Cross-border payments are now part of everyday SMB operations
Small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) increasingly rely on cross-border payments for their day-to-day operations. Think international suppliers, global software platforms, overseas contractors, or even foreign advertising channels.
In fact, 38% of SMB expenses are international, demonstrating how normal cross-border activity has become – even for firms that would never describe themselves as “global”.
For many, this change happened as a natural course, rather than a planned expansion. A supplier in Italy here. A contractor in Bulgaria there. A recurring subscription paid in dollars. A marketing budget running through US-based platforms. Cross-border payments didn’t arrive as a strategic decision. They became embedded through the gradual reality of modern business.
Yet the way money moves hasn’t evolved at the same pace
For SMBs, friction shows up in small, repeated moments that compound over time
The challenge isn’t usually one major failure – it’s the accumulation of minor inefficiencies that turn international payments into a recurring burden on resource.
Foreign exchange (FX) costs are harder to predict than expected, making budgeting less reliable. A payment that looks manageable at the point of approval can end up costing more once exchange rates shift or additional fees are applied. For smaller businesses operating on tighter margins, that lack of cost certainty makes planning harder than it should be.
Bank transfers also require manual reconciliation across tools that don’t align. Payments often sit outside the main accounting workflow, forcing teams to match invoices, confirm amounts received, and correct discrepancies across bank portals, spreadsheets, and finance platforms. What should be a simple outbound payment becomes an administrative process.
Approvals introduce further delay. SMB teams are lean, and international payments frequently require additional steps, whether it’s compliance checks, extra authorisation, or unfamiliar payee details. Payments that were assumed to be routine can end up slowed down by process, even when urgency is high.
And when questions arise, visibility is often fragmented. Tracking where funds are, what fees were applied, or when a recipient will receive payment can be surprisingly difficult. Finance teams end up spending time piecing together information after the fact, rather than having clarity upfront.
In practice, this means business owners and finance leads spend time chasing certainty rather than running operations. Confidence erodes in what should be simple transactions. A payment that should enable growth starts to introduce hesitation instead.
Visa’s SMB research reflects this:
Over time, cross-border payment uncertainty shapes decision-making
Because cross-border payments now sit at essential points in day-to-day operations – from supplier payments to platform access and growth investment – any loss of confidence quickly slows decision-making and makes execution harder than it should be. Not due to lack of opportunity, but because the infrastructure underneath it feels unreliable.
This frustration is a shift that’s already visible in Visa’s data: 81% of SMBs say they’re open to trying new cross border payment solutions.
That level of switching intent is rare – it reflects a structural gap between how SMBs now operate and what payment systems still assume.
What SMBs want is clear:
For payment providers, the message is simple. Cross-border must be considered on a case-by-case basis. The providers that can reduce uncertainty, improve visibility, and design around real payment moments will earn more than usage. They’ll earn trust, retention, and increased share of wallet.
Visa’s research shows that SMBs are actively open to change. The question is which providers will meet them with propositions that reflect how cross-border business actually works today.