What alternative payment methods are most used in international B2B transactions?
Payments
Asked by Question Bot02/May/20131 answer
1 Answer
F
Faisal Khan
Answered 02/May/2013
There aren't any actually. Each region in some way, shape or form has their own payment system. But a payment system that is truly global, widely accepted and used by businesses frequently doesn't exist.
PayPal (product) comes pretty close, but then again when you talk globally, PayPal is a very small player. In China for example, Alipay (product) is used extensively for P2P payments, in the US, ACH is used extensively, however, PayPal is equally strong.
In certain segments like the Airlines, etc. they have their own payment arrangements depending on which network you are connected on.
For worldwide payments, SWIFT is the de facto proxy method (proxy because it goes through your bank), though it really cannot be called a B2B payment system per se.
Then there are issues of a global lookup - think of it as a global contact book. If I need to pay you, there must be a mechanism for me to search you and pay you, where ever you may be. Such a contact book is not available at the moment.
There are literally 1000s of players, each with their own ecosystem. A few of these players talk to each other, most don't. No one has been able to put together a system that would allow businesses worldwide, across the spectrum to do straight through processing of payments.
Bank Wire transfer (predominantly using SWIFT) remains the preferred choice today for doing B2B payments internationally.
PayPal (product) comes pretty close, but then again when you talk globally, PayPal is a very small player. In China for example, Alipay (product) is used extensively for P2P payments, in the US, ACH is used extensively, however, PayPal is equally strong.
In certain segments like the Airlines, etc. they have their own payment arrangements depending on which network you are connected on.
For worldwide payments, SWIFT is the de facto proxy method (proxy because it goes through your bank), though it really cannot be called a B2B payment system per se.
Then there are issues of a global lookup - think of it as a global contact book. If I need to pay you, there must be a mechanism for me to search you and pay you, where ever you may be. Such a contact book is not available at the moment.
There are literally 1000s of players, each with their own ecosystem. A few of these players talk to each other, most don't. No one has been able to put together a system that would allow businesses worldwide, across the spectrum to do straight through processing of payments.
Bank Wire transfer (predominantly using SWIFT) remains the preferred choice today for doing B2B payments internationally.