Cross-border payments are a critical part of today’s global economy, enabling businesses to expand, suppliers to operate across borders and digital marketplaces to thrive. Despite their importance, international transactions remain fraught with friction, cost, and risk.
Whether you’re a multinational corporation or a small exporter, navigating the complexities of global payments can hinder business growth, delay operations, and create compliance headaches. Fortunately, companies like Convera, a global leader in commercial payments are helping businesses overcome these obstacles and unlock the full potential of seamless international commerce.
Below, we break down five of the most common pain points in cross-border payments and the modern tools helping to solve them.
Cross-border payments challenge #1: FX markups and hidden fees
Foreign exchange (FX) costs remain one of the biggest pain points in international transactions. Traditional banks often embed large markups in the exchange rate while layering on transaction fees, making it hard for businesses to predict or control costs. The lack of transparency in FX pricing also leads to mistrust and budgeting issues, particularly for companies dealing with high volumes or volatile currencies.
Commercial payments providers like Convera offer real-time FX rate visibility and pricing transparency, giving businesses more control over their international payment flows. And, with tools like forwards and options contracts, companies can manage currency risk and provide certainty of future cash flows*.
Cross-border payments challenge #2: Choosing the most suitable payment method
For many businesses, sending cross-border payments or receiving funds across markets remains a logistical nightmare. Traditional correspondent banking systems can be slow, expensive or simply unavailable in certain regions. In addition, every business is faced with the overwhelming challenge of choosing the most suitable payment method for its needs.
There are numerous methods of transferring funds across borders, each with its own unique characteristics, benefits and drawbacks. Choosing between automated clearing house (ACH), single Euro payments area (SEPA), real-time gross settlement (RTGS), wire transfers, and crypto payments is a balancing game between speed, cost, accessibility, currency requirements, and security.
Modern cross-border payment providers simplify this choice by helping you find the most suitable payment method for your needs, and offering localized payout options to help ease costs. For example, Convera’s global footprint supports transactions in over 200 countries and territories, and access to more than 140 currencies including markets where traditional banks struggle to operate efficiently
Cross-border payments challenge #3: Lack of transparency
A major complaint from chief financial officers (CFOs) and treasury teams is the lack of visibility into payment status and settlement timelines. Funds can go missing for days in the correspondent banking chain, with no way to track their movement in real time. This uncertainty complicates cash flow forecasting and supplier relationships.
Global commercial payments providers, such as Convera, are tackling transparency issues by building end-to-end tracking tools to monitor the exact status of a payment across its entire journey. Real-time dashboards, transaction alerts and automated reconciliation are becoming the new standard, reducing the black box of cross-border transfers.
Cross-border payments challenge #4: Regulatory complexity, fraud, and compliance risk
Cross-border payments must comply with an intricate web of local and international regulations, ranging from Know Your Customer (KYC) and Anti-Money Laundering (AML) laws to sanctions screening and tax reporting. Managing this compliance burden internally is costly and risky (especially for smaller businesses, as mentioned before). At the same time, fraud attempts are growing more sophisticated, targeting B2B transactions through phishing, account takeovers, and business email compromise (BEC) scams.
Platforms like Convera use real-time sanctions screening, credit fraud screening systems, and secure user authentication to help businesses meet global standards without slowing down operations. These built-in protections allow companies to scale internationally with peace of mind.
Cross-border payments challenge #5: Slow delivery times
Despite advances in domestic payments, many international transactions still take a few business days to settle, especially when multiple banks and currencies are involved. These delays can disrupt supply chains, hobble financial forecasting, and leave accounts receivable teams chasing down confirmations.
Fintech innovations are significantly cutting delivery times. Through direct partnerships with local banks and the use of real-time payment networks, commercial payments providers like Convera can deliver funds in hours or even minutes. Their payment infrastructure is optimized for speed without compromising accuracy or compliance, helping businesses move money globally at the pace of modern commerce.
Solving commercial payments challenges, together
Cross-border payments will always involve a degree of complexity, but they don’t have to slow down business growth. With the right payment partner, organizations can reduce costs, streamline operations and improve financial control across borders.
Whether you’re a mid-sized manufacturer looking to pay overseas suppliers or a digital platform collecting funds from global users, now’s the time to evaluate your cross-border payment strategy. As the digital economy accelerates, solving cross-border payment challenges isn’t just a financial upgrade — it’s a competitive advantage.
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