Cross-border institutional payments, worth over $136T annually, remain constrained by SWIFT’s slow, costly, and manual processes. Distributed ledger technology (DLT) offers faster, more transparent, and secure alternatives by enabling direct settlement, consensus validation, and integrated KYC/AML compliance. Stablecoins or consortium-backed digital tokens can serve as vehicles for instant multi-currency transfers, reducing reconciliation costs and fraud risk. Early pilots by JP Morgan, CLS Net, RippleNet, and central banks show significant promise. However, adoption faces hurdles in regulation, interoperability with legacy systems, and achieving critical network scale before DLT can replace entrenched infrastructures.

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