No. 92 - The Architecture of Cross-Border Finance: Fifty Years of Evolution from National Segmentation
to Fragmented Globalization
Cross-border payments and financial transactions are essential for global commerce, investment, and personal remittances. These flows rely on a network of Financial Market Infrastructures (FMIs) - including payment systems, trading venues, central counterparties, central securities depositories, and securities settlement systems - which have received limited attention in financial history and geography, despite their importance. Together with correspondent and custodian banks, FMIs collectively constitute what is referred to in this paper as the Architecture of Cross-border Finance (ACF). This paper analyzes the evolution of the ACF from the 1971 collapse of the Bretton Woods system to the present, focusing on the US and Europe. Using a historical and qualitative approach, it identifies four phases shaped by technology, policy and regulation, economic and political integration, and geopolitics. The analysis shows how the ACF evolved from fragmented national systems into an integrated global network and now faces renewed fragmentation, driven by strategic and geopolitical concerns. It argues that these developments may signal a transition from a Western-centric asymmetric architecture toward a more multipolar configuration reflecting broader shifts in global power.
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23 September 2026
to Fragmented Globalization
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