Federal Reserve Governor Christopher Waller presented a technology-focused vision for payments innovation at Sibos 2025 in Frankfurt on September 29, saying artificial intelligence, stablecoins and tokenization will be central to the future of payments. In a speech titled "The Next Frontier of Payments Innovation," Waller said distributed ledger technology (shared digital transaction infrastructure), tokenized assets, smart contracts (self-executing blockchain code) and AI could address persistent weaknesses in cross-border payments. He highlighted agentic AI, which can autonomously perform tasks such as sanctions screening, fraud detection and regulatory checks, potentially reducing compliance bottlenecks. Waller said DLT and tokenization could make payment systems faster and more transparent, while smart contracts could reduce manual reconciliation between institutions. He said there was no reason to fear new technologies or payment service providers. The Federal Reserve is researching these technologies and assessing whether they warrant changes to payment infrastructure such as FedNow, its real-time payment service launched in 2023. His remarks may carry significance for automated know-your-customer and anti-money-laundering providers, stablecoin issuers, lawmakers considering stablecoin legislation, and middleware companies connecting traditional banking systems with tokenized networks.