In a global economy, cross-border payments are an essential part of doing business. However, these payments can be complicated and expensive. In order to streamline the process and reduce costs, many businesses use a cross-border payment service. These services allow businesses to send and receive payments in multiple currencies, making it easy to conduct transactions with international partners.
There is another new entry into the cross-border payments space, this one from American Express and targeted towards small businesses in the U.S. The piece at Finovate summarizes the product description as being tied to small business cards, hence the rewards feature. As readers of these pages will know, we have commented on cross-border before and one of the key issues with these payments is the complexity, so Amex strives to eliminate that obstacle with 12 currencies ready for payment.
‘American Express Global Pay allows U.S. businesses to make domestic and international B2B payments to suppliers in more than 40 countries and in 12 currencies using the mobile-optimized website. Eligible customers can earn one Membership Rewards point for every $30 in equivalent foreign exchange payments…..“Businesses today start, grow and compete on a global scale,” said American Express Executive Vice President of Global Commercial Services Dean Henry. “Our U.S. Small Business Card Members told us they want an international payment solution focused on simplicity, convenience and the chance to earn rewards – so we built American Express Global Pay to enable these businesses to easily and effectively manage their B2B payments globally on a secure platform, backed by the trusted service and unique benefits of American Express Membership.”
Readers can link out directly to the Amex announcement as well, which has some detail about a recent survey indicating that a great deal of small and medium sized business owners are expecting an increase in cross border trade in the coming year and find that x-border complexities are a problem. More activity in this lively space. No fee structure is explained but users will determine that when they set up a payment but before sending.
While American Express has not disclosed exact fees, the company said that it will display the fees when the business is creating the payment. “In addition to these fees, we also make money from the purchase and sale of foreign currency,” American Express said. “Recipient banks or intermediary banks may charge their own fees, which can reduce the amount delivered to your recipient.”
Overview by Steve Murphy, Director, Commercial and Enterprise Payments Advisory Service at Mercator Advisory Group.
