Settlement & FX
What is Settlement?
Settlement is the point at which a payment becomes final and the funds are irrevocably available to the recipient. Until settlement occurs, a payment is only a promise; settlement is when value actually changes hands. Cross-border settlement time ranges from seconds on instant rails to days over correspondent banking.
Settlement finality is legally and operationally distinct from a payment being 'sent' or 'authorized'. Real-time rails (UPI, SEPA Instant, FedNow, PIX) settle in seconds; traditional SWIFT correspondent chains can take 1–3 business days due to intermediary hops and cut-off windows.