Cross border payments

Blockchain's cross-border power eliminates the intermediary and solves the problem of rendering the traditional processing system redundant, and processes the payment on a chain with no middleman intervention, says ForumPay's Joshua Tate.

While companies may already have technology in place that supports efficient payments and collections in their home region, treasurers and finance managers need to reflect the diverse and evolving payment and collection demands of customers and suppliers in each market, says Standard Chartered's Tarek Elyafi.

The retailers seeing exponential growth are the ones who have tailored and localized their payments offering to a global audience, says PPRO's Steve Villegas.

With consumers and merchants alike sharing the need to be paid faster, the case for adopting real-time payments globally has quickly advanced during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Digital remittance provider WorldRemit has agreed to acquire Sendwave, a mobile app-based remittance company focused on servicing the African money transfer corridors.

Remitly has added 11 new mobile wallets to its network, almost doubling its reach to 300 million consumers, to meet demands for cash alternatives amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Brad Windbigler, treasurer at Western Union, talks to us about how the company navigated the challenges of the pandemic — particularly as the global nature of its network meant it had to contend with moving money across parts of the world that recovered at vastly different rates from one another.

The massive shift to digital has created new challenges in cross-border payment processing, says Tipalti's Manish Vrishaketu.

As the global economy continues to unlock more opportunities for cross border transactions and payments, the ability for businesses to communicate with global consumers in their language (or currency) of choice is vital, says Fiserv's Brian Frey.

Western Union confirmed yet again that for a payments company to survive the coronavirus pandemic, it needed to enter the crisis with a strong footing in digital payments.