With its estimated US$1.6 trillion in cross-border payments, the APAC region is poised to benefit significantly from the surge in cross-border money movement.

As remitters, banks, fintechs, and other stakeholders in the ecosystem embrace faster, more secure, transparent, and cost-effective transactions, they stand to gain from the global opportunity that has reached US$200 trillion.

Factors such as international commerce growth, digital technology, machine learning advancements, and flexible work arrangements are driving this expansion.

Real-time payments have allowed consumers and businesses to experience how beneficial, fast, and easy payments can be, changing their expectations of cross border money movement.

Yet despite the upsurge in cross-border transactions and real-time payments, many small medium businesses (SMBs) and consumers are still finding their cross-border transactions slow, opaque and costly – not the fast, secure, cost-effective and simple experience they want.

A significant 67% of global marketplace sellers have said waiting for payments has negatively affected their ability to do business.

While 69% of consumers surveyed said they would be prepared to switch to providers who offered these services.

Clearly, the Asia Pacific region’s remitters, banks, and fintechs have the motivation to address these persistent challenges in cross-border money movement.

By addressing the demands of consumers and businesses, and providing an exceptional cross-border money movement experience, they are poised to reap substantial rewards.

However, there are several challenges could hinder both new and established market players in their bid to provide the fast and seamless payments experience that SMBs and consumers want.

Challenges payment providers face today

Historically, the absence of a global banking system has meant payments have been made across a network of correspondent banks.

This fragmented, complex ecosystem drives up costs, slows down settlement, presents compliance challenges, and prevents transparency with every transaction.

Managing relationships between these entities can be complex and time consuming too.

These relationships are typically managed by people, which introduces physical costs to businesses.

Further, different countries and their governments have their own sets of laws, standards, and regulations when it comes to participating in their financial markets, which continue to evolve.

Data capture and storage requires understanding and expertise in dealing with and complying with data and privacy laws in different countries.

For payment institutions wanting to build a modern money movement network to deliver the exceptional customer experience that their customers want, their legacy technology is not always able to support next-generation cross-border expectations and keep pace with changing regulatory requirements.

In addition, systems should be optimised for high-volume and low-value payments that often characterise today’s cross-border payments.

Technology constraints to consider:

• The unique requirements for each market
• The complexity and cost in building out network endpoints
• Operational risk
• The high cost of managing and operating infrastructure

The new era in payments is here

Advancements in technology are driving this era of global money movement, defined by interoperability and transparency and characterised by a fully digital ecosystem.

This new era is one where receiver and sender have flexible options in terms of how they send and receive their funds, and they can expect these to be fast, convenient and cost-effective.

It is an era that delivers seamless experiences with cross-border money movement integrated into existing payment experiences, such as banking apps, ewallets, existing P2P apps, and business enterprise resource accounting systems.

This will ensure greater inclusivity for unbanked and underbanked individuals, with the use of digital wallets for cross-border payments.

For Asia Pacific’s remitters, fintechs and banks, addressing these challenges through innovative solutions and efficient processes is crucial.

By simplifying cross border transactions and enhancing transparency, speed, and cost-effectiveness, they can better serve their customers and capitalise on the burgeoning market.

As the network of networks, providing global connection through innovative technologies, Visa is a driving force behind the transformation of cross-border money movement.

From banks to issuers to fintechs, clients can connect to Visa Direct through a single point of access to build cross-border customer tools, giving consumers and businesses quick, secure and reliable access to money movement nearly everywhere in the world.

Visa Direct utilises the extensive reach of the Visa network-of-networks to empower fintechs, banks, remitters, and other organisations in simplifying cross-border payments and expanding their businesses.

By providing a secure, single point of access to 11.5 billion endpoints, and 165 currencies across 190 countries and territories, Visa Direct enables these organisations to meet the demands of today’s APAC consumers and businesses for cross-border money movement, delivering:

• Simplicity
• Speed
• Transparency
• Cost-effectiveness

The opportunities and advantages are compelling. Companies that adopt global real time payment networks for cross-border transactions could increase their transaction volume by 15% annually and increase their profits as they expand into new markets.

In addition, companies can expect decreased customer churn rates—as much as 60% 5—and increased reliability and security of payments.

For more on the challenges inherent in the region’s payments infrastructure, and how to deliver the payments experience SMBs and consumers want, read Visa’s report “Modern Money Movement: Make Everywhere Easy” here.