Traditional payments infrastructure is facing a period of intense scrutiny as the demand for instantaneous, low-cost cross-border settlement moves from consumer expectation to corporate necessity. While retail users in the UK have grown accustomed to the near-instant nature of the Faster Payments Service, the back-end reality for high-value B2B transactions remains a fragmented system of messaging and delayed reconciliation.

Nkiru Uwaje, COO and co-founder of Mansa, explained that the average user often fails to realise that “real money” does not move in real-time. Instead, the global financial system relies on a messaging logic—historically dominated by Swift—that requires later reconciliation, a process that can take several days and incur significant costs for transactions exceeding $5,000.

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The Catalyst for Change

The shift toward alternative settlement assets, specifically stablecoins, accelerated during the pandemic. In emerging markets, consumers turned to USDT (Tether) as a tool to hedge against local currency volatility when physical FX brokers were inaccessible. This organic adoption in the retail sector has since filtered up to the B2B space.

“When you’re used to something on the consumer side, you start to question whether you can find other solutions on the business side too,” Uwaje noted, adding that this has created an “upward pressure” on financial institutions to utilise more efficient tools.

Uwaje believes the industry is entering a “Fintech 3.0 era” where stablecoins and blockchain infrastructure will become primary methods for global transactions. She anticipates that licensed fintechs and payments companies could see adoption rates as high as 70 per cent to 80 per cent within the next 24 months, driven by the need for a competitive edge in settlement speed and cost reduction.

Regulatory Clarity and Institutional Hurdles

Despite the technical benefits, the path to widespread adoption has been hampered by a lack of proactive regulation. Uwaje suggested that “scaremongering” and a lack of uniform frameworks across different regions have previously hindered the growth of the sector.

The introduction of the Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) regulation in Europe served as a stark example of how quickly the landscape can shift, forcing many firms to pivot their models overnight. However, Uwaje added that this lack of early clarity also kept traditional banks on the sidelines. “I don’t think there was enough clarity on regulation for many of the banks… and this is why people put it kind of on the back burner,” she said.

For the industry to reach a state of “global standards” similar to the legacy established by Swift, Uwaje stressed the need for regulators to provide frameworks that protect both consumers and businesses while allowing global platforms to add value.

A Multi-Rail Future

While organisations like Ripple and Circle are building out dedicated payment networks, Uwaje does not foresee a “winner-takes-all” scenario for global rails. Drawing parallels to the card industry—where Visa and Mastercard coexist alongside various processing layers—she suggested that the future of global payments will “require a village”.

“One size won’t fit all,” Uwaje commented, noting that different jurisdictions and institutional needs will require a variety of solutions with varying levels of liquidity and ease of use.

As the industry moves toward 2030, the focus remains on closing the gap between the speed of digital communication and the speed of value transfer, ensuring that the “faulty suspensions” of legacy payment systems are replaced by robust, real-time infrastructure.