For decades, typically large regional or money center banks served as correspondent banks that enabled smaller banks to offer cross-border payments. It was rare for credit unions, community banks, and other smaller financial institutions to offer cross-border payments. And if they did, it was a money-losing proposition, offered out of necessity to prevent their customers from leaving for larger banks.
It's notable that the problem for originating institutions has become much worse. Over the past decade, the number of correspondent banks supporting originating institutions for cross-border payments has fallen by more than 25%, even as international bank transfer volumes have surged.
Small or even medium-sized financial institutions struggle to find a correspondent bank. And even if one is found—the commercial terms, product issues from the opaqueness of these payments, customer complaints about slow delivery of funds and high fees, as well as service from correspondent banks—make the experience painful for everyone involved.
But things have changed.
New software and new paradigms address “legacy bank systems”, “legacy product thinking”, and “legacy risk” in terms of cross-border payments.
And for the first time, smaller financial institutions, credit unions, and community banks can offer their retail customers, SMEs, fintechs, and others cross-border payments that are faster, transparent, and less costly than the “big banks”. Moreover, they’re very profitable as well as easy to implement and support with new paradigms and new tech—and no correspondent bank required.
In a PaymentsJournal podcast,
Gary Palmer, President, CEO, and Chairman of Payall, and
Hugh Thomas, Lead Analyst of Commercial and Enterprise Payments at Javelin Strategy & Research, discussed how smaller banks can compete and win in the cross-border space.
Fixing the Root Cause Issues at Correspondent Banks
What could reduce both the risk and the cost of cross-border payments? Fixing manual workflows is the first step. Digitizing and enhancing a correspondent bank’s ability to manage counterparty risk, transaction risk, and multi-jurisdictional compliance lowers the cost of processing each transaction and improves outcomes.
Alternatively, some have introduced stablecoins in an attempt to fill the gap of fewer correspondent banks. But without fixing the underlying risk and compliance issues—they’ve added new risks.
“A professor from a renowned European institution tracking various violations or issues with crypto operators in the areas of sanctions and money laundering has noted a marked increase in violations,” said Palmer. “And even though financial institutions may feel somewhat insulated from risk, this hasn’t been fully tested, and the payment system is exposed to manipulation.”
Payall has developed end-to-end infrastructure and enterprise software for banks of all sizes and all roles, which removes what Gary calls “the fear and friction” from cross-border payments—whether these payments are processed through correspondent banks, new alternatives such as Mastercard Move, or stablecoins.
Hugh Thomas observed: “Smaller banks often lack the technical resources to handle the complex demands of cross-border. What’s notable is how purpose-built solutions digitize these processes, lowering costs and opening participation in ways that weren’t possible before.”
This means that smaller and medium-sized banks can now safely,