The global payments industry is undergoing a structural transformation. Crypto researcher SMQKE (@SMQKEDQG) highlighted a key piece of evidence to back it up and highlight Ripple and XRP’s ro
The global payments industry is undergoing a structural transformation. Crypto researcher SMQKE (@SMQKEDQG) highlighted a key piece of evidence to back it up and highlight Ripple and XRP’s role.
ISO 20022 is reshaping how financial institutions communicate and transfer value. One fintech company’s executive has made clear that SWIFT is not the only infrastructure capable of carrying that future forward.
Joe Higginson, Commercial Chief Officer at Identitii, addressed this directly in an interview with The Banker. He acknowledged SWIFT’s ISO 20022 mandate as noble and heading in the right direction. Then he added something significant: “SWIFT isn’t the only gateway in the world.”
Identitii: Ripple represents an alternative payment gateway beyond SWIFT.
Documented.
pic.twitter.com/u1Mt02cbym
— SMQKE (@SMQKEDQG) September 12, 2026
Higginson drew on his experience at Investec to illustrate this point. While there, he “built a payments platform that not only connected to SWIFT, but was looking at alternative payment gateways.” Those alternatives included Mastercard Send, Visa B2B, and Currency Cloud.
He then referenced the distributed ledger space. Companies like Ripple, he said, are “unlocking treasury payments by offering tokenised cryptography coins.” This positions XRP not as a speculative asset but as functional payment infrastructure operating alongside and beyond SWIFT.
ISO 20022 solves significant messaging and transfer problems. But Higginson identified a critical limitation. He stated that “you still don’t have interoperability globally.” Even with one standard in place, domestic rails outside SWIFT could diverge. “Regional dialects of ISO 20022 are a likely outcome of the change as domestic rails add their own flavour and requirements to the standard.”
This fragmentation creates a direct opening for XRP. Ripple’s technology operates across borders without relying on any single domestic rail or regional variant. As ISO 20022 adoption spreads and regional differences multiply, a neutral settlement layer becomes more valuable.
The price argument for XRP follows from the utility. As more institutions recognize Ripple as a legitimate alternative payment gateway, demand for XRP as a bridge asset increases. Higginson’s comments reflect a shift in how fintech professionals categorize Ripple. It now sits in the same conversation as Mastercard Send and Visa B2B.
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Institutions allocating to payment infrastructure take positions based on usage and adoption. XRP’s role in treasury payments, cross-border settlement, and now ISO 20022-adjacent infrastructure gives it a concrete use case that supports price appreciation over time.
Identitii operates in the payments compliance and data space. Higginson’s acknowledgment of Ripple as a genuine payment alternative adds to a growing record of XRP’s institutional validation.
Disclaimer: This content is meant to inform and should not be considered financial advice. The views expressed in this article may include the author’s personal opinions and do not represent Times Tabloid’s opinion. Readers are advised to conduct thorough research before making any investment decisions. Any action taken by the reader is strictly at their own risk. Times Tabloid is not responsible for any financial losses.
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