Event News

A Recap of the 2026 BAFT Global Councils Forum

The 2026 BAFT Global Councils Forum brought together transaction banking leaders from around the world to examine the forces reshaping payments, trade, and correspondent banking. Across fireside chats, panel discussions, and an interactive game-show session, speakers explored how tokenization, agentic AI, real-time payments, and multi-rail infrastructure are changing the way banks serve their clients, and how geopolitical realignment is redrawing trade corridors and capital flows. A consistent theme emerged throughout: innovation must be matched by interoperability, strong risk controls, and the human expertise needed to navigate change. Below are the key takeaways from each session. Use the links to jump directly to a topic.

In this recap:

CEO Fireside Chat with Javier Perez Tasso, Swift and Tod Burwell, BAFT

The discussion explored the rapid transformation of global payments driven by tokenization, artificial intelligence, interconnected domestic payment systems, and geopolitical fragmentation. It also highlighted Swift’s evolving role in advancing interoperability across payments and trade, while addressing the need to balance innovation, speed, security, and industry readiness.

Key Takeaways

  • Tokenization and AI are transforming transaction banking: Tokenized deposits, stablecoins, and agentic AI are creating opportunities for 24/7 payments, liquidity optimization, and greater efficiency, while requiring strong governance and risk controls.
  • Interoperability is critical to global payments and trade: Swift’s blockchain-based ledger and broader initiatives aim to connect banks, domestic payment systems, and digital platforms, enabling faster cross-border transactions and advancing trade digitization.
  • Speed must be balanced with security: As payments become faster and more interconnected, fraud prevention and cybersecurity remain essential. The BAFT community has an important role in shaping policy discussions on appropriate safeguards.
  • ISO 20022 implementation requires a pragmatic approach: Swift delayed hard enforcement of structured and hybrid address requirements due to low adoption rates, reinforcing the need for phased implementation, industry collaboration, and operational readiness to avoid payment disruptions.

Today’s Correspondent Banking Networks: Fit for Purpose or Ready for a Retrofit?

Correspondent banking remains the backbone of global commerce. It connects financial institutions, enables cross-border trade and investment, and helps individuals and businesses move money across jurisdictions. Yet, it operates in an environment of unprecedented change. Payment expectations are becoming instant and always-on, compliance obligations are growing more complex, fraud and cyber threats are increasingly sophisticated, and new payment rails, from interoperable networks to stablecoins and tokenized money, are moving from theory toward practical deployment.

Key Takeaways

  • Interoperability: a challenge and an opportunity: Interoperability is both the greatest challenge and the greatest opportunity across the payments ecosystem.
  • Strong foundations are essential for adoption: More important than the technology itself are the foundations that enable adoption: trust, access, liquidity, compliance, transparency, resilience, and sustainable economics.
  • End-to-end payment journey: Reimagine the end-to-end payment journey and look to other industries for inspiration.
  • Beyond a single rail or form of payment: The future of correspondent banking is unlikely to be defined by a single payment rail or a single form of money. Instead, it will be shaped by the industry’s ability to make cross-border payments faster, more transparent, and more efficient while preserving the controls, reach, and confidence that global financial flows require.

Expanding into the US: Building a Diverse Payments Toolkit for Resilience, Reach, and Client Choice

The session explored how Latin American banks expanding into the U.S. are navigating a complex payments landscape by offering multiple payment options, including ACH, wires, cards, and real-time payments. Panelists discussed strategies for selecting the right payment rails, balancing speed, cost, liquidity, and compliance, and leveraging partnerships to deliver a seamless client experience.

Key Takeaways

  • No single payment rail meets every client need: Banks must offer a diverse mix of payment options and dynamically select the most appropriate rail based on speed, cost, working capital needs, and customer preferences.
  • Compliance and interoperability are critical: Expanding into the U.S. requires strong regulatory and sanctions controls, along with the ability to integrate multiple payment rails and legacy systems.
  • Strategic partnerships can accelerate market expansion: Banks must evaluate when to build, buy, or partner for payment capabilities, balancing fintech innovation and agility with the security, trust, and regulatory expertise of established institutions.

Agentic AI in TxB Challenge: Where Will it Add Value?

Through a lively, Family Feud-style game show session, two teams competed on how Agentic AI can add value in transaction banking, exploring use cases, benefits, safeguards and risks. This creative format and engagement of a larger group of participants energized the audience and made a complex topic more interactive and accessible. Additionally, the whitepaper “Top Use Cases of Agentic AI in Transaction Banking” published by Future Leader Class 2025 was featured.

Key Takeaways

  • Applications across Transaction Banking: The Family Feud competition (discussion) addressed practical agentic AI applications across KYC/CDD, client onboarding, payment investigations, servicing, payments, treasury and liquidity management
  • Balancing responsible adoption with safeguards and oversights: The discussion balanced agentic AI opportunity with responsible adoption and phased implementation, highlighting human oversight, regulatory guidance, audit trails, defined action boundaries, and training
  • Interactive learning reinforces AI concepts: The gaming format created strong audience engagement. The playoff round reinforced core AI concepts in a fast-paced, memorable way and provided a strong closing for the session.

Beyond the Headlines: Trade Corridors, Capital Flows and Geopolitical Realignment

The session explored the resilience of MENA’s trade and banking sectors amid geopolitical disruptions, highlighting how businesses and financial institutions are adapting supply chains, trade routes, and financing structures. Panelists also examined emerging trade corridors connecting MENA with Asia, Africa, and other markets, and the opportunities for banks to support evolving trade and capital flows.

Key Takeaways

  • Trade resilience depends on diversification: Businesses are adapting to geopolitical disruptions by diversifying suppliers, shipping routes, and counterparties, while banks are strengthening risk controls and trade finance structures to support continued trade flows.
  • Emerging trade corridors present growth opportunities: MENA-Asia and South-South trade corridors are creating new opportunities for trade finance and correspondent banking, requiring banks to expand networks, currency capabilities, and financing solutions.
  • Local partnerships and risk mitigation are essential: Banks expanding into MENA and emerging corridors can benefit from strong regional partnerships, local market expertise, and risk-sharing arrangements with development banks and export credit agencies.

Transaction Banking Leaders Roundtable

The discussion explored how transaction banking will evolve toward 2030, driven by the convergence of real-time payments, multi-rail infrastructure, digital assets, AI and embedded banking services. Panelists emphasized that successful transformation will depend not only on adopting new technologies but also on delivering meaningful customer outcomes, strengthening risk controls and developing the human expertise needed to navigate change.

Key Takeaways

  • Convergence of Technologies: AI, digital assets, programmable payments and multi-rail infrastructure will increasingly work together to transform how banks deliver transaction banking services.
  • Client Needs Remain Central: Innovation must focus on delivering practical solutions that address client needs and improve business outcomes. AI should serve as an enabling capability rather than an end product.
  • Protection, Resilience and Trust: As banks accelerate AI adoption and automation, strong risk controls, fraud prevention and operational resilience will be critical to maintaining client trust.
  • Strategic Investment for Sustainable Growth: Continued investment in technology, partnerships, capabilities and talent will be essential to deepen client relationships, support transformation and drive sustainable growth.