J.P. Morgan Payments picks Thunes to widen Xpedite Remit payouts

J.P. Morgan Payments has picked Singapore-based Thunes to extend its Xpedite Remit cross-border payouts to bank accounts and mobile wallets across more than 100 corridors, the bank said on September 22, 2026. The more telling detail is timing: this is the second large US payments processor to plug into the same Thunes network in five weeks, after Fiserv signed up on August 17. When two of the biggest US payments franchises buy the same last mile, the payout network stops being the differentiator, and the competition moves to FX pricing, principal protection and how well the rail sits inside a corporate treasury stack.

J.P. Morgan is also running a second route at the same time. In August it went live on Swift’s retail payments framework, a bank-to-bank scheme for inbound transfers. Thunes covers the outbound mobile-wallet corridors that correspondent banking has never served well. The bank is using both models, not choosing between them.

What Xpedite Remit adds

According to the J.P. Morgan Payments announcement, the new capability combines the bank’s connectivity to local real-time payments rails with Thunes’ Direct Global Network. Clients get principal protection, end-to-end traceability and payouts in the same currency or with FX conversion, all from a single account and connection. The companies put the reach at 12 billion mobile wallets and bank accounts.

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The first rollout covers instant supplier settlements, bill payments and remittances. The named priority markets are India, Mexico, Bangladesh, Brazil, China, Colombia, Indonesia, Kenya, Nigeria, Pakistan and the Philippines. On the consumer side, the bank said Chase accounts, which serve about 94 million consumer and small business customers, should get faster payouts and support for real-time inbound payments into the US. Neither side disclosed commercial terms.

“Our clients want simpler, faster ways to move money across borders and to reach people through the payment methods they prefer,” said Gayathri Vasudev, Global Head of High Value Payments & FX at J.P. Morgan Payments. Peter De Caluwe, Co-Founder and CEO of Thunes, said the deal shows “how traditional banking infrastructure can connect with popular local payment methods.”

Fiserv, Swift and the shared-pipe problem

Fiserv’s deal points the same Thunes network at a different set of customers: ecommerce platforms and marketplaces in Fiserv’s merchant ecosystem that need to pay staff, bills and suppliers abroad. The Paypers reported that Fiserv gave no rollout date and no financial terms either. A US platform comparing the two payout products may be looking at the same last mile under two brands.

The Swift route works differently. Swift said on August 5 that Bank of America and J.P. Morgan were among the first banks live on its international retail transfers initiative in the US. That scheme guarantees that the full amount arrives, shows fees and exchange rates before the payment is confirmed, and starts with payments sent from Australia, Brazil, China, India, South Africa, South Korea, Spain and Turkey. IT Brief reported that more than 60 banks across 25 countries back the framework. The scheme sits alongside Swift’s data-standards work, including its delayed structured-address deadline.

Vasudev tied the two together, describing the Thunes deal as “building on milestones, like our recent progress with Swift’s retail payments scheme.” Put plainly, Swift handles bank-to-bank flows where both ends are banks, and Thunes reaches wallets such as M-Pesa and GCash, where there is no bank at the receiving end to join a Swift scheme.

Thunes’ US plan, 17 months on

When Thunes raised a $150 million Series D led by Apis Partners and Vitruvian Partners on April 28, 2025, it reported a $150 million revenue run-rate, positive EBITDA and a network covering more than 130 countries and 80 currencies. It said the money would fund US expansion. Its current company description cites more than 140 countries and 90 currencies, and Thunes says it now holds money transmission licences in every US state that requires one. Fiserv and J.P. Morgan are the first big results of that plan.

Money is flowing into the payout layer from other directions too. Circle’s $400 million Tazapay acquisition was also about reaching 100 payout markets, from the stablecoin side. Smaller players are consolidating as well: Fin.com raised a $20 million seed with seven acquisitions already closed. Settlement between banks is still a sticking point, as Partior’s settlement-bank leg shows.

What to watch

We expect more US banks to license a network like Thunes for outbound corridors rather than rebuild correspondent relationships in Kenya or Pakistan. Compliance cost drove banks out of those corridors, and a licensed network takes it off their books. The catch is concentration. As more large processors send traffic through one network, clients will push harder on the parts banks still control: FX spreads, principal protection terms and reconciliation data. J.P. Morgan Payments said it will present its cross-border work at Sibos in Miami from September 28 to October 1, and the first question will be whether the Xpedite Remit service levels differ from what other banks using Thunes can offer.