Cross-border payments - financial transactions where the payer and recipient are based in separate countries - are growing in economic importance. The value of both the retail and wholesale market is expected to grow from $150tn in 2017 to more than $250tn by 2027, according to projections by the Bank of England. But the systems to enable such payments can be slow and expensive for a number of reasons, from a lack of competition to legacy tech platforms and fragmented data. That’s why improving them is a priority for the G20 as it looks to boost global trade.