Cross border payments

Swift is building out its Global Payments Innovation (GPI) service to allow corporations to initiate and track payments across all of their banking partners from a single source.

While senders prefer mobile devices, recipients remain stubbornly attached to receiving cash.

Corporate payments provider WEX has added Visa commercial virtual cards to its platform for B2B payments.

Seattle-based digital remittance provider Remitly has raised $220 million in new investments and financing to accelerate its growth in more global markets.

Mastercard has closed its acquisition of cross-border payments provider Transfast, closing out a deal the card network announced in early March after dropping out of a bidding war with Visa for global payments company Earthport.

Merchant acquirer Credorax has engaged money transfer company Small World Financial and other partners to cover a broader mix of banking and payment acceptance available to the companies' European clients.

Payoneer, which developed a platform to facilitate cross-border payments, hired FT Partners to explore options for expansion, including a private funding round, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Naval Group, an international technology company specializing in naval defense systems, is among the first to complete a cross-border payment through Swift's global payments innovation early adopter program.

As the global gig economy expands, more workers moving between the U.S. and other countries for jobs or school need ways to handle funds in different currencies.

Distributed ledgers are already revolutionizing international transactions and trade finance. The added stability will bring about even greater adoption, argues Neutral's Matt Branton.