Cross border payments

The Bank of Lithuania has been courting fintechs which need an EU payments or banking license to operate in Europe. In July 2018, it introduced an e-licensing tool that makes it cheaper and quicker to submit the information necessary to obtain an operating licence.

International e-commerce is booming these days and so too are the opportunities—and challenges—for payments players.

It’s possible for all types of companies to live in tandem and ultimately, benefit from this new business ecosystem, writes Khalid Fellahi, senior vice president and general manager of Western Union Digital.

About half of Swift Global Payments Innovation transactions are credited within 30 minutes and many within seconds.

Very few organizations have adopted blockchain technology for any meaningful day-to-day use. But a change could be afoot.

The DirectRemit service will enable the large British population in the UAE to send funds to family members' Lloyds Bank accounts in less than 60 seconds and to other U.K.-based banks within an hour.

The Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication, or Swift, has named David Scola, a former Barclays exec, its new head of North America operations.

Canada’s credit unions have been losing out to the country’s banks in terms of business banking market share, and have struggled to keep up with the banks’ capacity for technological innovation. Central 1 wants to redress this imbalance in the credit unions’ ability to compete with the banks.

After the 2008 banking crisis, centralized payment systems and financial services don’t have as much appeal to the younger set as a more transparent decentralized system, argues Csaba Csabai, founder and CEO of Inlock.

Remitly’s moves are clearly in response to the growing competitive pressure being placed in a key U.S. outbound corridor.

Since his 2016 campaign, Donald Trump has loomed over the international payments system with a series of threats that are proving increasingly empty.

These money transfers offer many transformative benefits, such as lifting recipient families out of poverty, improving health and nutrition conditions, increasing education opportunities and promoting entrepreneurship, says Raj Agrawal, CFO of Western Union.

Equity Group Holdings Ltd.’s financial technology unit is in discussions with six Ethiopian banks to collaborate on cross-border mobile payments and e-commerce.

Texas-based digital gift card platform company Swych has launched a gift card service for instant cross-border gifting to India following its recent acquisition of GiftCardsIndia.

Wyre has entered into a definitive agreement to sell the majority of its retail money transfer business to WorldFirst, giving the seller a chance to focus more on its cryptocurrency strategy.

The cryptocurrencies join more than 60 different payment methods across 200 counties on Flow’s cross-border e-commerce platform, which includes Visa, Mastercard, PayPal, Alipay, WeChat Pay, Union Pay and many more

The fact remains that the vast majority of international payments are still done via banks and through the correspondent (SWIFT) network, writes Rosie Faulkner, vice president and money laundering reporting officer at Earthport.

The bureau announced the creation of the Global Financial Innovation Network for regulators to discuss joint policy work and offer a cross-border product testing process.

Understanding the obstacles of payment gateways and how to navigate them can help you expand your business and scale profits efficiently, writes Olivier Schott, founder and chief marketing officer of Scalefast.

Companies report that cross-border payments account for just 20% of payment volume but typically take 80% of accounts payable's time. That's simply not scalable. You can’t just keep throwing people at this problem, writes Karla Friede, co-founder and CEO of Nvoicepay.