BIS Working Paper: Competition Channels for Cross-Border Payments — Banks, Fintechs, and Stablecoins

The Bank for International Settlements released Working Paper No. 1385, which compares the total costs of three cross-border payment channels: traditional correspondent banking and SWIFT-based bank transfers, fintech remittance operators such as Wise and Remitly, and stablecoin transfers. The study combines intraday fintech pricing, World Bank remittance data, bank transfer transactions, and crypto market data to construct comparable cost indicators across currencies and remittance sizes, distinguishing between foreign exchange markups and explicit fees.