The fight over the future of global payments

OVERTHEm-pesaqrupiSWIFTCIPSSWIFTupi past two decades the ways people pay, receive and transfer money have changed beyond recognition. The revolution began in 2007 when made it possible for Kenyans to make payments with a text message. In 2011 Alipay launched payment-by--code in China, a system that has all but replaced cash in cities. Since then India’s state-led Unified Payments Interface () and Brazil’s Pix have vastly widened access to the financial system among the poor. As our explains, globally the use of notes and coins has been cut by a third, e-commerce has boomed and life without digital payments has become unimaginable.Having transformed how people use money at home, the race to transform payments is now going global. Cross-border retail spending (including tourism) and remittances will hit $5trn this year; business-to-business payments are worth eight times that. Three big players are duking it out to process these vast flows of funds. The West’s legacy system, including the Visa-Mastercard duopoly and , a messaging system for bank payments, is the dominant incumbent. China is the most advanced challenger, with its payment apps, its card network, UnionPay, and , its more expansive alternative to . In third place is India, whose ambition to deploy globally has grown.