Building a Better B2B Cross-Border Payments Infrastructure

Nium recently hosted the “Build. Better.” Roadshow in Bengaluru, India, to discuss fintechs and their role in the future of global Modern Money Movement. Moderated by Robin Gandhi, Chief Product Officer at Nium, the panel discussion also featured esteemed industry experts Manjot Pahwa, an investor at Lightspeed, and Ramana Satyavarapu, Chief Technology Officer at Nium.  

The panelists provided a candid look at today’s challenges and what it means to build a better B2B payments infrastructure. The main themes of the conversation centered around the importance of innovation in streamlining the complexity of cross-border payments. While business is global, money is still localized and regulated differently according to geography- a maze-like experience with plenty of obstacles and pain points, especially for B2B payments. 

“Payments are a nuance, and B2B payments are even more complex,” said Ramana. “The number of combinations of local laws, foreign exchange to interchange, and all the nuances to take into account is unreal. What we need to do is to make sure we continuously validate our assumptions and see our understanding of the domain.” 

The B2B cross-border payments experience is also mirrored with friction and most businesses rely on multiple partners to facilitate their payments. Businesses that can leverage a payment strategy have a chance to improve their efficiency and reduce costs.  This value is confirmed by a recent PYMNTS.com survey that found cross-border payments innovation has the potential to reduce costs for businesses, improve cash flow management and protect against fraud.  

“We’ve seen a ton of innovation in B2C, however with B2B payments, whether it’s just the core payment rails of making it more real-time and visible, genuinely simplifying it for a business getting started with cross border payments- this is why cross-border is one place I’m super excited about,” said Manjot. 

The cross-border payments landscape is ripe for change and is at a turning point. To hear more from the experts on how the ecosystem has changed, watch the discussion on-demand here. To learn more about how Nium’s modular platform powers frictionless commerce and helps businesses of all sizes pay and get paid across the globe, speak with an expert from our team to get started.