Cross-border payments have been put into the larger framework of financial market modernization.
At the 2026 Lujiazui Forum, Pan Gongsheng, Governor of the People’s Bank of China, delivered a keynote speech titled “Changes in China’s Financial Structure and Modernization of Financial Markets”, in which he clearly proposed the need to build and improve a multi-channel, wide-coverage cross-border payment system.
This statement is not long, but it is very important to the payment industry.
It means that cross-border payments are moving from channel competition, rate competition, and scenario competition between institutions to a new stage supported by infrastructure, clearing networks, offshore RMB, digital RMB, regulatory penetration, and global service capabilities.
The theme of Pan Gongsheng’s speech was the changes in China’s financial structure and the modernization of the financial market. The content covered many aspects such as monetary policy framework, financial market construction, direct financing development, offshore RMB market, construction of Shanghai international financial center, macro-prudential management and financial infrastructure.
In the section of “Steadyly Promoting Institutional Opening in the Financial Sector”, Pan Gongsheng mentioned that the next step will be to promote high-level two-way opening of the financial market, improve the convenience of cross-border investment and financing, continue to optimize the mechanisms and management of Bond Connect, Swap Connect, QFII, and RQFII, promote the connectivity of domestic and overseas financial market infrastructure, provide convenient channels for overseas institutions to allocate RMB assets, build and improve a multi-channel, wide-coverage cross-border payment system, and steadily develop the panda bond market.
This statement puts cross-border payments in the context of financial market opening and the global allocation of RMB assets.
In the past, industry discussions on cross-border payments focused more on collection, payment, currency exchange, cash withdrawal, arrival speed and handling fees.
For cross-border e-commerce sellers, foreign trade companies and platform merchants, these are basic needs.
However, in this speech by the central bank, cross-border payments were placed in a higher-level financial market opening framework, which is connected to the cross-border use of RMB, the connectivity of domestic and overseas financial market infrastructure, corporate overseas capital services and the facilitation of global capital flows.
The positioning of cross-border payments has thus been further elevated.
Let’s look at “multi-channels” first.
In the future, China’s cross-border payment system will present a parallel pattern of multiple channels.
The banking system continues to undertake basic functions such as corporate cross-border settlement, large-amount fund transfers, trade finance and account services; CIPS continues to play the role of RMB cross-border clearing infrastructure; bank card organizations connect global consumption, travel and merchant acceptance networks; cross-border QR code interconnection services small-amount, high-frequency, offline consumption scenarios; payment institutions serve cross-border e-commerce, platform sellers, independent stations, digital service trade and small and medium-sized enterprises going overseas; the digital renminbi explores new settlement arrangements in cross-border settlement, trade payment and specific scenarios.
These channels serve different customers, have different scenarios, have different fund attributes, and perform different functions.
Bank cross-border settlement emphasizes accounts, compliance and large-amount fund processing capabilities. Bank card and QR code networks serve more personal consumption and merchant acceptance. Payment institutions are closer to the platform economy, cross-border e-commerce and small and medium-sized enterprises going overseas. The cross-border application of digital renminbi assumes the task of exploring new settlement tools and infrastructure.
The key to cross-border payment becoming mature is to have matching payment and settlement methods for different scenarios.
This places higher demands on cross-border payment institutions.
Look at “wide coverage” again.
Wide coverage cannot only be understood as how many countries and regions are covered, nor can it only be understood by how many market maps are displayed on the official website.
For cross-border payments, the real coverage capabilities include at least currency coverage, local payment method coverage, bank cooperation network coverage, local license and cross-border compliance coverage, industry scenario coverage, fund settlement timeliness coverage, as well as anti-money laundering, customer due diligence, data security and abnormal transaction processing capability coverage.
The central bank’s speech also placed Shanghai in an important position.
Pan Gongsheng mentioned that the People’s Bank of China will work with the Shanghai Municipal Government and relevant departments to issue the “Shanghai International Financial Center Development Offshore Financial Action Plan”, gradually improve the business rules, risk management, business environment and other institutional systems adapted to offshore finance, steadily promote offshore financial services such as free trade offshore bonds, offshore trade financial services, and international treasury centers, and support Shanghai to take the lead in building an offshore financial business system that matches the international financial center.
At the same time, the People’s Bank of China will authorize six banks including ICBC, Agricultural Bank of China, Bank of China, China Construction Bank, Bank of Communications, and CITIC to use the China Foreign Exchange Trading Center platform to carry out offshore RMB foreign exchange transactions in the Shanghai Free Trade Zone.
The more open the cross-border payment network is, the higher the requirements for underlying data and risk monitoring capabilities will be.
Pan Gongsheng mentioned in his speech that the inter-bank market data reporting library was officially launched. Through centralized collection of transaction, custody, settlement and other data information, it will enhance the ability to penetrate and monitor the financial market, serve supervision, and serve the market.
This arrangement is mainly for the inter-bank market, but the regulatory direction behind it also has reference significance for the payment industry.
This time, the central bank proposed to build and improve a multi-channel, wide-coverage cross-border payment system, and put cross-border payments into the larger framework of financial market modernization, RMB internationalization, the construction of Shanghai as an international financial center, and financial opening up.
For payment institutions, licenses, channels and cooperative banks are still important, but these are only the entrances.
Whether it can truly serve enterprises’ overseas expansion, cross-border trade, cross-border use of RMB and global capital flows in the future will depend on account services, clearing efficiency, exchange capabilities, compliance governance, data reporting and abnormal transaction processing capabilities.
Cross-border payments are entering a new stage that places more emphasis on infrastructure, compliance, and long-term capabilities.
