Thunes' direct connection to a tier-1 US bank lets businesses outside America send dollars in real time, bypassing the slow correspondent banking system.
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Thunes opens real-time US payments via tier-1 bank, 140-country reach
Thunes plugged directly into a tier-1 US financial institution to offer real-time dollar payouts from 140 countries, bypassing the multi-bank intermediary chains that have long made inbound US payments slow and expensive.
"The US payments market has historically been sluggish, opaque, and burdened by fees for cross-border money movement, particularly for businesses," Chloé Mayenobe, deputy CEO of Thunes, said.
Thunes holds 50 money transmission licenses across US states and territories, enabling native access to domestic clearing rails including ACH, Same-Day ACH, and real-time payment systems. Its Direct Global Network reaches 12 billion endpoints spanning bank accounts, mobile wallets, and stablecoin wallets across 90 currencies.
The move deepens Thunes' existing partnership with Ripple, whose RLUSD stablecoin and blockchain-based settlement infrastructure complement the new real-time rail access. Together, the two companies now offer an alternative to the SWIFT-based correspondent banking model that typically takes one to three business days for US dollar settlements.
Thunes' direct integration reduces latency and transactional costs by removing third-party intermediary setups, the company said. For gig economy platforms, money transfer operators, and payment service providers outside the US, the single-API connection means they can send value into America using whichever domestic rail best suits their needs — batch processing via ACH or instant settlement through real-time payment schemes.
The infrastructure build comes as the broader payments industry shifts toward hybrid architectures that blend traditional banking rails with blockchain-based liquidity. Mastercard this week expanded its settlement infrastructure to support regulated stablecoins including Ripple's RLUSD, Circle's USDC, and Paxos-issued PYUSD across networks such as Ethereum, Solana, and XRPL. The credit card network's Multi-Token Network platform now enables intraday and weekend settlement for approved digital assets, Raj Dhamodharan, executive vice president of blockchain and digital assets at Mastercard, said.
Ximena Azcuy, head of network for the Americas at Thunes, called the tier-1 bank integration a major step for international businesses, adding that the company is enabling high-volume cross-border money movement into the US through a single connection.
For investors, the convergence of real-time payment rails, regulated stablecoins, and direct bank connectivity points to a structural shift in how cross-border dollar flows are settled. Thunes and Ripple, both operating under comprehensive US licensing frameworks — Thunes with 50 state-level MTLs and Ripple with its own regulatory compliance — are positioned to capture a share of the multi-trillion-dollar US inbound payments market that has long been dominated by correspondent banks charging 3 percent to 7 percent per transaction.
This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice.
