Clear Junction Urges Shift to ‘Hybrid-Rail Mindset’ as Programmable Money Goes Mainstream

As settlement windows tighten and global stablecoin regulations diverge, the payments industry is moving away from a binary choice between old and new systems. A new report from Clear Junction, the global provider of cross-border payments infrastructure, argues that the next competitive advantage lies in mastering “hybrid rails.”

The whitepaper, titled ‘Value in Transition: Navigating the Evolution of Money, Payments and Digital Finance’, suggests that the most successful financial institutions will be those capable of operating across traditional bank networks, permissioned platforms, and public programmable networks simultaneously—all while maintaining consistent controls and audit discipline.

Moving beyond the hype

The report finds that programmable money—including stablecoins and tokenised deposits—has graduated from pilot phases to supporting real-world payment flows. These include weekend marketplace payouts, cross-border remittances, and SME settlements in access-constrained markets.

Rather than displacing established systems like SWIFT, programmable rails are beginning to complement them. While SWIFT remains crucial for its global reach and ISO 20022 data standards, programmable networks offer distinct advantages in speed, after-hours operation, and verifiable evidence.

“We are living through value in transition – not one rail replacing another, but several operating side by side,” said Teresa Cameron, group CEO at Clear Junction. “The question for regulated institutions is no longer whether to support ‘old’ or ‘new’ rails, but how to use all of them together, safely and to their advantage.”

Practical pressures driving adoption

The push towards hybrid models is driven by tangible operational pressures. Institutions face shrinking settlement windows and long-standing friction in correspondent banking chains that trap liquidity across time zones. Programmable money offers a solution by reducing pre-funding requirements and speeding up settlement.

However, the report warns that regulatory divergence—with the US, EU, and UK taking different approaches to stablecoin oversight—requires firms to “design for divergence.” This means ensuring that compliance controls and audit trails travel consistently across jurisdictions and rail types.

Clear Junction advises boards and leadership teams to build hybrid capability safely by designing policies at the “edge” before transfers occur and maintaining documented fallbacks to traditional bank rails.

“Most institutions won’t throw out their existing infrastructure,” Cameron added. “They will add new rails next to it. The winners will be those who keep options open, prove controls on any rail, and measure results in hard numbers not slogans.”

Clear Junction itself has evolved to reflect this hybrid approach. Since its FCA authorisation in 2017, the firm has expanded from safeguarded fiat accounts to a multi-rail model spanning bank networks, local schemes, and recently, public programmable networks for stablecoin payouts.