The G20 aims of lowering the cost, speeding up, improving transparency, and facilitating easier access to cross-border payments while maintaining their security can be achieved with the support of well-crafted service level agreements. As a result, the G20 has determined that achieving service level agreements will be crucial to meeting its goals by the end of 2027.

High-level suggestions, important details, and leading questions are included in this study to help parties engaged in such agreements stay informed. When creating new agreements or evaluating current ones, payment service providers, correspondent banks, and/or payment system operators are recommended to take the guidelines into account.

A year-long dialogue with public and private parties shaped the recommendations, salient points, and guiding questions. The degree of recommendations was purposefully kept high. They should nevertheless help to improve the harmonisation of both new and old agreements, but they shouldn't place an excessive burden on smaller and new payment arrangements.