From rails to relationships: the new rules of cross-border payments.

By George Spedding (Senior Consultant) and Thomas Dodd (Associate Consultant)

Cross-border payments aren’t just about moving money from A to B anymore. They’ve become a critical part of how businesses scale, manage risk, and serve customers around the world.

For product, marketing, and strategy leaders, the challenge is no longer whether to support international payments, but how to make them smarter, faster, and more value-adding for global users. With flows projected to hit $290 trillion by 20301, the competitive edge lies in crafting cross-border experiences that go beyond infrastructure and focus on relationships, risk, and revenue.

At KAE, we support leading payments, financial services, and business technology companies with the insights they need to understand their customers, markets, and competitors. The following trends are based on what we’re seeing in the market and hearing directly from our clients about the future of cross-border payments.

1. Real-Time Has Become the Benchmark

While domestic payment systems offer near-instant settlement (FPS in the UK, RTP in the US, SEPA in the EU), international payments often remain slow and opaque.

Market expectations are shifting towards:

• Instant payment confirmation
• End-to-end transaction visibility
• Integration with schemes such as SWIFT gpi, Visa B2B Connect, and local real-time network.

Who is setting the pace?

• Wise Platform integrates directly with SWIFT and over 90 banking partners. 65% of its payments are settled within 20 seconds, and 95% within a day. This reflects how speed can be achieved without sacrificing reach or compliance.2
• TerraPay claims 97% of transactions are processed in under 60 seconds, supported by global partnerships including Visa to enable payouts in 108 countries. Its strength lies in building deep, regional integrations.3

Key takeaways:

• Product leaders: Prioritise integrations with global schemes and local infrastructure to meet expectations around speed and visibility, and benchmark internally against real-time leaders.
• Marketing teams: Lead with speed and coverage as differentiators. Use proof points and customer testimonials to bring performance claims to life.
• Strategy leaders: Explore regional partnerships and participation in emerging networks like P27, PIX, or Buna to expand reach and remain competitive

2. Stablecoins and Tokenised Payments Are Emerging

Stablecoins like USDT, USDC and PYUSD are gaining momentum in B2B corridors, especially where legacy mechanisms remain slow or costly. In March 2025, the stablecoin market exceeds $227 billion in circulating supply, with USDT’s daily transaction volumes alone often surpassing $20 billion4 indicating that stablecoins are moving into the mainstream.

Benefits include:

• Rapid settlement, reducing transaction times from days to hours
• Lower costs and greater transparency
• Programmable logic for recurring or rule-based payments

Who is innovating?

• Stripe recently launched Stablecoin Financial Accounts, enabling businesses in 101 countries to manage stablecoin balances, receive funds in crypto or fiat, and send USDC/USDB globally. This follows their acquisition of stablecoin platform Bridge. Stripe’s approach shows how trusted platforms can ease adoption by embedding crypto capabilities in familiar interfaces.5
• Revolut uses USDC and USDT to help businesses pay international suppliers without incurring traditional foreign exchange fees of 1-3%, translating to savings of $10,000–$30,000 on a $1 million transaction6.

Key takeaways:

• Product leaders: Consider partnerships or pilots with stablecoin platforms to test emerging use cases, especially in high-cost corridors.
• Marketing teams: Position tokenised payments as a forward-thinking capability; speak to tech-first clients with a narrative around future-readiness and financial control.
• Strategy leaders: Monitor usage in underbanked or high-friction regions where traditional rails are weakest. Stay close to regulatory developments to identify viable markets for scale.

3. FX Management Is Now a Strategic Priority

Global business models inherently involve foreign exchange exposure. As a result, companies are increasingly focused on actively managing FX risk as part of day-to-day operations.

Clients are looking for:

• Transparent, real-time FX rates
• Support for forward contracts and rate locking
• Multi-currency account capabilities.

Who is setting expectations?

• Airwallex allows businesses to hold foreign currencies and convert when rates are favourable. This puts control directly into the hands of clients.7
• VoPay offers real-time currency monitoring and intelligent routing for payments in over 140 currencies, automating savings and reducing risk.8
• Nium offers FX rate locking for up to 24 hours across 60 currencies, enabling predictability.9

Key takeaways:

• Product leaders: Support multi-currency storage, forward contracts, and real-time conversion logic to help users proactively manage risk.
• Marketing teams: Emphasise control, predictability, and cost reduction, especially for businesses scaling into new markets.
• Strategy leaders: Use smart FX tools to differentiate in crowded B2B segments and support globalisation strategies for SMEs.

4. Virtual IBANs and Multi-Currency Wallets Are Now Expected

Opening local bank accounts in multiple jurisdictions is resource intensive. Virtual IBANs and multi-currency wallets offer more agile, scalable alternatives.

Our clients are prioritising:

• Localised collection via virtual IBANs
• Flexibility in currency conversion timing
• Clear, real-time reconciliation and reporting.

Who is leading?

• Fyorin provides virtual IBANs and access to 100+ currencies in 200 countries, offering global reach without local entities.10
• Payoneer and VoPay enable FX conversion locks and automated reconciliation to streamline back-office operations.11

Key takeaways:

• Product leaders: Focus on features that allow clients to manage funds locally without physical presence; flexibility, automation, and localisation are key.
• Marketing teams: Highlight ease of reconciliation and seamless user experience, especially for marketplaces, platforms, and exporters.
• Strategy leaders: Use virtual IBANs to accelerate time-to-market in new regions with lower compliance overhead.

5. Compliance Has Become a Design Challenge

With PSD3 in the EU and market-specific regulations elsewhere, compliance must be built into product, not bolted on.

Best-in-class providers are:

• Automating KYC, AML, and onboarding processes
• Building compliance into platform architecture
• Remaining agile to meet local regulatory requirements.

Who is setting expectations?

• VoPay embeds KYC, KYB, AML, and global sanctions screening into its solution, reducing onboarding friction.12
• TerraPay uses AI-powered compliance tools to streamline onboarding and transaction screening without delays.13

Key takeaways:

• Product leaders: Design compliance as a seamless part of user onboarding and transaction flows; strive for zero-friction where possible.
• Marketing teams: Position regulatory agility as a trust builder and differentiator; compliance can be a competitive asset.
• Strategy leaders: Make compliance readiness part of your go-to-market toolkit, particularly when entering highly regulated markets.

6. Embedded Payments Are Becoming the Standard

Businesses increasingly expect cross-border capabilities to be integrated directly into existing systems, from ERPs and billing tools to procurement platforms.

What businesses now require:

• API-first architecture
• Developer-friendly tools and documentation
• Modular features that integrate seamlessly with existing workflows.

Who is setting expectations?

• VoPay enables seamless integration into existing stacks with embedded UI components and white-label branding options, minimising build time.14

Key takeaways:

• Product leaders: Build integration-ready infrastructure; focus on SDKs, dev support, and sandbox testing.
• Marketing teams: Emphasise ease of integration and fast time-to-value; target platforms and SaaS ecosystems.
• Strategy leaders: Use embedded payments to expand TAM and increase stickiness across vertical software platforms.

7. B2B Expectations Are Aligning with Consumer Standards

The distinction between B2C and B2B user experiences is narrowing. Today’s finance professionals expect the same intuitive, real-time functionality in business tools that they encounter in consumer applications.

Key experience features include:

• Real-time status updates and alerts
• Clean, intuitive user interfaces
• Transparent pricing and transaction fees.

Who is delivering?

• Payoneer offers transparent pricing, real-time FX, and instant balance updates, mirroring consumer app simplicity.15
• Nium provides transaction insights and customisable reporting via API or portal, meeting modern UX expectations.16

Key takeaways:

• Product leaders: Prioritise intuitive UX and consumer-grade design across all touchpoints; great UX reduces support burden and drives adoption.
• Marketing teams: Emphasise simplicity, transparency, and self-service; highlight user satisfaction and NPS scores.
• Strategy leaders: Use UX audits to benchmark and continuously align with rising expectations in the B2B space.

8. Data-Driven Optimisation Is Becoming a Competitive Advantage

Data is a strategic asset in cross-border payments, fueling smarter decisions around routing, pricing, fraud prevention, and customer experience.

Smart providers are:

• Dynamically routing transactions based on speed, cost, or regulation
• Using orchestration engines to test and optimise PSPs and acquirers across markets
• Applying analytics to improve conversion and reduce false declines
• Leveraging machine learning to detect fraud in real-time

Who is leading?

• Currencycloud enables data-driven routing and pricing insights, helping clients dynamically optimise per transaction.
• Thunes uses data to optimise cost and compliance across 130 markets, improving conversion and regulatory performance.
• Payoneer and others embed orchestration tools to help merchants and platforms intelligently route transactions for better success rates and lower costs.

Key takeaways:

• Product leaders: Invest in infrastructure that learns and adapts—payment orchestration and smart routing are no longer optional.
• Marketing teams: Promote visibility, transparency, and control, especially through dashboards, alerts, and real-time reporting.
• Strategy leaders: Treat orchestration and data partnerships as core IP; build or buy capabilities to stay ahead of risk and margin pressures.

The future of cross-border payments isn’t just about who moves money fastest. It’s about who understands the customer, designs with intelligence, and delivers value beyond the transaction through speed, transparency, and trust.

At KAE, we help payment providers, FinTech's, and technology companies uncover the insights they need to shape smarter products, enter new markets, and stay ahead of the curve.