Cross-Border Services Express is a new tool from Mastercard that enables financial institutions to set up international payments for their customers, including consumers and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), who have a high demand for improved cross-border payment capabilities.
Consumers and businesses are increasingly looking for quick and safe ways to send money or pay vendors all around the world. Cross-Border Services Express does this entirely through a digital-first experience.
Mastercard’s Cross-Border Services are complemented by this service. It employs a flexible and simple-to-implement digital overlay, as well as additional capabilities to meet compliance and regulatory requirements.
“Our goal is to provide choice, access, and transparency for cross-border payments,” said Alan Marquard, Mastercard’s Executive Vice President of Transfer Solutions. “With a simple, turn-key integration, Cross-Border Services Express levels the playing field and provides small and mid-tier banks, including credit unions and community banks, with the same international payments features regardless of their size or scale.”
Participating financial institutions can provide their customers international payments in more than 60 currencies to over 100 markets, covering 90% of the world’s population, through Mastercard’s Cross-Border Services. The service allows customers to pay in a variety of ways, including bank accounts, mobile wallets, cards, and cash payout locations, with complete transparency and predictability over transaction status and delivery time. Financial institutions may now go to market faster, decrease transaction risk, and provide the modernized payment experience that consumers and SMEs expect when making international payments using Cross-Border Services Express.
Mastercard is teaming with fintechs Fable FinTech and Payall Payment Systems to create this light-touch, quick-to-market solution via a smooth user interface that satisfies customers’ rising digital expectations.
According to Mastercard’s 2022 Borderless Payments Report, digital payments are growing rapidly, with three-quarters of consumers sending and receiving cross-border payments through mobile apps. However, numerous issues remain concerning transparency and pricing. Furthermore, 39% of SME respondents indicated that cross-border payments slowed their supply chain, and one-quarter reported that suppliers refused to cooperate with them due to payment timing uncertainty.
“It’s critical for small and medium-sized businesses to keep money flowing,” said Jane Prokop, Executive Vice President, Small and Medium Enterprises at Mastercard. “Cross-Border Services Express will enable financial institutions to meet the needs of SMEs for an efficient and digital cross-border payments solution on which they can rely to pay employees, suppliers, and partners quickly and predictably.”
