When AML Breaks Settlement Finality: A Structural Analysis of Payment Systems Under Compliance Constraints

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Autor principal: Grundmann, Miloslav
Formato: Recurso digital
Lenguaje:inglés
Publicado: Zenodo 2026
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author Grundmann, Miloslav
author_facet Grundmann, Miloslav
contents <p>Modern payment systems are frequently described as enabling real-time and final settlement. While this description is technically accurate, it is regulatorily incomplete.<br>Anti-money laundering (AML), sanctions enforcement, and fraud prevention introduce a persistent possibility of post-execution intervention. As a result, the economic out-<br>come of a transaction remains uncertain even after its technical completion. This paper develops a structural framework distinguishing between execution and<br>compliance closure. It introduces the concept of conditional settlement finality and shows that it arises across all major payment architectures, including correspondent<br>banking, instant payment systems, and stablecoin-based infrastructures. The analysis demonstrates that improvements in execution speed do not eliminate uncertainty. In-stead, they relocate it into the compliance layer. Settlement finality is therefore not an intrinsic system property, but a contingent state dependent on the closure of regulatory processes.</p>
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language eng
publishDate 2026
publisher Zenodo
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spellingShingle When AML Breaks Settlement Finality: A Structural Analysis of Payment Systems Under Compliance Constraints
Grundmann, Miloslav
Settlement finality
AML
compliance
payment systems
financial regulation
operational risk
sanctions
stablecoins
<p>Modern payment systems are frequently described as enabling real-time and final settlement. While this description is technically accurate, it is regulatorily incomplete.<br>Anti-money laundering (AML), sanctions enforcement, and fraud prevention introduce a persistent possibility of post-execution intervention. As a result, the economic out-<br>come of a transaction remains uncertain even after its technical completion. This paper develops a structural framework distinguishing between execution and<br>compliance closure. It introduces the concept of conditional settlement finality and shows that it arises across all major payment architectures, including correspondent<br>banking, instant payment systems, and stablecoin-based infrastructures. The analysis demonstrates that improvements in execution speed do not eliminate uncertainty. In-stead, they relocate it into the compliance layer. Settlement finality is therefore not an intrinsic system property, but a contingent state dependent on the closure of regulatory processes.</p>
title When AML Breaks Settlement Finality: A Structural Analysis of Payment Systems Under Compliance Constraints
topic Settlement finality
AML
compliance
payment systems
financial regulation
operational risk
sanctions
stablecoins
url https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.19868191