As Asia continues to rapidly grow into one of the world’s economic powerhouses, fintech startups and financial institutions in the region are revolutionizing cross-border payments.
The cross-border B2B payments sector is valued at a staggering US$150 trillion, creating huge opportunities for innovation.
However, challenges remain, including high costs, lack of transparency, limited liquidity and slow transaction speeds.
In response, payments pioneers in Asia Pacific are leading the way in building faster, cheaper and more transparent cross-border payments ecosystems.
The Frontier of B2B Cross-Border Payments
Anupam Pahuja, EVP APAC and MEA at Nium comments on the current state of cross-border payments in Asia
The B2B cross-border payments sector represents a huge opportunity – US$100 trillion compared to US$2.8 trillion for the B2C sector – but inefficiencies remain abundant.
Anupam Pahuja, Executive Vice President, APAC and MEA Nium,Highlighting,
“It takes more than four to five days for a payment to move from one case to the next. The costs are prohibitively high and there is no transparency. You don’t know where your payment is.”
Nium, a Singapore-based fintech unicorn, has emerged as a strong player since launching its consumer remittance service in 2014 and focusing on B2B payments.
“We know that in the B2B space, there’s a much larger area to address than B2C fraud, and in that space, we’re the inside Intel. We’re not the computer. We’re not the outside space. We’re not the UI/UX. We’re the infrastructure player that makes these payments happen.”
Anupam explained.
“Our revenue opportunity was $80 million a few years ago, reached $120 million last year and is targeting $170 million this year. Our travel business is growing rapidly in Asia Pacific, where we have grown 100 percent, largely due to our position as one of the largest virtual credit card issuers in the world.”
He added.
“We issue 40 million cards a year and partnering with a company like Tredd allows us to do our job faster, more efficiently and more cost-effectively.”
He said.
Empowering consumers through purpose-driven spending
Mithelpal Sidhu, COO at BigPay, commented on how purpose-based spending is driving cross-border payments:
In the consumer space, fintechs like BigPay are innovating to “improve people’s lives with every transaction.”
Serves 1.4 million cardholders in Singapore and Malaysia, Big Pay It offers personal loans, microinsurance, card payments and international payments.
“There is a common belief that foreign domestic workers send a small amount of money home every month, but in reality they send about 80% of their salary. They send the money in small instalments because they don’t know how the other party will spend their funds.
Revealing this key insight, Mittepal Sidhu, Chief Operating Officer, BigPay said, “BigPay is a game changer.
“BigPay is building purpose-driven spending capabilities to address this issue, allowing funds to be allocated to specific uses such as education or health care. ‘That’s what we’re building, and strategy is key.’
Mittelpal added.
Building a seamless cross-border payments highway in Asia
PayNet Group CEO Farhan Ahmad commented on how Project Nexus will transform cross-border payments in Asia:
Companies like Nium and BigPay are not the only ones driving innovation: institutions also play a key role in enabling faster, better, and cheaper international payments experiences.
One example is PayNet, Malaysia’s national payments infrastructure, which has made great strides in cross-border payments.
Group CEO, Farhan Ahmad Malaysian Payment Network (Paynet) envisioned “a world where commerce, trade and travel are highly fluid and the possibilities are endless.”
“And we think that’s an empowering vision for the future of the planet.”
He said.
PayNet is working with Project Nexusa multilateral non-cloud solution for cross-border remittances.
Farhan said:
“Nexus will be a pilot case for building multilateral cross-border non-cloud solutions, primarily for remittances and P2P. Bank Negara MalaysiaWe’ve supported them in their mission to build features that make money transfers seamless – for example, being able to send money to someone in another country using their phone number – this is a huge benefit to the end user.”
PayNet and its partners will build the necessary infrastructure to enable Malaysians and others to use their existing payment devices across borders.
This initiative is part of a broader global vision to create a seamless and transparent payments ecosystem to facilitate commerce, trade and travel.
Supporting payments pioneers
Cecilia Tan, regional vice president at Thredd, commented on the vital role that payment service providers play in the overall cross-border payments ecosystem.
Behind-the-scenes players like Thredd play an equally important role: their expertise makes the magic of payments happen.
They have helped ambitious innovators like BigPay and Nium pioneer digital payments.
Cecilia Tan, VP of Sales and Business Development, APAC thread,share,
“We have actually backed fintech unicorns in the past, such as: Revolut We hope to see Nium expand from one market to multiple markets, and we believe Thredd, as an issuing processor, is well positioned to help fintechs drive cost efficiencies and improve their payments experience.”
With over 10 years of experience, Thredd helps fintech companies in Asia navigate the complexities of payments using its proven technology infrastructure including APIs, transaction tools and tokenization.
“We have been in the industry for over 10 years and are recognised as market leaders in our home market, the EU and the UK, bringing our extensive experience and understanding of the complexities of payments to the Asia Pacific region.”
Cecilia emphasized.
Cross-border payments innovation race in Asia
The race to innovate in cross-border payments in Asia Pacific is intensifying, as the ecosystem collaborates to build a more efficient, transparent and accessible future for payments.
The impact of these innovations on Asia Pacific’s growth story cannot be overstated, as the value of cross-border payments is predicted to reach US$250 trillion by 2027.
Cross-border payments remain rife with inefficiencies, driving demand for innovation in the space. From traditional to DLT-based payment methods, we expect to see rapid change over the next decade.
These advances define the future of commerce, trade and travel, promising a world where transactions across borders are seamless, transparent and instantaneous.
clock “$80 billion in cross-border payments in Asia PacificLearn how innovation is changing Regional financial conditions.
Featured Image Credit: Youtube
