF: Do you think Revolut is underestimated in the US? If so, why? Among those who are aware, what do people in the U.S. most commonly misunderstand about Revolut right now?

Duransoy: “Underestimated” is probably right now, largely because our independent U.S. bank doesn’t exist yet. So we’re still seen as a “European neobank” by most Americans. That undersells what we’ll be once we have a full national charter, FDIC insurance, and our full lending capabilities live.

The most common misunderstanding among those who do know the brand is that we’re simply a fintech or a travel debit card, rather than a company with an 80-million-user global base—including 1.4M in the US—and banking licenses now spanning the UK, France, Australia, Mexico, and more.

GF: Are you coming to the U.S. to compete for a small slice of the market, or do you ultimately believe Revolut can change what Americans expect from a bank?

Duransoy: In the US, our near-term goal is to compete for market share. No new entrant can reshape what an entire country expects from a bank on day one. That takes years of trust-building, especially post-charter, when FDIC insurance and regulatory scrutiny are new territory for us.

What we’re looking to do is win the demographics best suited to us, namely the internationally minded, underbanked-by-incumbents, and digitally native users.

GF: On the corporate side, what are Revolut’s corporate banking plans?

Duransoy: Revolut Business exists—and is a core focus for us—in the U.S. We expect this to continue and are excited to launch merchant acquiring within the first years of becoming a bank.

GF: If we revisit this in three years, what would need to be true for you to say that Revolut has successfully become a major U.S. bank?

Duransoy: Within three years, we expect to be a fully operating bank with real momentum. We won’t share specific customer or product numbers today, but we’re building for scale and a sizable U.S. customer base that treats us as their primary bank, not a secondary account. That’s the bar we’re setting for ourselves.