Bank of America Completes First Cross-Border Real-Time Payment Transaction
Bank of America has successfully completed the initial transaction using its newly introduced Cross-Border Real-Time Payments solution. According to a corporate announcement issued by the institution, the milestone pilot demonstrates the practical application of modern financial infrastructure designed to bridge domestic instantaneous rails with international networks.
During the pilot phase, Brazilian financial institution Bradesco utilized the new offering to execute a transaction. The payment was initiated through Bradesco’s existing Swift connectivity and successfully delivered in Hong Kong dollars to a local beneficiary via Hong Kong’s Faster Payment System. Following this initial success, Bank of America and Bradesco are also conducting tests on a separate U.S. payment route utilizing Swift connectivity.
Initially outlined by the bank earlier in the year, the Cross-Border Real-Time Payments platform is engineered to integrate with Swift as well as Bank of America’s CashPro platform. The service is built to accommodate corporate, commercial, and financial institution clients, facilitating use cases such as international remittances, gig-economy payouts, and marketplace vendor disbursements.
Key Features of the Platform
Bank of America designed the infrastructure specifically to handle high-volume, low-value transactions. According to the institution’s disclosures, the system incorporates several critical capabilities for corporate treasurers:
- Real-time tracking of funds throughout the transfer process
- Full-principal delivery ensuring no unexpected deductions
- Enhanced payment certainty for global commerce
Christian Stolcke, head of global financial institutions, nonbank financial institutions, and governments in Global Payments Solutions (GPS) at Bank of America, stated that the pilot highlights the institution’s ability to connect traditional financial channels to instantaneous payment networks worldwide. Daniel Stanton, payments product head in GPS at the bank, added that plans are underway to expand the capability to additional jurisdictions, currencies, and transaction formats.
Domestic High-Value Volume Surges
In a separate corporate release, Bank of America highlighted rising demand for higher-value real-time transactions among its corporate clientele utilizing the RTP Network. The institution attributed this adoption trajectory in part to a regulatory and operational shift in February 2025, when the RTP Network expanded its individual transaction limit from $1 million to $10 million.
Data provided by the bank shows that corporate transaction volume on the RTP Network increased by 48% year over year between January and July. Furthermore, corporate transactions exceeding the $1 million threshold experienced a 351% surge during the same comparative period.
Stolcke noted that the expanded transaction threshold has unlocked new strategic applications for businesses. Meanwhile, AJ McCray, head of global payments product in GPS at Bank of America, observed that corporate users are leveraging real-time capabilities to enhance treasury precision, operational efficiency, and overall liquidity resilience beyond merely achieving faster speeds.
Source: PYMNTS
