Interoperable Instant Payments: The Future of Cross-Border Clearing

According to Avinash, the true opportunity lies not in constructing new payment infrastructures but in “stitching existing ones intelligently.” Domestic instant payment schemes such as Tanzania’s TIPS, Ghana’s GhIPSS, Kenya’s M-Pesa, and South Africa’s PayShap are flourishing, yet most remain national monuments rather than regional corridors.

“Each country is proving domestic adoption, but few have been architected with interoperability in mind,” Avinash explained. “True progress will depend less on technology, and more on policy-level interoperability, where regulators and central banks agree on common principles for settlement, access, and governance.”

While discussions often focus on APIs and message formats, Avinash reminded viewers that “technology is no longer the real obstacle, it’s the economics of control.”

Many central banks and scheme operators resist opening their rails, as doing so challenges established revenue models and jurisdictional authority. Real interoperability, he said, demands commercial alignment and trust, not just technical connectivity.

Avinash pointed out a common misconception; connecting to a real-time rail doesn’t automatically make a bank real-time-ready. Many institutions still rely on batch-based reconciliation, liquidity, and risk management processes.

Platforms like Sybrin’s Payments Hub, he explained, help financial institutions bridge old and new systems. “They’re not just switches,” he said. “They’re orchestration layers that enable banks to modernise incrementally while preserving operational stability.”

Although ISO 20022 has become the global rallying cry for interoperability, Avinash cautioned against assuming it’s a silver bullet. “ISO 20022 is a language, not a translation layer,” he said. “Two banks can speak ISO 20022 and still misunderstand each other.”

True transparency requires semantic alignment, where data carries consistent meaning across jurisdictions, something that must be driven by policy and governance, not just technology.

Discussing central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) and stablecoins, Avinash described them as policy experiments more than payment innovations. While they spark valuable debate about 24/7 settlement and regulatory alignment, “they often replicate existing rails using different ledgers.”

Sybrin’s Payments Hub, he noted, is already capable of interfacing with digital currency ecosystems, but what’s missing is policy-readiness and a framework for coexistence.

Collaboration has become the industry’s favourite buzzword,” Avinash remarked. “But often it’s collaboration without clarity.”

He called for regional sandboxes and joint regulatory frameworks that align incentives and establish shared accountability. Without that structure, “collaboration risks becoming an endless roundtable discussion rather than a launchpad for progress.”

While instant payments can drive inclusion, Avinash warned against equating speed with accessibility. “True inclusion is not about milliseconds,” he said. “It’s about meaningful access and affordability.”

He emphasised the importance of interoperability between banks and mobile money platforms, allowing informal traders and SMEs to transact seamlessly across borders, “that’s when instant payments become truly inclusive, not just instant.”

For intra-regional trade to flourish, instant payments must go beyond speed. “They have to be linked to supply chain processes, escrow, and digital identity frameworks,” Avinash explained. “Otherwise, we risk moving inefficiencies faster.”

Real economic value will emerge when payment networks integrate with these systems, enabling traders in Lusaka and Nairobi to transact with the same confidence as domestic partners.

The next big breakthrough won’t be new technology,” Avinash concluded. “It will be when regulators start treating payments as a network utility rather than a banking privilege.”

He believes the future belongs to markets that embrace shared infrastructure and institutional collaboration. Emerging technologies like AI and blockchain will enhance efficiency, but “real innovation will be institutional, when collaboration becomes infrastructure.”

Sybrin’s strategy, Avinash explained, is not about building the biggest switch but “the smartest connector.”

Through its Payments Hub and ACH roadmap, Sybrin helps financial institutions modernise at their own pace while enabling real-time clearing across multiple schemes. “Technology alone cannot deliver interoperability,” he said. “It takes collaboration, trust, and a platform flexible enough to meet institutions where they are, while guiding them to where the market is heading.”