Saxo Payments A/S, a foreign exchange (FX) and payments specialist within the non-cash payments market has released a new industry Whitepaper that sheds light on the cross boarder payments industry – the paper is entitled “Cross Border B2B Payments – Today’s landscape; Tomorrow’s opportunity”.
Saxo Payments A/S provides global payment account transactions and FX services to payment providers, acquirers, payment service providers, brokers, money transfer businesses, e-wallets, and alternative payment providers. The group recently surveyed a plethora of entities, issuers, PSPs, and merchants for a wide-ranging vantage point of the broader payments market. The research initiative focused on such issues as the speed and fluidity of money transfer, fees for international payments, and FX rates.
Talking Points
The survey revealed several key insights or trends, perhaps no more so than respondent’s satisfaction with the speed of cross border payments. Only 38% of payments-related businesses believe they obtain a competitive FX rate, leaving a full 62% dissatisfied with the process, or with how long international transfers take to arrive in the recipient’s account.
By extension, upwards of 33% of respondents have abstained from even pursuing additional means, citing a lack of time for research as the most probable reason. One of the positives that can be extrapolated from the paper is respondents’ willingness to switch providers provided they could see potential benefits.
Approximately 79.4% of respondents stated that cost was a motivational factor and that obtaining a lower one would result in a change of payment provider, with 63% indicating that faster transactions services were the primary impetus capable of pushing them to make the move to an alternative provider.
The white paper can be read in full this week, and will be available for download on Saxo Payments.
It is time for businesses to reassess their priorities
Anders la Cour, CEO, Saxo Payments
According to Anders la Cour, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Saxo Payments, in a recent statement on the research survey: “With international trade increasing rapidly, payments processes need to keep up to ensure they do not hold businesses back from their full potential. Traditional cross border bank transfers are no longer the only solution, but we wanted to know if companies are aware of the alternatives or simply sleepwalking through the process, paying high fees for poor foreign exchange rates and slow transfers."
“The most exciting part, for us, is the high proportion of respondents who recognise the opportunities of newer and lesser-known providers, and would be willing to employ one if it meant a better and cheaper service. Again, the reason they have not yet made that move is the lack of time to research alternatives, rather than a lack of alternatives. Just 27% were even aware of any new entrants in the market, showing just how time-poor businesses are when it comes to researching the payments process options. It is time for businesses to reassess their priorities, to see just how much they could benefit from streamlining their payments process to ensure it performs better for them,” he added.
