Cross border payments

Payments are getting more complex as business gets more global, adding channels and expanding ways to sell. Part of the strategy at the matchmaker crowdSPRING is to find a match of its own: AliExpress, Alibaba's online marketplace. It’s also considering a foray into virtual currency.

The simple act of moving money can have a big impact on any political movement, so banks and payment networks are often caught up in issues of national importance. Here are some recent instances where payments and politics came head-to-head.

China's Alipay already has broad global reach—its mobile wallet is accepted at more than 100,000 retail locations in 70 international markets—but in North America it’s just getting started.

Two of the biggest providers of cross-border tuition payment services for international education are targeting more than 5 million students preparing for college studies abroad this fall.

The ability to expedite information with payment, specifically remittances, is the real challenge, writes Mike Fortmann, vice president of Southwest Region for NVoicepay.

Even as mobile payments at the point of sale have been slow or even faltering, as most research indicates, use of mobile for making large money transfers is climbing.

MoneyGram’s total revenue declined slightly during the second quarter to $410 million, resulting in flat growth compared to the previous quarter based on constant currency.

Bank Asia in Bangladesh has partnered with Western Union, enabling consumers to send and receive funds via a network of 1,250 bank agents throughout Bangladesh.

Flywire and Volvo Car USA have formed an agreement to streamline cross-border payments for international students leasing cars from Volvo.

Visa’s efforts to expand its mobile payments service mVisa in developing nations reached a milestone this month in Nigeria, the first country where banks are enabling cross-border payments with the QR code-based mVisa technology.

Since e-commerce merchants often operate without walls, it makes little sense to operate with borders.

PayPal is launching a cross-border trade service to help small and mid-sized businesses in the U.S. improve their international presence and sales.

WorldRemit is working with China-based handset maker Huawei Technologies to make WorldRemit’s money transfer service available on Huawei’s platform in Africa.

Stripe will collaborate with WeChat and Alipay to make it easier for merchants around the world to accept payments from Chinese consumers.

InstaReM plans to use the investment to accommodate rapid volume expansion.

International cross-border transaction enabler TransferTo has partnered with the e-commerce platform MallforAfrica enabling nearly 300 million African consumers with mobile money accounts to shop abroad.

Local payments are included in the e-commerce checkout process, allowing merchants to immediately sell products online to local customers.

The company wants to meet demand for corporate payments globally, especially in emerging markets.

As the company diversifies beyond international tuition payments, it's also looking to diversify transaction options.

Most executives see the value of the technology, but are still looking for definitive use cases before taking the leap.