One of our most anticipated events on the calendar, Sibos, has come to a close. We joined the conversation in Miami to connect with banks, share insights on liquidity management and learn from some of the leading minds from around the world.
Our biggest takeaways come straight from the unravelling instant payments revolution. Here are three of the biggest:
- Instant payments are fundamentally changing liquidity
While speed is seen as the primary focus, it was clear from voices in the room that instant payments are not just making payments faster; they are fundamentally changing the liquidity challenge for banks.
Globally, working across different schemes, payments are moving towards 24/7, real-time settlement. The traditional concept of managing liquidity around cut-offs and end-of-day positions is becoming increasingly difficult. Julie Gerdeman at BNY put it this way:
“When money moves on a Sunday night, your liquidity position has to be knowable on a Sunday night.”
This really captures the challenge: if money can move instantly at any time, banks need real-time visibility and access to liquidity across currencies, accounts, markets and payment rails — not just during traditional banking hours.
- Instant payments are making cross-border payments tricky
The challenge becomes even greater when we look at cross-border payments. Different currencies, settlement systems, regulations, time zones and liquidity pools create a complex global ecosystem.
This is noticeably more complex than the slower-moving incumbent systems, which are also fewer in number. As usage increases, and requests for larger and more complex transactions increase, treasury teams at financial institutions will get a headache.
To quantify this, consider the time differences for settling an instant payment transaction in Europe’s SEPA region. Payment service providers that partake in the scheme are expected to complete requests in under 10 seconds, regardless of the sum. So, if a €100,000 request is made, the liquidity to fulfil it must be available immediately. Previously, the process could have taken days.
Requests like this stand to grow; consider salary payments, purchases made in automotive leasing, and property conveyancing, to name a few. Treasury teams could quickly lose control.
- Faster payments don’t automatically mean better payments
Read in isolation, this takeaway could stand at odds against what the louder voices in the room are saying. But it’s absolutely true.
Infrastructure, liquidity management and risk oversight crucially sit behind fast cross-border payments, so they first need to keep the pace. As David Teirney at Convera put it during the Sibos discussions:
“A faster payment is not necessarily a safer commercial outcome.”
This is one of the most interesting questions facing the industry: how do we build a truly 24/7 global payments ecosystem while ensuring liquidity is available, visible and manageable at exactly the moment it is needed?
The future of payments isn’t just about speed. It’s about certainty, liquidity, resilience and interoperability.
Clariti, from Planixs is leading the way in liquidity management in the instant payments space. Institutions are using Clariti to accurately view, forecast and report on their instant payments liquidity position and make smarter, data-driven decisions to minimise risk and maximise liquidity allocation. All in real time.
