The news
On September 29, 2026, Bank of America (BAC) said Brazil's Banco Bradesco (BBD) completed the first pilot transaction on its Bank of America cross-border real-time payments service, sending funds over Swift that arrived in Hong Kong dollars through Hong Kong's Faster Payment System.
According to Bank of America's announcement, Bradesco initiated the payment through its existing Swift connection, the messaging network banks use to send international payment instructions. The funds were delivered to a local beneficiary in Hong Kong through the Faster Payment System (FPS), Hong Kong's domestic instant payment network. The bank did not disclose the amount or the exact date of the transaction.
Bank of America described the service as built for high-volume, low-value payments, with real-time tracking, full-principal delivery and payment certainty. Full-principal delivery means the recipient gets the whole amount sent, without intermediary banks deducting fees along the way. BofA said future availability through CashPro, its digital banking platform for corporate and institutional clients, will add another way to start these payments. Global Finance reported that the CashPro integration is set for 2027.
The two banks are also piloting a separate US payment route through Swift, aimed at making consumer and small-business international payments faster, more predictable and more transparent, Bank of America said. It did not give a timeline for that route.
Christian Stolcke, who leads Bank of America's global financial institutions, nonbank financial institutions and governments business in Global Payments Solutions, said banks want faster international payments without changing the channels and processes they already use. Daniel Stanton, payments product head in the same unit, said the transaction shows the service working in practice. The announcement did not include a comment from Bradesco.
Bank of America first announced the service on June 4, 2026. At that time it listed Mexico's SPEI, the UK's Faster Payments Service and India's Unified Payments Interface (UPI) as supported real-time systems, plus inbound payments to the US, with funds delivered in local currency, and said it expected to launch in the following quarter. Global Finance reported that the Bradesco pilot was announced at the Sibos 2026 conference in Miami.
The numbers
- Forecast growth in cross-border P2P flows by 2032
- 58% (FXC Intelligence, cited by Bank of America)
- Forecast growth in cross-border B2C flows by 2032
- 131% (FXC Intelligence, cited by Bank of America)
- Payments BofA says it helps clients process each year
- More than $450 trillion
- Service first announced
- June 4, 2026
Why CEOs should care
For corporate treasurers and CFOs, the draw is predictability. Traditional cross-border payments can pass through several correspondent banks, each able to take a fee and add delay. A service that promises tracking, full principal and delivery through the recipient country's instant payment network could cut the cash buffers and manual follow-up that treasury teams build around international payouts. Ask your banks which corridors are live, what the cut-off times and limits are, and how foreign-exchange pricing is shown before a payment goes out.
For banks and payment companies, the more important detail may be the route in. Bradesco used the Swift connection it already had, rather than building new technology. Institutions that send payments on behalf of their own customers should ask whether they can reach these real-time routes with their existing Swift setup, and what that means for the correspondent relationships and fees they rely on today.
For product and operations leaders, high-volume, low-value flows such as payroll to overseas contractors, marketplace seller payouts and remittances are the obvious first use cases. Test with a small corridor, measure the end-to-end time and cost against your current provider, and check how returns and errors are handled before moving volume.
The bigger picture
Bank of America is one of several providers trying to make international payments feel as fast as domestic ones by connecting to local instant payment systems. Global Finance noted that Bank of America faces competition from Visa, from Wise, which reports that 74% of its transfers arrive in under 20 seconds, and from stablecoin providers such as Circle. Bank of America's June announcement tied the service to the G20's cross-border payment objectives.
The demand case rests on growth in smaller payments. Citing FXC Intelligence, Bank of America said cross-border person-to-person flows are expected to rise 58% and business-to-consumer flows 131% by 2032.
What’s next
Watch for Bank of America to name more live corridors beyond the four real-time systems it has cited, including any Brazil route, for results from the separate US route pilot with Bradesco, and for the CashPro rollout that Global Finance reported for 2027.
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