A new study by global tech strategist Juniper Research has ranked SWIFT as the leading cross-border payment infrastructure provider in 2026, followed by Visa, Thunes, and Mastercard.
Despite concerns that SWIFT’s supremacy is waning amid cryptocurrency-based alternatives, it continues to thrive; indicating that established players remain at the forefront for now.
As part of the study, Juniper Research released its 2026 Competitor Leaderboard. This analyses 14 leading providers of cross-border payment infrastructure; ranking them based on criteria including their payment processing value and breadth of supported cross-border use cases.
Report author Lorien Carter, Senior Research Analyst at Juniper Research, commented: “Some of the top-ranked providers benefit from long-established market dominance. However, the study found that sustained leadership increasingly depends on technological advancement. Vendors that fail to modernise core settlement rails risk losing market share to real-time, multi-rail infrastructure providers. Leading companies must integrate capabilities such as stablecoin-based settlement for international transfers and smart routing.”
Other high-ranking providers, such as Thunes and dLocal, have created novel payment networks that connect banks, mobile wallets, and diverse local payment methods. These networks transact in real time; meeting growing customer expectation for fast transactions. As real-time transactions become standard, competitive advantage will increasingly depend on ecosystem reach rather than transaction volume alone.
The study’s findings reflect the accelerating value of the cross-border payments market; forecast to reach $62.9 trillion by 2030. As transaction values climb 24% from $58.9 trillion in 2026, vendors are competing to capture a greater share of this expanding opportunity by differentiating on global connectivity and technological innovation.
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An extract from the report, Cross-border Payments Market 2026-2030, is available as a free download.
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