IMF First Deputy Managing Director Dan Katz said cross-border payments moved nearly $1 quadrillion annually, meaning even small efficiency gains could deliver substantial economic benefits.
Speaking at Sibos 2026, Katz said AI agents could continuously compare fees, exchange rates and execution quality before directing transactions to the most efficient provider.
That could reduce switching costs, strengthen competition and pressure established financial institutions to improve services and pricing.
AI agents could also automate complex transactions, coordinate machine-to-machine payments and determine the best timing based on liquidity, contractual obligations and costs. “The current payments system was not built for autonomous agents operating continuously and at scale,” Katz said.
AI could reduce compliance costs by automating data collection, reconciliation and regulatory reporting across institutions and countries. Agents could also conduct customer checks and sanctions screening during cross-border transactions.
Katz said short-term gains could come from improving existing payment infrastructure rather than replacing entire financial systems. “Many of the benefits promised by a reimagined financial system can instead be delivered by upgrading the core payment systems that we already have,” Katz said.
However, greater use of autonomous agents would require financial systems to become more digital, interoperable and programmable.
Tokenised assets could support near-instant payments at any time, but governments would need to define ownership rights and the relationship between digital tokens and underlying real-world assets.
Central banks may also need to consider tokenised reserves, while finance ministries could explore issuing government debt in tokenised form.
Katz warned that immediate settlement could increase liquidity requirements because institutions would need to provide money before transactions occurred.
Cybersecurity remained among the most significant risks. AI could accelerate the discovery and exploitation of vulnerabilities, while reliance on shared infrastructure and a limited number of technology providers could allow disruption to spread across financial systems. “As frontier AI tools are deployed by cyber actors, defenders will need those same tools to respond,” Katz said.
Katz called for regulation targeting clearly demonstrated market failures without unnecessarily restricting competition or innovation.
New measures should be proportionate, focused and internationally coordinated. “Handled well, AI can help build a payments system that is more efficient, more competitive and better suited to the economy of the future,” Katz said.
–IMF/ChannelAfrica–
