Real-Time Tracking: Opening a Host of Opportunities in Cross-Border Payments

The world is a rapidly shrinking place. What we mean is that international trade has been made possible by global markets and the proliferation of the Internet and Social Media. If you are a small or medium enterprise, this is the perfect time to expand your market overseas and attract business from across the globe. The availability of reliable and fast online escrow platforms like Omoney are helping business owners securely transact and conduct businesses across borders. While this is true, there are certain aspects of international payments that remain unclear for business owners. Let us take a look at these and help understand how real-time tracking can help alleviate the risks born by them.

Before we delve deeper, let us understand what cross-border payments are. Cross-border payments are payments and transactions made in different countries, i.e., the payee and the recipient are in two different countries. If you are a vendor or a business owner looking to tap into international markets, you must be able to accept payments in all the countries that you deliver to. This could also mean enlisting your bank’s or payment provider’s help to accept payment in different currencies.

With most payment and e-commerce systems going digital, receiving cross-border payments is no longer a tedious and time-consuming process. In fact, by the end-2020, quick cross-border payments are estimated to have reached trillions of US dollars. It is also estimated that by the end of 2022, most countries of the world in the Americas, Africa, Europe, Asia Pacific, and the Middle East will be connected through e-commerce and cross-border payment systems. This only underscores the need for secure and unfaltering real-time payment tracking systems.

Small and medium enterprises and businesses looking to expand will certainly appreciate the many benefits of real-time tracking of cross-border payments:

• Enhanced transparency – Ensuring receipt of payments before despatching goods/products and being able to track the movement of the payment across financial intermediaries.
• Working capital management – Managing your day-to-day funds and capital expenses and balancing books with greater accuracy
• Expediting trade deals – Conducting more efficient dealings and completing orders with shorter turnaround times.
• Eliminating risks – Minimising risks of fraudulent dealings through tracking payments.

In this context, it is very important to harness the advantages of online escrow platforms such as Omoney. Escrow accounts are created by third-party intermediaries to hold the potential buyer’s funds as intent to purchase. This money is only released after the seller has shipped the items and submitted proof of completion of the transaction. Payment to escrow is real time and settlement to the seller also takes place within 1-2 business days. Each step can be tracked and the buyer and seller always know where their money is. This makes real-time tracking of cross-border payments possible, thereby eliminating the risks involved for both parties.

Omoney works with sellers in Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, and India and with buyers anywhere in the world. Omoney’s escrow service is specifically designed for international trade and their payment facilitator, Rapyd, is regulated by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS)

International payments have traditionally been subject to delays due to the involvement of various financial institutions and adherence to various compliance guidelines. Real-time tracking, however, is a very real solution available these days. SWIFT GPI is now being adopted by most banks and international financial institutions as the new standard in cross-border payments. Not only does it provide full transparency across banking networks but also reduces the TAT (turnaround time) for international payments. This means real-time tracking with a lag of only about 30 minutes or so is a real possibility. SWIFT GPI cross-border payments are possibly the most preferred standard due to the security and reliability it has to offer.

Vendors, manufacturers, and sellers looking to expand their markets overseas can now make use of many different cross-border payment methods such as escrow accounts (B2B payments), credit card payments, bank transfers, and other local payment methods.It is important to understand the various cross-border payment regulations (such as PSD2 in Europe or OPGSP in India) and make use of trusted online escrow services to help real-time tracking of these methods.