Finextra and Nium set webinar on corporate cross-border payments

Finextra and Nium will hold an online webinar on 12 November 2026 examining the gap between corporate cross-border payments services and what business customers say they need. Promotional material for the event cites Nium-commissioned research conducted by Celent in which 65% of surveyed businesses wanted international payments completed within minutes or instantly, while 18% said their banking partners provided that speed.

The same material says 29% of banks believed their business customers expected payments at that pace. The figures are survey findings reported by the event organisers; the research methodology was not included with the published event information.

The service gap extends beyond settlement time. The survey found that 32% of businesses ranked ease of making a payment as their leading consideration when choosing a cross-border method, compared with 19% selecting total cost. It also points to demand for certainty over whether a payment will succeed, when it will arrive and what it will cost.

How can banks improve corporate cross-border payments?

Banks can assess the service through the full customer journey: simple payment initiation, upfront disclosure of costs, updates on payment status, a predictable delivery time and a high rate of successful completion. For corporate teams, that information is relevant to managing liquidity and payment obligations, which are central functions of treasury management.

Celent estimated that failed payments cost the businesses surveyed an average of $108,823 a year, according to the Finextra and Nium event page. That estimate applies to the surveyed businesses, rather than establishing a cost for companies generally. The organisers also reported that nearly two-thirds of respondents used at least one non-bank option for outgoing international payments; 49% expected to rely less on banks in future, while 58% said added or related bank services could strengthen their loyalty.

Those results suggest that reducing preventable exceptions and making payment information easier to use could be as relevant as reducing average settlement times. They do not, however, mean a better bank interface can remove the constraints in international payment networks.

Why are cross-border payments still difficult?

The Financial Stability Board identifies four persistent problems in cross-border payments: cost, speed, access and transparency. Its G20 roadmap, first developed in 2020, has targets spanning wholesale payments, retail payments and remittances, and its 2023 revision set 15 priority actions.

A March 2026 Bank for International Settlements paper draws an important distinction for corporate users. It says wholesale cross-border payments are relatively fast and low-cost compared with retail payments and remittances, which remain slower and more expensive than domestic transactions. The paper identifies limited interoperability, institutional differences across countries and market frictions as central constraints. It calls for more harmonised standards, more effective compliance regimes and competition, alongside technology.

Technology may improve the underlying process, but it is not a complete answer. Project Agorá, convened by the BIS and the Institute of International Finance, tested a tokenised, programmable platform for wholesale cross-border settlement with seven central banks and more than 40 regulated financial institutions. The project is a prototype, with legal, regulatory, compliance and data issues still identified for consideration.

For banks, the practical measure is therefore not speed alone: it is whether a corporate payment can be initiated easily, completed successfully, tracked clearly and delivered with predictable timing and cost information.

This story draws on original reporting from Finextra Research.