The world’s 100 top cross-border payment companies in 2023, according to FXC Intelligence.
Cross-border payments are having another strong year in 2023. E-wallets are continuing to take market share from regular card payments. Digital remittances are growing, making it easier to send and receive money across borders. Meanwhile, large and small players are increasingly penetrating the fragmented, often complex B2B payments market. Global interoperability schemes are also picking up steam, with countries worldwide developing and linking instant payment systems; central banks launching new central bank digital currencies (CBDCs); and the G20 doubling down on its Roadmap for Enhancing Cross-Border Payments.
Amidst all this, one of the best ways to understand an industry is to keep its biggest players front of mind. That’s why FXC Intelligence has released The 2023 Cross-Border Payments 100, a market map that recognises and celebrates the 100 most important players in the cross-border payments space. Now in its fifth year, The Cross-Border Payments 100 profiles the 100 players that truly matter in the sector.
Featuring companies across money transfers, payments processing, B2B and beyond, the map separates the top 100 players into eight groups: ecommerce, banks, mobile, VC equity-backed, public companies, independently owned, crypto and private equity-backed.
This year, we’ve added a new ecommerce section to our map to highlight the impact that several key players – including Amazon, Booking.com, Expedia and Mercado Pago – are having on cross-border payments. A few from our Top 100 last year have therefore been moved to this section.
Other new entrants include global financial messaging network SWIFT and mobile payment specialists MTN Mobile and Terrapay.
We’ve used the combined industry expertise of our team and our unique data to make this list the definitive guide to key players in the cross-border space. Scroll down to view The 2023 Cross-Border Payments 100 market map or select from the links below to jump to the relevant section:
- The Top 100 Cross-Border Payment Companies for 2023: Market Map
- The 2023 Cross-Border Payments 100 in detail
The Top 100 Cross-Border Payment Companies for 2023: Market Map
Published every year, our market map recognises the leading companies in cross-border payments worldwide, including publicly traded companies, startups and private companies. It covers companies operating across consumer money transfers and remittances, B2B payments, ecommerce companies, payment processors, crypto services providers and beyond.
Here’s The 2023 Cross-Border Payments Top 100 in full:
To make our list, companies have to fulfill certain criteria:
- Be of a certain scale. This is not a startup or VC list, nor is this a challengers list.
- Companies don’t have to have raised outside funds, but they must have an established customer base.
- Cross-border payments must either be the primary activity (many payment companies) or a substantial revenue line (certain banks, payment processors or card companies). With subsidiaries, we include them in the parent company, rather than listing them separately.
And our sense check: if we removed the company, would it have a meaningful impact on the sector? We track over 15,000 players in the space, making this 100 the cream of the crop.
The 2023 Cross-Border Payments 100 in detail
Key information about every company in FXC Intelligence’s 2023 cross-border payments top 100, divided by company type. Scroll down to view the full list, or click to jump to the relevant section:
- Ecommerce
- Banks
- Mobile
- VC-backed (growth stage)
- Public companies (non-banks)
- Independently owned
- Crypto
- Private equity-backed
Ecommerce
With the overall ecommerce market expected to grow in 2023, cross-border payments remain vital for global brands, airlines and marketplaces, as well as smaller merchants looking to penetrate markets abroad. Here are our top picks for ecommerce cross-border payments companies in 2023.
Amazon
Founded: 1994
CEO: Andy Jassy
Customer focus: Consumers, Merchants, Ecommerce Businesses
Focus region: US, Global
Years on Top 100 Map: 1
Starting out as an online marketplace for books, Amazon has since grown to become the world’s biggest ecommerce company, selling 350 million products to 300 million active customers worldwide. As of April 2023, the US-based company has a market capitalisation of $1tn, making it one of the world’s most valuable companies.
Amazon’s total sales revenue amounted to $514bn in 2022, a substantial portion of which was cross-border. During that year, it launched Buy With Prime, allowing US-based prime users to shop using Prime directly from merchants’ online stores; integrated Veeqo to support merchant shipping; and introduced a new cash advance program allowing businesses to access capital faster. It also acquired health and wellbeing company One Medical and Indian social commerce startup GlowRoad.
Ant Group
Founded: 2014
CEO: Eric Jing
Customer focus: Consumers, Small Businesses
Focus region: China, Global
Years on Top 100 Map: 5
Formerly known as Ant Financial and Alipay, Ant Group is a fintech and affiliate of Chinese multinational tech company Alibaba, with services spanning two million sellers. Ant Group owns Alipay, China’s largest digital payments platform which serves over 1.3 billion users and 80 million merchants (as of 2020), and investment fund Tianhong Yu’e Bao, which had 588 million users in 2019. It also connects to international e-wallet platforms through cross-border digital payments solution Alipay+.
The company was valued at $235bn before its IPO was halted in November 2020, with its valuation now at $64bn as of January 2023. There has been discussion over whether this IPO will be revived after Alibaba announced plans to split its business into six new groups in March 2023. In 2022, Ant Group launched ANEXT Bank, a new digital bank that will offer business loans to SMEs in Singapore, as well as a new BNPL offering, Ant Bank PayLater, for Alipay users in Hong Kong.
Booking.com
Founded: 1996
CEO: Glenn D. Fogel
Customer Focus: Consumers, Travel Retailers
Focus region: Netherlands, Global
Years on Top 100 Map: 1
Based in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, Booking.com has become one of the world’s largest travel agencies, allowing consumers to make bookings at hotels across 227 countries, with more than 28 million reported total accommodation listings across the site. The company served 100 million users on its mobile app in 2021 and facilitates guest payments across a variety of payment methods, including credit cards, debit cards and payment services such as PayPal, Apple Pay, Google Pay and Alipay.
Booking.com has benefitted from the recent return to travel, with Booking Holdings – the holding company that operates several other travel search engines – reporting a 36% rise in quarterly revenues in Q4 2022, bringing in a total of $17bn for the full year. Booking.com has recently ramped up its marketing budget and is growing its focus on alternative accommodation (anything that isn’t a standard hotel), which accounted for 30% of total room nights booked in 2022.
Expedia
Founded: 1996
CEO: Peter Kern
Customer Focus: Consumers, Travel Businesses
Focus region: US, Global
Years on Top 100 Map: 1
Expedia.com is an online travel agency and metasearch engine that is part of Expedia Group – a Seattle-based owner of numerous online travel fare aggregators. Customers can use the company’s website or mobile app to book flights, hotels, cruise ship tours and other travel packages. Expedia serves 112 million monthly unique visitors worldwide (as of 2020) and was a major contributor to Expedia Group’s overall revenue in 2022 ($11.7bn).
Aside from welcoming a new CFO last year, Expedia Group also introduced its new Open World tech platform to help partners launch new travel products and services. It also enabled BNPL payments on its sites through a partnership with Afterpay and launched a new partnership with Bilt Rewards to allow members to book travel using their Bilt reward points.
Mercado Pago
Founded: 2003
CEO: Marcos Galperin
Customer Focus: Consumers, Merchants
Focus region: LatAm
Years on Top 100 Map: 1
Mercado Pago is an online payments platform that facilitates payments for merchants, with a primary focus on the LatAm region. The platform was created by Mercado Libre, an ecommerce business that was founded in Argentina but is now based in Uruguay. Mercado Libre amassed $10.5bn in revenue in 2022, with $36bn in volume passing through the Mercado Pago platform. In 2022, Mercado Libre saw 159.3 million unique fintech active users.
In a recent earnings report, Mercado Libre spoke about moving its Mercado Pago product from being mainly a payments wallet to being a full-service digital account (more than half of Mercado Libre’s users make payments through the app). Mercado Pago has also been moving more into the crypto space, having recently expanded the purchase and sale of bitcoin and ethereum to Mexico.
Tencent
Founded: 1998
CEO: Ma Huateng
Customer focus: Consumers, Businesses
Focus region: China
Years on Top 100 Map: 5
Tencent is a major Chinese multinational tech and entertainment company and the owner of WeChat, China’s biggest messaging app. Aside from Alipay, WeChat’s payments solution WeChat Pay is now the pre-eminent digital wallet for Chinese businesses and consumers, with 1.2 billion monthly active users (according to unaudited Tencent figures from Q1 2022).
Last year, WeChat Pay launched a new palm print solution allowing customers to pay for purchases by swiping their hands, and announced it would launch a new QR payments system for businesses through a partnership with Alipay. It also announced it would be integrating the digital yuan, the Chinese CBDC, into its payment platforms and launched services in Qatar with the Qatar National Bank.
Walmart
Founded: 1962
CEO: Doug McMillon
Customer focus: Consumers, Retail, Remittances
Focus region: US, Global
Years on Top 100 Map: 4
Headquartered in the US, Walmart is the world’s largest retail corporation in terms of revenue, with total revenue reaching $573bn in 2022 and a market cap of around $400bn in April 2023. The company has long been active in remittances, having partnered with MoneyGram, Ria and Western Union to facilitate transfers to 200 countries from nearly 4,700 stores across the US through its Walmart2World segment. In March 2022, the company relaunched its Mexican remittances programme to reduce the cost of sending money to Mexico from the US. The retail conglomerate also invested $200m in Indian mobile payments company PhonePe, which facilitates retail payments through Unified Payments Interface, India’s instant payments platform.
How is FXC Intelligence’s data helping the cross-border ecommerce industry?
Banks
The world’s top banks are continuing to expand upon their cross-border payment offerings in 2023. Here are our top banks that serve the cross-border payment sector and in some cases also have large cross-border businesses themselves.
American Express
Founded: 1850
CEO: Stephen Squeri
Customer focus: Consumers, SMEs, Enterprises
Focus region: US
Years on Top 100 Map: 5
One of the 30 components of the Dow Jones Industrial Average, American Express (Amex) has grown to become one of the world’s largest providers of card payment services, with over 133 million cards in operation worldwide. According to Amex, its cards are accepted at 99% of places in the US that accept credit cards, but the company reaches consumers and businesses – spanning retail, travel, hospitality and financial services – across more than 100 countries.
International B2B payments were a growing focus for Amex in 2022, as discussed in our B2B 2022 trends piece. Targeting SMEs, Amex launched American Express Global Pay, which allows businesses to send payments from their business bank account to suppliers across more than 40 countries. The company also launched Amex Business Link, a system that connects buyers and suppliers across both non-card and non-card payments, essentially making it easier to manage payments.
Bank of America
Founded: 1784
CEO: Brian Moynihan
Customer focus: Consumers, SMEs, Large Enterprises, Fintechs, Financial Services
Focus region: US
Years on Top 100 Map: 5
Bank of America (BofA) is one of the largest banks in both the US and the world. The bank in its current iteration was formed after BankAmerica was acquired by NationsBank for $62bn, nearly a century after the founding of its first iteration as the Bank of Italy in 1904 and more than two centuries after what is now the eastern portion of its business was chartered as Massachusetts Bank. The business now serves approximately 67 million consumer and SME clients across 35 countries via approximately 3,900 retail financial centres. It also offers payment, FX and banking services to other banks and fintechs in the sector.
Last year, BofA expanded its virtual account management solution to US businesses and brought ACH Positive Pay (a fraud mitigation solution) to mobile devices, making it easier for businesses to approve and reject incoming transactions; launched CashPro Forecasting, which uses AI and machine learning to predict companies’ future cash flows; and launched Pay by Bank, an open banking solution that allows shoppers to pay for ecommerce purchases directly from their bank accounts with no card details required.
Banorte (UniTeller)
Founded: 1899
CEO: Jose Marcos Ramirez Miguel
Customer focus: Consumers, SMEs, Large Enterprises, Fintechs, Financial Services
Focus region: Mexico
Years on Top 100 Map: 3
Based in Monterrey and Mexico City, Banorte is one of Mexico’s largest commercial banks, offering a variety of financial products to individuals and businesses. The bank serves more than 20 million customers across more than 1,000 branches and is the holding company of UniTeller, a leading US-based global payments company that enables transfers to 200,000 locations worldwide. It also offers payment, FX and banking services to other banks and fintechs in the sector.
In 2020, Banorte partnered with Volante to modernise its cross-border payments infrastructure. In 2021, UniTeller extended remittances to 13 APAC markets, including India, Bangladesh and Indonesia, through a partnership with cross-border payments provider Tranglo. Last year, Banorte launched Autoestrene Verde, a new credit loan product for financing hybrid and electric cars. In April 2023, UniTeller also acquired Oh My Card, a Central American gift card payment platform that the company intends to use to expand its cross-border payment channels.
Barclays
Founded: 1690
CEO: C.S. Venkatakrishnan
Customer focus: Consumers, SMEs, Large Enterprises
Focus region: UK
Years on Top 100 Map: 5
Barclays is a British multinational bank with headquarters in London, UK. It operates in over 40 countries and has more than 83,000 employees. The bank is listed on the London and New York Stock Exchanges and in 2022 saw total revenues of £25bn, while total assets amounted to £1.5tn.
Barclays serves 48 million customers across 50 countries, while its international payments service allows money sends to more than 50 different currencies. It also offers payment, FX and banking services to other banks in the sector, while the bank’s fintech unit serves many hundreds of cross-border payment companies across the globe.
BMO
Founded: 1817
CEO: Darryl White
Customer focus: Consumers, SMEs, Large Enterprises, Fintechs, Financial Services
Focus region: Canada/US
Years on Top 100 Map: 5
The Bank of Montreal (BMO) is the 8th largest bank by assets in North America, with more than 12 million customers worldwide, including eight million personal and commercial customers in Canada and more than two million in the US. BMO reported it had a total of $1.15tn in assets as of 31 January 2023. It also offers payment, FX and banking services to other banks and fintechs in the sector.
The bank’s Global Money Transfer service allows people to transfer funds to up to 50 countries in multiple currencies, and it serves many leading cross-border payment companies. BMO recently acquired the US-based Bank of the West from BNP Paribas for $13.8bn, boosting its presence in the Western US, as well as acquiring Radicle Group, which offers advisory services on sustainability. Its investments arm, BMO Investments, also launched six new funds for investors in March 2023.
BNP Paribas
Founded: 1848
CEO: Jean-Laurent Bonnafé
Customer focus: Consumers, SMEs, Large Enterprises, Fintechs, Financial Services
Focus region: France
Years on Top 100 Map: 3
Established in 2000 by a merger of leading French bank BNP and international investment bank Paribas, the history of BNP Paribas stretches back into the early 19th century. Today, the bank has 190,000 employees in 65 countries, including almost 145,000 in Europe. It serves 33 million individual and 850,000 corporate clients, with 13.6 million customers using financial services in digital distribution channels. It offers cash management services among its cross-border payments capabilities, as well as providing payment, FX and banking services to other banks and fintechs in the sector.
BNP Paribas launched a new private asset management for businesses in 2022 and tokenised a new renewable energy bond, with proceeds committed to a solar energy project sponsored by EDF. The bank also made numerous acquisitions, including Deutsche Bank’s Global Prime Finance & Electronic Equities business; currency risk management fintech Kantox; media consultancy Cofiloisirs; and mobile payments provider FLOA.
BNY Mellon
Founded: 1784
CEO: Robin Vince
Customer focus: Consumers, SMEs, Large Enterprises, Fintechs, Financial Services
Focus region: US
Years on Top 100 Map: 4
BNY Mellon was established in 2007 through a merger of Mellon Financial, which was founded in 1870, and the Bank of New York, which was founded by Alexander Hamilton in 1784. As of 31 December 2022, the company has over $44tn worth of assets under custody and/or administration and operates across 35 countries. BNY Mellon processes cross-border payments amounting to $1tn daily and enables payments to be sent in more than 100 currencies. It also offers payment, FX and banking services to other banks and fintechs in the sector.
In late 2022, the company launched Vaia, its new aggregated payments platform for US-based businesses, as well as a digital asset custody platform that allows certain clients to hold and transfer bitcoin and ether. BNY also had some major personnel changes, with Robin Vince moving from his Vice Chair role to become BNY’s new CEO and President in August 2022 and Jennifer Barker joining as the new CEO for the company’s treasury services division in February 2022.
CIBC
Founded: 1867
CEO: Victor G. Dodig
Customer focus: Consumers, Businesses
Focus region: Canada
Years on Top 100 Map: 2
Based in Toronto, Canada, the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC) is one of the country’s biggest providers of banking and financial services. It provides a variety of commercial and banking services to 13 million customers, and enables peer-to-peer remittances to 120 countries through its Global Money Transfer service. It also offers payment, FX and banking services to other banks and fintechs in the sector. In addition, CIBC runs online-only bank Simplii Financial, which offers a number of cross-border-related services, including international student banking and a USD savings account.
In 2022, CIBC began providing no-fee, same-day cash pick-ups in 40 countries through remittance giant MoneyGram, and also became the exclusive issuer for Costco credit cards in Canada. In March 2023, CIBC and Simplii launched real-time payments to Alipay mobile wallet users. At the end of March 2023, CIBC also added six new Canadian Depositary Receipts – allowing Canadian investors easier access to foreign stocks – bringing the total to 41.
Citi
Founded: 1812
CEO: Jane Fraser
Customer focus: Consumers, SMEs, Large Enterprises, Fintechs, Financial Services
Focus region: US
Years on Top 100 Map: 5
Based in New York City, Citi is a leading international bank serving more than 200 million customers across more than 160 countries. The company’s WorldLink solution is widely used across the sector and has enabled cross-border payments for over 30 years, allowing Citi to issue payments in more than 135 currencies. The bank also offers payment, FX and banking services to other banks and fintechs in the sector.
In 2022, Citi expanded services in Switzerland, Germany and Japan, as well as allowing clients in Europe to pay to and receive from 36 countries instantly via the Single Euro Payments Area system. However, Citi recently joined other banks by selling off its consumer business in India and 13 other countries in Asia and the EMEA region in a bid to conserve capital, and was also reportedly planning to sell Mexican retail bank Banamex.
DBS
Founded: 1968
CEO: Piyush Gupta
Customer focus: Consumers, SMEs, Large Enterprises, Fintechs, Financial Services
Focus region: Singapore
Years on Top 100 Map: 5
Customer focus: Consumers, SMEs, Large Enterprises, Fintechs, Financial Services
DBS is a leading financial services provider based in Singapore. It now operates across 18 markets, with more than 33,000 employees. It also offers payment, FX and banking services to other banks and fintechs in the sector.
Last year saw DBS enter more innovative spaces, enabling crypto trading through its digibank app, and partnering with the Ministry of Education to enable e-payments through smart watches in Singaporean schools. It launched new products, including an environmentally friendly debit card; real-time, zero-fee remittances to Bangladesh via DBS Remit; and a buy now, pay later offering (with Mastercard and Pine Labs) for customers in Singapore, Indonesia and Hong Kong. The company also acquired Citi’s consumer banking business in Taiwan.
Deutsche Bank
Founded: 1870
CEO: Christian Sewing
Customer focus: Consumers, SMEs, Large Enterprises, Fintechs, Financial Services
Focus region: Germany
Years on Top 100 Map: 5
Founded in the 19th century to support Germany’s foreign trade and exports, Deutsche Bank is a leading provider of financial services for consumers and businesses. As of year-end 2022, it had total assets under management of €1.3tn and reported a net profit of €5.6bn. The company’s cross-border XB-ACH platform supports cross-border payments across 120+ currencies. It also offers payment, FX and banking services to other banks and fintechs in the sector. Deutsche Bank serves many of the larger cross-border payments companies globally.
Through a multi-year partnership with Nvidia, Deutsche Bank is looking to accelerate the use of AI and machine learning in financial services. In October, it announced it had partnered with financial services provider Fiserv to launch Vert, a provider of payments acceptance services to SMEs.
Goldman Sachs
Founded: 1869
CEO: David M. Solomon
Customer focus: Consumers, SMEs, Large Enterprises, Fintechs, Financial Services
Focus region: US
Years on Top 100 Map: 5
Headquartered in New York, Goldman Sachs provides financial services spanning investment banking, securities and asset management for individuals, businesses and organisations. The company serves 14 million customers in 160 countries worldwide (based on its transaction banking coverage). It also offers payment, FX and banking services to other banks and fintechs in the sector.
In 2022, alongside other financial institutions, Goldman Sachs launched DatonomyTM – a classification of digital assets used to give investors better insight into market trends. The bank also acquired loan fintech GreenSky; NN Investment partners, to fuel growth of European equity products; and NextCapital, to drive Goldman’s services to consumers saving for retirement.
HSBC
Founded: 1865
CEO: Noel Paul Quinn
Customer focus: Consumers, SMEs, Large Enterprises, Fintechs, Financial Services
Focus region: UK/Asia
Years on Top 100 Map: 5
Based in London, HSBC is one of the biggest financial services organisations in the world, with approximately 39 million customers and a network spanning 62 countries and territories. Through its global money account, it’s possible to send up to £50,000 per day to over 200 different destinations across more than 60 currencies. It also offers payment, FX and banking services to other banks and fintechs in the sector.
In 2022, HSBC completed one of its biggest acquisitions ever – AXA Singapore – which will help expand the bank’s insurance and wealth management in the region. In October 2022, the company replaced its existing CFO with George Elhedery and appointed Greg Guyett the new CEO of Global Banking and Markets.
J.P. Morgan Chase
Founded: 1799
CEO: Jamie Dimon
Customer focus: Consumers, SMEs, Large Enterprises, Fintechs, Financial Services
Focus region: US
Years on Top 100 Map: 5
With a history dating back to the end of the 18th century, J.P. Morgan Chase is now the largest bank in the US and the fifth largest in the world. J.P. Morgan Chase provides FX and payment services to many other financial institutions and cross-border payment companies around the globe. The bank serves 66 million consumer banking customers (as of 2021) across 100 countries. It also offers payment, FX and banking services to other banks and fintechs in the sector.
J.P. Morgan made two major acquisition agreements in 2022: cloud native tech platform Renovite Technologies, to help expand the company’s merchant acquiring platform, and share plan management software company Global Shares, which has nearly $200bn in assets. It’s also one of several banks to explore the metaverse, as we discussed in this deep dive from last year.
Lloyds Bank
Founded: 1765
CEO: Charlie Nunn
Customer focus: Consumers, SMEs, Large Enterprises
Focus region: UK
Years on Top 100 Map: 5
Considered one of the big four banks in England and Wales, Lloyds Bank has 26 million customers worldwide. Businesses and individuals can send international payments to over 100 countries using its Internet Banking service. It also offers payment, FX and banking services to other banks and fintechs in the sector.
Lloyds is engaging more with fintechs, having launched an Innovation Sandbox for collaborative projects in October 2022, and in August 2022 completed the UK’s first transaction using a digital promissory note purchase (which allows buyers to pay sellers with a note rather than cash, depending on their credit rating). It also acquired UK protection business Cavendish Online to help improve relationships with its customers, as well as wealth platform Embark.
NatWest
Founded: 1968
CEO: Alison Rose
Customer focus: Consumers, SMEs, Large Enterprises, Fintechs, Financial Services
Focus region: UK
Years on Top 100 Map: 5
Officially established via a merger of National Provincial Bank and Westminster Bank in 1968, National Westminster Bank (NatWest) is now the UK’s largest retail and commercial bank, serving 19 million people and processing one in four payments in the UK. The bank operates in 12 countries, with service centres in two more. Its FXmicropay service, which is targeted at corporate and financial institutions, provides automated FX and cross-border payments and related services.
In 2022, NatWest signed agreements with TrueLayer, GoCardless and Crezco to offer Variable Recurring Payments; a new passive currency hedging service; and conducted a series of proof-of-concept transactions to enhance carbon market trading. NatWest also entered into a strategic partnership with the Vodeno Group to create a Banking-as-a-Service business; established a new entity in Europe, NatWest Bank Europe GmbH; and is working with Amazon Web Services to create personalised banking experiences based on customer interactions.
PNC
Founded: 1845
CEO: Bill Demchak
Customer focus: Consumers, SMEs, Large Enterprises, Fintechs, Financial Services
Focus region: US
Years on Top 100 Map: 2
Tracing its history back to the Pittsburgh Trust and Savings Company in 1845, PNC Financial Services as it is today was formed in 1983 by a merger between Pittsburgh National Corporation and Provident National Corporation. The bank offers a wide range of services to businesses, organisations and individuals, supporting 12 million customers worldwide. PNC also offers a referral service that connects users to a correspondent banking network in more than 100 countries. It also offers payment, FX and banking services to other banks and fintechs in the sector.
In 2021, the company acquired BBVA Transfer Services, which it rebranded as PNC Global Transfers; joined the CHIPS network; and was one of 11 banks to collaborate with SWIFT on its Immediate Cross-Border Payments initiative. Last year, it acquired point-of-sale and payments provider Linga to better service its hospitality and restaurant industry clients. PNC also replaced its Head of Retail Banking and Chief Customer Officer, Karen Lattimer, with Alex Overstrom in June 2022.
RBC
Founded: 1864
CEO: Dave McKay
Customer focus: Consumers, SMEs, Large Enterprises
Focus region: Canada
Years on Top 100 Map: 5
One of Canada’s largest banks, RBC leverages over 1,400 banking relationships worldwide to facilitate international money transfers. It serves 17 million customers across 29 countries. RBC also has a US-based banking offering designed specifically for Canadians, providing them instant cross-border transfers and 50,000+ no-fee ATMs. It also offers payment, FX and banking services to other banks and fintechs in the sector.
Alongside SWIFT and J.P. Morgan, RBC became the first Canadian bank to launch Swift Go in 2022, allowing businesses to send cross-border payments of up to $10,000. It also launched a buy now, pay later solution for credit card holders with Visa; a solution for sustainable financing; an integrated banking solutions for incoming immigrants with ICICI bank. It recently appointed a new chair of the board (Jacynthe Côté), as well as acquiring HSBC’s Canadian business, medical billing plan provider MDBilling and wealth management firm Brewin Dolphin.
Santander
Founded: 1857
CEO: Héctor Grisi Checa
Customer focus: Consumers, SMEs, Large Enterprises, Fintechs, Financial Services
Focus region: Spain
Years on Top 100 Map: 5
In 1857, Banco Santander was incorporated to facilitate trade between the Port of Santander, Spain and Latin America. Today, it is the largest bank in Spain by assets and market capitalisation, providing services to 160 million customers. It also offers payment, FX and banking services to other banks and fintechs in the sector. Created in 2020, the company’s payments arm PagoNxt enables cross-border payments in 140 currencies and other financial services for businesses and consumers. Santander also owns a majority stake in Ebury, a cross-border payments, trade and FX facilitator for SMEs.
Last year, Santander launched a sustainable PoS system; Ulity, a new technology platform for vehicle subscription-based solutions; helpS, a platform with everyday emergency solutions for individuals; and Zinia, a BNPL service enabling instant payments for companies from Europe to Brazil.
Santander’s many personnel changes for 2022 included a new group CEO, a new CEO for Santander Spain, a new group CRO and a new Country Head for Mexico, while PagoNxt gained a new CFO and CEO for its Merchant Solutions segment.
Societe Generale
Founded: 1864
CEO: Frédéric Oudéa (until 23 May ‘23), Slawomir Krupa (from 23 May ‘23)
Customer focus: Consumers, SMEs, Large Enterprises
Focus region: France
Years on Top 100 Map: 5
Société Générale has been a leading European bank for more than 150 years. In 2022, it reported revenues amounting to €28.1bn and an underlying gross operating income of €10.1bn. The bank has been applying SWIFT gpi to institutional clients since 2017, and expanded it to nine new countries across Western Europe and Asia in 2019. Overall, it serves 25 million customers across 66 countries. It also offers payment, FX and banking services to other banks and fintechs in the sector.
Société Générale is another bank that made major personnel changes last year, with some of the most prominent being the proposal of a new Group CEO (due to be appointed at May’s AGM), and the appointment of a new global CIO and a new Group Country Head for the UK and Ireland. The bank’s automotive business unit ALD also recently launched a capital raise to acquire Dutch rival LeasePlan, as part of a mission to own the biggest electric vehicle fleet in Europe.
Standard Chartered
Founded: 1853
CEO: Bill Winters
Customer focus: Consumers, SMEs, Large Enterprises, Fintechs, Financial Services
Focus region: UK
Years on Top 100 Map: 5
Standard Chartered is a British bank, formed under its current name in 1969 through a merger of Standard Bank Limited, dating back to 1862, and Chartered Bank, originally founded in 1853. With its headquarters in the UK, it is an international banking group with more than 83,000 employees and a presence in 59 markets, serving customers in a total of 120 markets worldwide. Through its online international transfer services, customers can move funds for free to Standard Chartered accounts across more than 19 markets. The bank also offers payment, FX and banking services to other banks and fintechs in the sector.
In 2022, Standard Chartered introduced new products for businesses, including a new Payouts-as-a-Service solution, which helps its business clients reduce admin costs by automating payouts to lots of different parties at the same time, and Trade Track-It, which allows clients to monitor digital trades in real-time. It was also one of several big banks to enter the metaverse, in a partnership with decentralised virtual world platform The Sandbox.
UBS
Founded: 1862
CEO: Sergio P. Ermotti
Customer focus: Consumers, SMEs, Large Enterprises, Fintechs, Financial Services
Focus region: Switzerland
Years on Top 100 Map: 5
UBS is a Swiss multinational bank and financial services provider. It is the amalgamation of more than 370 financial services firms that have merged into the company since the founding of the original Union Bank of Switzerland in 1862. The UBS Pay Worldwide platform facilitates cross-border payments in more than 120 currencies (it claims this number is higher than any other Swiss bank) and the bank operates in 50 countries worldwide. It also offers payment, FX and banking services to other banks and fintechs in the sector.
UBS recently bought its main rival, and the second-largest bank in Switzerland, Credit Suisse, for $3.3bn after that bank collapsed in March 2023. Last year, it introduced the world’s first digital bond that is publicly traded and settled on both blockchain-based and traditional exchanges, and saw a number of key personnel changes, including a new Chief Revenue Officer and a new President for UBS Americas. It also welcomed Sergio Ermotti back as CEO in April 2023; he previously led the bank from 2011-2020.
Wells Fargo
Founded: 1852
CEO: Charles W. Scharf
Customer focus: Remittances, Consumers, SMEs, Large Enterprises, Fintechs, Financial Services
Focus region: US
Years on Top 100 Map: 5
Wells Fargo is a US-based financial services business with headquarters in San Francisco, California. It currently serves 69 million customers in 28 countries across a range of financial services, including personal and commercial banking, investing and wealth management. It also offers payment, FX and banking services to other banks and fintechs in the sector. Last year, the company’s total revenue was $74bn while its total assets amounted to $1.9tn.
In 2022, Wells Fargo pursued higher wealth customers with its new Premier checking account and Autograph Visa Rewards Credit Card, as well as younger investors with its updated Intuitive Investor platform.
How are banks competing on FX pricing and strategy?
Mobile
A number of the largest mobile-focused providers have made significant inroads into the remittances sector, allowing money to be quickly sent between banked and unbanked customers. Here are our top picks for mobile cross-border payments companies in 2023.
Airtel
Founded: 1995
CEO: Gopal Vittal
Customer focus: Remittances, Consumers, SMEs, Large Enterprises
Focus region: India
Years on Top 100 Map: 3
Airtel Payments is part of Airtel, a leading telecommunications company based in India offering wireless connectivity, prepaid and postpaid mobile and broadband services to consumers and businesses. Overall, the company serves 500 million customers across 17 countries. It has collaborated with leading money transfer operating companies (most notably Western Union) to enable real-time payments across millions of bank accounts in India and Africa.
Airtel is currently working with Meta on a global connectivity project and has also partnered with Google, which is set to invest up to $1bn in a project to enhance digital inclusion in India. Other projects include launching a new credit card with Axis Bank and creating India’s first 5G-enabled auto manufacturing unit with Tech Mahindra.
IDT
Founded: 1990
CEO: Samuel Jonas
Customer focus: Consumers, Remittances, Mobile Top-Ups
Focus region: Israel, US, Global
Years on Top 100 Map: 3
Originally a telecommunications company, IDT Corporation is a global provider of communications and payment services. The company owns National Retail Solutions (NRS), a provider of PoS and payment processing services for retailers. IDT’S BOSS Money app enables international remittances from the US to more than 40 destination countries, with over 325,000 payment points across Latin America, the Caribbean, Africa and Asia. BOSS Revolution allows mobile airtime top-ups, as well as international calling.
BOSS Money expanded money transfer capabilities across a number of countries in Africa in 2022 – including Nigeria, Togo, Sierra Leone and Benin. NRS partnered with OnPoint to expand its services for independent retailers and also launched a new B2B marketplace to connect wholesalers with suppliers. IDT also acquired blockchain-based digital wallet Leaf, contact-centre-as-a-service provider Integra and digital distribution platform Sochitel.
M-PESA
Founded: 2007
CEO: Sitoyo Lopokoiyit
Customer focus: Remittances
Focus region: Africa
Years on Top 100 Map: 3
Founded by Vodafone and Safaricom (a leading telecoms provider in Kenya), M-PESA is a mobile phone-based international money transfer service. It serves more than 51 million customers and 465,000 businesses across seven African countries, with 600,000 agents across the continent. According to Vodafone, M-PESA processes more than 61 million transactions a day.
Alongside Visa and Safaricom, M-PESA launched a virtual card in 2022, allowing 30 million of M-PESA’s users to make cashless payments at Visa-enabled merchants. It also partnered with remittance company NALA to extend money transfers to Africans in more European countries, and recently moved its operations into a cloud operations centre in Kenya. In 2023, M-PESA announced a strategic partnership with Amazon to provide global remittances.
MTN Mobile
Founded: 1994
CEO: Ralph Mupita
Customer focus: Consumers, Businesses
Focus region: South Africa
Years on Top 100 Map: 1
MTN Mobile is a mobile money solution that facilitates payments across various countries in Africa, including international money transfers, mobile phone top-up, purchases or bill payments. It is owned by subsidiaries that make up MTN Group, a mobile telecoms company in Africa that has 272 million customers across 19 markets.
Last year, MTN Mobile Money (often shortened to MoMo) helped drive a 20% rise in pre-tax profits for MTN Uganda, just one country where businesses have seen demand for cashless payments after the Covid-19 pandemic. Alongside Optasia and Ecobank, MTN recently launched a new mobile money microloan service in Guinea in January 2023.
Orange Money
Founded: 2008
CEO: Region-dependent (CEO of Orange: Christel Heydemann)
Customer focus: Remittances
Focus region: Côte d’Ivoire, Africa
Years on Top 100 Map: 3
Orange Money is a platform for mobile-phone based money transfers owned by Orange, a French international telecoms company. Since launching in Côte d’Ivoire, the service has amassed 80 million customers in 17 countries. In 2020, Orange expanded its financial services offering with the launch of its own bank, Orange Bank Africa. In October 2022, Orange announced it had been conducting user relationship analysis to highlight how customers are using the service in order to identify potential improvements.
How does e-wallet pricing differ from that of other pay-in and pay-out methods?
VC-backed (growth stage)
An economic downturn in 2022 may have had an impact on investment last year (see our report on this topic), but in 2023 there are still many leading payment companies with venture capital backing. Here, we’ve rounded up the biggest VC-backed cross-border payments companies for this year.
Airwallex
Founded: 2015
CEO: Jack Zhang
Customer focus: Marketplace Sellers, SMEs
Focus region: APAC
Years on Top 100 Map: 5
Airwallex was founded in Melbourne, Australia, and has since grown to over 1,200 people in 19 offices worldwide. The company has raised over $900m (as of October 2022) and is one of the payment sector’s unicorns. It initially focused on the marketplace sellers market, offering payouts to sellers primarily based in China, but its product set has since expanded to cover small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and card-based products. Airwallex’s payment network allows businesses to get paid, manage funds and payout more efficiently across 130 countries.
Airwallex is expanding its focus in the APAC region, having recently secured an online payment licence in China after acquiring Guangzhou Shang Wu Tong Network Technology. This was after it appointed a new Chief Revenue Officer and APAC General Manager in December 2022. Last year, it also signed a deal with ecommerce provider Shopify to enable more payment methods for merchants on the platform.
Checkout.com
Founded: 2009
CEO: Guillaume Pousaz
Customer focus: Merchants, Fintechs
Focus region: Global
Years on Top 100 Map: 4
Launched as a cloud-based payment platform in Singapore, Checkout.com has grown to over 1,700 employees in 19 global offices, with a headquarters in the UK. It specialises in processing international payments for ecommerce businesses and other fintechs, and offers an all-in-one payment solution for merchants that eliminates the need for intermediaries. The company processes payments across more than 150 currencies.
Checkout.com reduced its valuation from $40bn to $11bn in December 2022 as a result of a wider downturn in investment. However, the company also scaled its operations in some areas during the year, adding new offices in the US and expanding into Israel. Additionally, it launched virtual and physical card issuing, allowing its clients to create payment cards for their customers.
Chipper Cash
Founded: 2018
CEO: Ham Serunjogi
Customer focus: Consumers, B2B Payments
Focus region: Africa, Europe, US
Years on Top 100 Map: 2
Based in San Francisco, US, Chipper Cash builds software to enable free and instant peer-to-peer cross-border payments in Africa and Europe, as well as solutions for businesses and merchants to process online and in-store payments. The company facilitates money transfers for five million customers worldwide.
In total, the company has raised $337.2m in funding over 7 rounds, but has seen an impact from the collapse of one of its backers, crypto exchange FTX. The company had been growing rapidly in preceding years, and last year signed a deal with card issuance platform Highnote to launch a new card product in the US.
EBANX
Founded: 2012
CEO: João Del Valle
Customer focus: SMEs, Large Enterprises, Fintechs
Focus region: LatAm
Years on Top 100 Map: 4
EBANX is a leading payment solutions company based in Brazil. The company’s cross-border payments platform allows merchants to directly integrate with 70 acquirers, banks and processors, as well as accept more than 100 payment methods. It has helped major companies conduct commerce with over 70 million Latin American consumers. The company processes around two million transactions per day and facilitates payments for more than 35,000 businesses (as of January 2022).
The company has raised $460m in funding over three rounds, with the most recent being a Series B funding round in June 2021. In September 2022, the company expanded its payments solution to Africa for the first time, meaning it now provides its payment solution in 18 countries.
EMQ
Founded: 2014
CEO: Max Liu
Customer focus: SMEs, Large Enterprises
Focus region: APAC, Europe, Africa, North America
Years on Top 100 Map: 2
Hong-Kong-based EMQ provides a global payments infrastructure that enables cross-border payments for businesses worldwide. The company serves banks, payment service providers and money transfer operators across more than 80 countries, with expansion efforts underway in core markets as well as the US, Canada and LatAm countries.
In 2022, the company announced it would be expanding its international payment capabilities to over 170 markets by launching global USD wires – allowing businesses to disburse USD payments worldwide. EMQ has raised $26.5m in funding to date, with its most recent round in July 2020.
Flutterwave
Founded: 2016
CEO: Olugbenga Agboola
Customer focus: SMEs, Large Enterprises, Fintechs
Focus region: Africa
Years on Top 100 Map: 3
Flutterwave is a Nigerian fintech providing payment infrastructure for global merchants and payment service providers in Africa. Businesses can collect payments and process payouts globally across more than 30 currencies with Flutterwave’s API, as well as facilitate money transfers to more than 40 countries. The company currently processes more than 500,000 payments daily and has served more than one million business customers worldwide.
In February 2022, Flutterwave saw its valuation grow to $3bn following a $250m Series D funding round, making it Africa’s highest valued startup. Now, the payments company is expanding into East Africa, having recently received new remittance licences from the National Bank of Rwanda.
iBanFirst
Founded: 2016
CEO: Pierre-Antoine Dusolier
Customer focus: SMEs, Large Enterprises
Focus region: Europe
Years on Top 100 Map: 5
Founded in France and based in Belgium, iBanFirst offers an online platform for multicurrency transactions. It now allows businesses to send and receive payments in over 30 currencies to and from 140+ countries. The company has more than 300 employees and serves more than 6,000 clients worldwide, processing €1.4bn every month.
In May 2021, the company announced it had completed a funding partnership with private equity firm Marlin Equity Partners. Through the deal, Marlin became iBanFirst’s largest shareholder. To date iBanFirst has raised $295.6m. In November 2022, iBanFirst acquired UK-based FX provider Cornhill to help expand its instant payment services to more SMEs in Europe.
LianLian Global
Founded: 2003
CEO: David Messenger
Customer focus: Ecommerce, Marketplace Merchants
Focus region: China
Years on Top 100 Map: 5
LianLian Global is an independent cross-border payments fintech based in China that focuses on ecommerce and marketplace payouts. It serves over 1.5 million cross-border ecommerce and marketplace sellers across more than 100 countries and regions. It has also partnered with major banks including Citi, Deutsche Bank and J.P. Morgan to power its solutions, which are used by ecommerce companies such as Amazon, Shopify and Walmart.
In 2022, LianLian Global announced it was offering the world’s first cross-border payments guarantee to China, mitigating risk around payments to China-based suppliers made via its digital app. It also expanded its presence in the US in Q2 2022, and in Europe later in the year through ecommerce partnerships with iwoca, RITMO and YouLend.
MFS Africa
Founded: 2009
CEO: Dare Okoudjou
Customer focus: Merchants, SMEs, Financial Services
Focus region: Africa
Years on Top 100 Map: 2
MFS Africa is a pan-African company operating the largest digital payments gateway on the continent. It connects more than 320 million mobile money wallets across more than 35 African countries and 700 corridors.
MFS Africa has raised around $220m in funding, with its latest round being a $200m Series C in June 2022. It recently partnered with Western Union to extend services across millions of mobile wallets in Africa from over 200 countries and territories.
Nium
Founded: 2014
CEO: Prajit Nanu
Customer focus: Remittances, Fintechs, Ecommerce, Financial Services
Focus region: APAC, Europe, US
Years on Top 100 Map: 5
Based in Singapore, Nium offers cross-border pay-in and pay-out services to a full range of corporates, fintechs and financial service companies. The company facilitates pay-ins across more than 35 markets, real-time payments across 100 markets and payouts across 190 markets. Nium serves over 130 million customers and supports platforms providing financial services to more than three billion people.
Nium has raised a total of $288m in funding to date. In 2022, the company also opened new offices in India, expanded its money transfer business to Malaysia and acquired payment acceptance software provider SoCash.
Paysend
Founded: 2017
CEO: Ronald Millar
Customer focus: Remittances. B2B
Focus region: Europe, Americas, Global
Years on Top 100 Map: 5
Paysend is an international money transfer service serving over six million consumer customers and 17,000 SMEs. The company leverages card networks to enable P2P money transfers to 170 countries, as well as instant and global payout services for businesses spanning more than 30 currencies and 180 countries.
Paysend has raised a total of $157.6m in funding, with the latest round in December 2021. In May 2021, the UK-based company closed its Series B funding round with a valuation of more than $700m, having raised $125m. In 2022, it reported strong growth in the US due to partnerships with Visa Direct, Mastercard Send, Central Payments and MOVii. In April 2023, it expanded its bank account transfer capabilities to the LatAm region.
PingPong
Founded: 2015
CEO: Yu Chen
Customer Focus: Merchants, SMEs
Focus region: Asia, Europe, US
Years on Top 100 Map: 5
PingPong helps more than one million online merchants save money across cross-border payments, VAT payments, supplier payments and more. As of November 2022, PingPong has accommodated business flows from more than 200 countries and regions, processed over $90bn in transaction volume and connected over 100 ecommerce businesses.
PingPong achieved unicorn status in 2020, and has received a total of $122m in funding. Earlier this year, Bloomberg reported that the company was considering an IPO to raise as much as $1bn in Hong Kong. In November 2022, PingPong expanded its services to Singapore to strengthen its presence in Southeast Asia, having established 20 offices worldwide.
Rapyd
Founded: 2016
CEO: Arik Shtilman
Customer focus: SMEs, Ecommerce, Fintechs
Focus region: Global
Years on Top 100 Map: 4
Founded in Israel and based in the UK, Rapyd facilitates cross-border payments for businesses through a single platform spanning several financial services, including payment acceptance, disbursement and digital wallets. The company helps businesses accept payments from more than 100 countries and send payments to more than 190 countries. In 2021, the company was serving around 5,000 businesses.
In March 2022, Rapyd achieved a valuation of $15bn, making it Israel’s highest-valued unicorn. That year, it also launched virtual accounts, allowing businesses around the world to accept local bank transfers across 25 currencies. It also launched a ‘Hack the Galaxy’ competition for software developers, with the winner potentially winning a trip to the edge of space.
Revolut
Founded: 2015
CEO: Nikolay Storonsky
Customer focus: Consumers, SMEs
Focus region: Europe
Years on Top 100 Map: 5
Revolut is a neobank and financial services company based in the UK. The company serves more than 28 million personal users and 500,000 business users across more than 200 countries and 29 in-app currencies. Primarily through its flagship super app, customers use Revolut to make more than 330 million transactions a month.
To date, Revolut has raised $1.7bn in funding, including an $800m Series E round in 2021, when the company was valued at $33bn (this valuation has since been questioned by some investors). The company recently published its long-awaited financial results for 2021, in which it claimed that revenues had risen 189% to £636m.
Stripe
Founded: 2010
CEO: Patrick Collison
Customer Focus: Businesses, Merchants
Focus region: US, Europe
Years on Top 100 Map: 5
Stripe is a payment processor supporting 135+ currencies and payment methods and businesses in more than 50 countries. Stripe receives more than 250 million API requests per day, peaking at 13,000 requests per second. Overall, businesses processed more than $817bn through Stripe in 2022, with more than 100 companies now processing $1bn in payments through the company every year.
Stripe has raised a total of $8.7bn in funding, having recently raised $6.5bn in a round that valued the company at $50bn (down from $95bn in March 2021). Recently, the company launched services in Thailand and signed a number of high-profile partnerships, including with OpenAI to incorporate its ChatGPT technology into its products and services.
TerraPay
Founded: 2014
CEO: Ambar Sur
Customer focus: Remittances, Businesses, Merchants
Focus region: Europe, Global
Years on Top 100 Map: 1
Founded in the Netherlands and now based in the UK, TerraPay is a payments infrastructure company that enables cross-border payments for businesses. The company’s payments systems connect more than 2.1 billion mobile wallets and 7.5 billion bank accounts worldwide, and it facilitates money movement from 208 send countries to 110 receive countries.
TerraPay recently raised $100m in a Series B funding round, which it hopes will aid its expansion in the MENA and LatAm regions and increase the size of its payout network to 150 countries by 2024.
Thunes
Founded: 2016
CEO: Peter De Caluwe
Customer focus: Fintechs, Financial Services, Money Transfer Operators
Focus region: APAC, Europe, LatAm
Years on Top 100 Map: 5
Thunes is a Singapore-based payments network aggregator that is developing a cross-border payment network for financial services companies, merchants and money transfer operators. It currently enables payments to 130 countries and accepts payments across 70 collection countries via more than 300 payment methods, spanning 80 currencies.
Thunes has raised $160m in funding, and in January 2022 announced a new partnership with the World Economic Forum to address systemic inequality in accessing financial services. The company also recently appointed a new LatAm head to boost operations in the region.
Tipalti
Founded: 2010
CEO: Chen Amit
Customer focus: Mid-Size and Large Enterprises
Focus region: US, Global
Years on Top 100 Map: 5
US-based Tipalti facilitates global payments and the accounts payable process for businesses across a wide variety of specialties. In 2022, it grew its customer base to more than 3,000 and transacted $43bn in volume. Its clients include Amazon Twitch, GoDaddy, Roku, WordPress.com and ZipRecruiter.
To date, Tipalti has raised a total of $565m in funding, most recently raising $270m in a Series F funding round that valued the company at $8.3bn. In 2022, the company launched a new integration with Amazon Business to streamline employee purchases on the platform and saw growth in its UK solution (launched in 2021), with 100 new customers signed.
TransferMate
Founded: 2010
CEO: Sinead Fitzmaurice
Customer focus: B2B Payments, Education, Financial Services
Focus region: US, Global
Years on Top 100 Map: 5
TransferMate facilitates international payments and receivables transactions for brands around the world. Based in Kilkenny, Ireland, the company has offices in 15 countries. It enables cross-border payments to more than 200 countries, spanning more than 140 currencies. TransferMate has focused on building its account and regulatory base in all the core countries it operates in.
This March, the company launched TransferMate Connect, an integrated payments solution to support product development for banks and fintechs. The company has signed a number of high-profile partnerships, including with Wells Fargo to deliver global payments capabilities. Overall, the company has raised $129.7m in funding, including a $70m round last year when it was valued at $1bn.
Veem
Founded: 2014
CEO: Marwan Forzley
Customer focus: B2B Payments, SMEs
Focus region: US
Years on Top 100 Map: 5
Founded in 2014 as Align Commerce (changing its name in March 2017), US-based Veem supports domestic or international money transfers to over 100 countries across 70 currencies. The company helps businesses of all sizes streamline their payment process and build relationships with suppliers around the world.
Veem has raised $100m in funding, with its latest raise being in 2020. In December, the company partnered with UK-based financial services firm Finastra to provide its accounts payable and accounts receivable services for SMBs to Finastra’s platform.
Zepz
Founded: 2010
CEO: Mark Lenhard
Customer focus: Remittances
Focus region: UK, Africa, Asia
Years on Top 100 Map: 5
Formerly WorldRemit Group, UK-based Zepz supports digital cross-border payments. The company transferred $10bn for customers in 2020, with 50 million customer transactions processed in 2020.
The company owns and operates two leading services for global payments: WorldRemit and Sendwave. Through the WorldRemit app, users can send payments to over 130 countries worldwide, while Sendwave allows P2P payments between Africa and Asia and the rest of the world for more than 800,000 customers.
In July last year, Zepz reportedly benched plans for an IPO in order to focus on profitability. In September 2022, it announced it had a new CFO and that revenues had grown by 67% to $399m, driven partly by growth in core markets in Asia and Africa. In total, Zepz has raised a total of $699.7m in funding.
How are growth-stage companies approaching cross-border pricing strategies?
Public companies (non-banks)
In this section, we’re discussing the biggest public companies – i.e. payments companies that are listed on the stock exchange and are not privately owned. Here are our top picks for public payment companies in 2023.
Adyen
Founded: 2006
CEO: Pieter van der Does, Ingo Uytdehaage (co-CEO from 11 May ‘23)
Customer focus: Merchants
Focus region: Europe, US
Years on Top 100 Map: 5
Adyen was founded to help create more efficient payment technologies and infrastructure, and provide shopping day insights to merchants. The company has more than 3,000 employees representing 115+ nationalities in 27 offices worldwide, and has served clients including Uber, H&M, Ebay and Microsoft. The core focus for Adyen is processing payments in the biggest developed markets globally, in particular Europe and North America.
In the company’s recent full year results, it reported it had processed a total of €767.5bn in 2022, with revenues amounting to €1.3bn. The company is currently targeting expansion in the US, Japan and the UAE, having acquired payments licences for these countries in the last few years. In 2022, it launched tap-to-pay capabilities on iPhone.
Al Ansari Exchange
Founded: 1966
CEO: Rashed Al Ansari
Customer focus: Consumer money transfers / Remittances, SMEs
Focus region: Middle East
Years on Top 100 Map: 2
Al Ansari Exchange is an established provider of foreign exchange, remittance, bill payment and corporate services. With more than 200 branches across the UAE, the company claims to have the largest share of outbound consumer remittances in the country (24%) and serves around 3 million customers each month across 45 countries.
Recently, Al Ansari announced it was taking the company public through an IPO that valued it at about $2bn – part of its strategy to grow its consumer remittances and B2B offerings, as well as expand to new markets in the Gulf. In 2022, the company became the first private exchange company to accept payments via DubaiPay (the Dubai Government’s payments gateway); launched a new Visa Direct-powered digital remittance service; and partnered with National Payments Corporation of India to offer real-time remittances to the country.
Alpha
Founded: 2009
CEO: Morgan Tillbrook
Customer focus: Mid-Size and Large Corporates, Institutional
Focus region: UK, Global
Years on Top 100 Map: 5
Alpha Group (previously Alpha FX) is a London-based payments and hedging company focused on mid-size and large corporates. It offers a range of banking solution products as part of its payments business, and serves over 1,000 customers across more than 50 countries.
In 2022, Alpha’s revenues rose to £98.3m on the back of growing demand for FX risk management services from large corporates, and it is now looking to invest more in alternative banking solutions. It also opened offices in eight countries and has over 350 employees, with a Madrid office set to open this year.
Argentex
Founded: 2011
CEO: Harry Adams
Customer focus: Consumers, SMEs, Corporates
Focus region: UK, Europe, Global
Years on Top 100 Map: 4
Argentex is a UK-based foreign exchange specialist that provides foreign currency and risk management solutions to corporate and institutional clients across Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Australasia and the Americas. As of December 2022, the company was serving just under 1,600 corporate clients and had over 100 employees.
Argentex has been targeting expansion in APAC and Europe; it recently opened a new office in Sydney and was granted an Electronic Money Institution (EMI Licence) by the Dutch National Bank in September 2022. Increased currency volatility last year had a positive impact on the company, with clients trading more frequently and hedging for longer.
Corpay
Founded: 1992
Group President: Mark Frey
Customer focus: SMEs, Corporates, Institutional, Fintechs, Financial Services
Focus region: North America, Latin America, Europe and Australasia
Years on Top 100 Map: 5
Part of the FLEETCOR brand, US-based Corpay allows businesses to track, manage and automate global B2B payments across several cross-border and card-based solutions. With regards to its cross-border payments division, the company says it facilitates more than 3.8 million payments annually across over 200 countries and more than 25,000 customers.
Corpay saw revenues grow by 29% to $772m in 2022, according to its results. The company was originally formed through a merger of Cambridge Global Payments and AFEX, two companies acquired by FLEETCOR. In June 2022, Corpay acquired UK-based Global Reach Group to expand its reach to businesses and financial institutions in the UK and Europe.
dLocal
Founded: 2016
CEO: Sebastián Kanovich
Customer focus: Merchants, Fintechs
Focus region: LatAm, APAC, Middle East, Africa
Years on Top 100 Map: 5
Uruguay-based dLocal provides a payment platform that facilitates cross-border payments and online transactions for merchants and their customers. The company has more than 700 employees and supports payment operations for more than 600 merchants across 40 countries and over 900 payment methods.
dLocal says it processed $10.6bn and saw revenues increase 72% to $418.9m in its FY 2022 results (note: a recent report has criticised some of dLocal’s accounting procedures). The company has numerous big-name partnerships, including Microsoft, Meta and Shopify. It expanded its partnership with payroll services provider Deel in October 2022 to facilitate seamless payments to remote workers across LatAm, Asia and Africa.
Ebix
Founded: 1976
CEO: Robin Raina
Customer focus: Consumers, Businesses (Insurance, Financial Services, Healthcare)
Focus region: Americas, Europe, Asia, Australia
Years on Top 100 Map: 4
Ebix provides ecommerce, payments and insurance technology products to corporate clients and consumers. Through its India-based EbixCash platform, Ebix enables international money transfers across India and worldwide, conducting $5bn in remittances every year. EbixCash has over 500,000 agents and approximately 18,000 corporate clients. In total, Ebix has 50+ offices across Brazil, Singapore, Australia, the US, UK, New Zealand, India and Canada.
Despite FX headwinds, Ebix reported that revenues rose 6% to pass $1bn for the first time in its 2022 results, with growth driven by FX and travel, e-learning and fintech services. The company announced an IPO for its EbixCash platform that is currently going through the approval process.
Equals Group
Founded: 2007
CEO: Ian Strafford-Taylor
Customer focus: Consumers, SMES, Large Enterprises
Focus region: UK, Europe
Years on Top 100 Map: 5
Equals Group is a UK-based provider of foreign exchange services, facilitating international payments for individuals and corporations through a range of payment solutions. In recent years, the company has shifted from a B2C to a B2B focus, primarily through Equals Money, its broader bank account product pitched at SMEs, and Equals Solutions, its international payment network for large enterprises. The company also owns FairFX, a currency card and travel money business, and personal and business banking platform Card One Money.
Overall, Equals Group’s services have benefitted over a million customers, while its Equals Money solution enables payment settlement in over 40 countries (via a partnership with Citibank). In its 2022 results, Equals reported that revenues rose 58% to £69.7m, driven by international payments revenues in large corporations. Also last year, Equals Money joined the Single Euro Payments Area, enabling instant payments to business accounts on the platform across multiple currencies.
Euronet (Ria, XE)
Founded: 1994
CEO: Michael J. Brown
Customer focus: Remittances, Consumers, SMEs, Fintechs
Focus region: US
Years on Top 100 Map: 5
Headquartered in Leawood, US, Euronet provides financial services and products to more than 170 countries around the world. It has three divisions with the largest, money transfer, now accounting for nearly half of all revenues. It has a market cap of $5.47bn. Euronet owns two major international money transfer companies, Ria and XE, which focus on remittances and consumer and SME payments respectively. Euronet has also started to offer its platform and payout network to other industry players.
Euronet’s revenues increased 12% to $3.3bn in 2022 according to its results, with growth driven partly by a rise in direct-to-consumer digital transactions. The company is also growing Dandelion, its B2B payments network, with new clients last year including international calling service provider Rebtel.
FIS
Founded: 1968
CEO: Stephanie Ferris
Customer focus: SMEs, Large Enterprises, Merchants, Financial Services Companies
Focus region: US, Global
Years on Top 100 Map: 5
US-based FIS is a global provider of payments, banking and wealth management solutions for businesses, merchants and financial institutions. The company currently serves more than 20,000 businesses and over a million merchant locations in more than 100 countries. The company had more than 65,000 employees as of December 2021, with more than 40,000 employed outside the US (though recent job cuts may have impacted this figure).
In February 2023, FIS announced it was spinning off its Merchant Solutions segment to once again become standalone merchant acquiring player Worldpay, just four years after it was purchased, ostensibly to appease investors (for more on this story, read our deep dive report). It reported revenues of $14.5bn for 2022 in its annual results, driven by rises in banking clients and merchant volumes.
Fiserv
Founded: 1984
CEO: Frank Bisignano
Customer focus: SMEs, Large Enterprises, Merchants, Financial Services Companies
Focus region: US, Global
Years on Top 100 Map: 5
Fiserv delivers financial services – including account processing, digital banking, card issuer services and payment processing – to more than 100 countries, with clients including more than six million merchants and almost 10,000 financial institutions. The company says it has serviced more than one billion card accounts overall.
In its 2022 results, Fiserv reported its revenues grew 9% to $17.7bn, driven primarily by its merchant acceptance segment. In January 2023, Fiserv partnered with BNY Mellon to deliver additional capabilities for real-time FX rate quotes for payments from US-based financial institutions.
Flywire
Founded: 2009
CEO: Mike Massaro
Customer focus: B2B and Corporates in Education, Healthcare, Travel
Focus region: US, Global
Years on Top 100 Map: 5
Headquartered in Boston, US, Flywire provides a payments platform and bespoke software to clients across the education, healthcare, B2B and travel markets. The company enables payments for more than 3,100 clients across 140 currencies spanning 240 territories worldwide.
In Flywire’s 2022 results, the company reported revenues had increased 44% to $289.4m, with total payments volume reaching $18.1bn, driven by a return to travel. The company is increasingly looking to penetrate the fragmented B2B space through an all-in-one A/R solution, while growing its education segment through acquisitions of international education payments companies Cohort Go and WPM.
Global Payments
Founded: 1967
CEO: Jeffrey S. Sloan
Customer focus: SMEs, Large Enterprises, Merchants, Financial Services Companies
Focus region: North America, Europe, APAC, LatAm
Years on Top 100 Map: 5
Based in Georgia, US, Global Payments offers payment technology and services to merchants and financial institutions, with a primary focus on ecommerce. With over 24,000 employees, the company serves over four million customers in over 170 countries, and has supported payments across more than 680 million cards.
Last year, Global Payments acquired rival Evo Payments in a $4bn deal as part of its shift to focus on B2B payments. In its 2022 earnings report, the company announced it was selling its gaming business as part of the ongoing shift, as well as a 5% increase in revenue to $8bn.
Intermex
Founded: 1994
CEO: Bob Lisy
Customer focus: Consumers, Remittances
Focus region: US, Canada, LatAm, Europe
Years on Top 100 Map: 5
Miami-based Intermex enables international money transfers, primarily between the US and Latin America and the Caribbean. In total, the company enables money transfers to more than 60 countries from the US, Canada and Europe.
While other remittance companies are turning to digital, Intermex maintains an ‘omnichannel’ approach that prioritises cash-based retail transfers, particularly for money sent from the US to the LatAm region. The company recently acquired competitor La Nacional, through which it expects to boost digital transactions in Europe while bolstering existing agent numbers in the US. Intermex reported that revenues rose 19.1% to $546.8m in its 2022 results.
Mastercard
Founded: 1966
CEO: Michael Miebach
Customer focus: Consumers, Businesses, Merchants, Financial Institutions
Focus region: US, Global
Years on Top 100 Map: 5
Mastercard is a US-based financial services company, payment processor and the owner of one of the world’s biggest card networks. Altogether Mastercard has partnerships with 22,000 financial institutions and serves customers in more than 210 countries and territories worldwide. It also enables cross-border payments through Mastercard Cross-Border Services, which facilitates international payments for customers in more than 60 currencies to over 100 markets.
In April 2023, Mastercard introduced Cross-Border Services Express, which complements its existing offering by allowing financial institutions to seamlessly set up international payments for consumers and SMEs. The company has established a large number of partnerships since last year’s Top 100, and saw revenues rise 18% to $22.2bn in its 2022 results, processing a gross dollar volume of $8.2tn.
Monex
Founded: 1985
CEO: Mauricio Naranjo Gonzalez
Customer focus: SMEs, Corporates, Institutional, Fintechs
Focus region: North America, LatAm, Europe, APAC
Years on Top 100 Map: 5
Monex is a specialist in commercial foreign exchange services, providing international payment and FX risk management solutions to more than 70,000 clients globally. With more than 2,700 employees and $8.9bn in total assets, the company facilitates the delivery of international payments through its Monex Pay platform. It has offices in North America, Latin America, Europe and Asia.
Monex appointed a former Mastercard executive as its new Group CTO and Executive Director in July 2022. Monex’s US division, Monex USA, has recently launched new B2B payments partnerships with fintechs Centtrip and WireFX, as well as accounts payable software provider OnPay Solutions.
OFX
Founded: 1998
CEO: Skander Malcolm
Customer focus: Consumers, SMEs, Merchants, Fintechs
Focus region: APAC, Europe, US
Years on Top 100 Map: 5
Founded in Australia, OFX is a provider of FX and global payments solutions that enables international money transfers to more than 170 countries across more than 50 currencies. The company has transferred a total of A$220bn (c.$146bn as of April 2023 exchange rates) and has one million customers worldwide. It has more than 400 staff across offices in eight locations, as well as 55 global operating licences
OFX has a global presence, with the North American market providing some of its most significant growth in recent years. OFX is also expanding its offering in the enterprise segment as part of its ongoing three-year growth plan, which hopes to build on the company’s recent acquisition of Canadian FX provider Firma. OFX saw its fee and trading income increase by 17.7% to $158m in its 2022 results.
Payoneer
Founded: 2005
CEO: John Caplan
Customer focus: SMEs, Merchants, Freelancers, Corporates, Financial Services
Focus region: US, Europe, APAC
Years on Top 100 Map: 5
Based in New York, US, Payoneer provides an international payments platform to online sellers, large businesses. freelancers and financial institutions. The company has five million customers and 2,000 employees worldwide across 24 global offices. It became a publicly traded company in June 2021.
In its 2022 results, Payoneer reported that revenues rose 33% to $628m, and also announced that long-time CEO Scott Galit was stepping down, leaving former co-CEO John Caplan to be the sole leader of the company. The company is currently shifting its focus to larger SMBs and higher value services (such as its B2B AP/AR business and Commercial Mastercard).
PayPal (Xoom)
Founded: 1998 (Xoom founded 2001)
CEO: Dan Schulman
Customer focus: Consumers, SMEs, Merchants
Focus region: US, Global
Years on Top 100 Map: 5
Headquartered in the US, PayPal operates an online payments platform that allows businesses and consumers to send and receive payments online. The company currency has around 435 million active accounts across more than 200 markets.
PayPal owns and operates Xoom, an international money transfer service that enables cash transfers via bank deposit, cash for pickup and cash delivery to over 160 countries. In 2020, it rolled out a buy now, pay later offering, which has since issued over 200 million loans to nearly 30 million customers (as of 31 December 2022). In 2022, it released a new PayPal rewards program and enabled contactless payment acceptance for small businesses. It also saw revenues rise 8% to $27.5bn.
Paysafe
Founded: 1996
CEO: Bruce Lowthers
Customer focus: SMEs, Enterprises, Gaming, Education, B2B
Focus region: UK, Global
Years on Top 100 Map: 5
UK-based Paysafe is an international online payments company providing digital wallets, payments acceptance and other ecommerce solutions to businesses. Through its payments platform, the company connects businesses and consumers across 100 payment methods spanning over 40 currencies. The company, which announced it was going public through a SPAC merger in 2020, has approximately 3,300 employees spread across 12 locations worldwide, and serves merchants across more than 120 countries.
In its 2022 results, the company reported it had achieved a total revenue of $1.5bn and processed $130bn in volume, driven partly by its acquisitions of LatAm payment providers SafetyPay and PagoEfectivo. Bruce Lowthers stepped in as CEO in May 2022. In March 2023, the company withdrew its payment processing support for Binance, citing regulatory pressures surrounding cryptocurrencies.
Remitly
Founded: 2011
CEO: Matt Oppenheimer
Customer focus: Remittances, Consumers
Focus region: US, Global
Years on Top 100 Map: 5
Based in Seattle, US, Remitly enables international money transfers across more than 75 currencies via its remittance service and mobile app. Since its IPO in 2021, the company has built its global disbursement network with a focus on immigrants, and as of year-end 2022 serves more than 4,300 corridors across 170 countries; around four billion bank accounts and 1.1 billion mobile wallets; and more than 435,000 cash pickup locations.
Remitly has seen revenues rise faster than other much larger remittance players, with a 41% rise to $191m in 2022, but is still chasing profitability. The company recently announced it was closing Passbook, its digital banking product designed for immigrants, to focus more on remittance customers. It also completed its acquisition of Israel-based remittances platform Rewire in January 2023.
StoneX
Founded: 1924
CEO: Sean O’Connor
Customer focus: Corporates, Fintechs, Financial Services, Non-Profits
Focus region: US, Global
Years on Top 100 Map: 4
Headquartered in the US, StoneX is a financial services organisation providing foreign exchange and cross-border payment services to businesses and organisations. It serves more than 32,000 payments clients and more than 330,000 active retail accounts across 180 countries. One of StoneX’s key capabilities is in emerging markets, for which it serves many top-tier banks.
In its FY 2022 results, StoneX reported revenues had increased by 55% to $66bn. The company recently expanded its commodities trading business through its acquisition of Cotton Distributors, and also expanded into Asia with a new institutional credit offering in July 2022.
Visa
Founded: 1958
CEO: Ryan McInerney
Customer focus: Merchants, Financial Institutions, Businesses, Government Entities, Consumers
Focus region: US, Global
Years on Top 100 Map: 5
Based in California, US, Visa is one of the biggest global payments companies in the world, with a card network that spans more than 200 countries and territories across a network of more than 70 million merchant locations. It has around 26,500 employees. Visa’s cross-border payments arm, Visa Direct, facilitates real-time payments for a growing number of fintechs and cross-border payment companies.
Visa saw a 22% increase in full-year revenues to $29.3bn in its FY 2022 results (which the company reported in calendar Q3 2022), as well as $11.6tn in processed payments volume across 192.5 billion transactions. The company appointed new CEO Ryan McInerney in February 2023.
Western Union
Founded: 1851
CEO: Devin McGranahan
Customer focus: Remittances
Focus region: US, Global
Years on Top 100 Map: 5
In 2006, US-based Western Union shifted its focus from communications to cross-border payments. The company has since become one of the world’s largest remittance players, allowing people to transfer money to over 200 countries and territories online, via an app or from one of 525,000 Western Union agent locations. The company has more than 150 million retail and digital customers.
In 2022, Western Union closed the first and second part of its sale of its Business Solutions segment to Goldfinch Partners and The Baupost Group, with the third closing (spanning EU operations) expected to occur in Q2 2023. The company also launched its Evolve 2025 financial inclusion strategy; expanded to new markets, including bringing its digital wallet to Latin America; and announced the departure of long-time CFO Raj Agrawal.
Wise
Founded: 2011
CEO: Kristo Käärmann
Customer focus: Consumers, SMEs, Financial Services
Focus region: Europe, US, APAC
Years on Top 100 Map: 5
Formerly known as TransferWise, Wise is a money transfer operator allowing consumers to send money to 175 countries across 50 currencies. The company also provides international business accounts for more than 300,000 businesses and has reached 16 million customers worldwide. Since becoming a public company in 2021, Wise has raised a total of $1.7bn over 13 rounds.
In the company’s FY 22 results, the company reported that revenues rose 33% to £560m, with money transfers totalling £76bn across the year. By year end it had 67 licences across 44 countries. The company went through a visual rebrand in early 2023, as well as launching instant Chinese yuan sends for WeChat users. In 2022, it launched a new investment feature, Wise Assets, and International Receive, which allows neobanks to receive cross-border payments even if they are not on the SWIFT network.
Worldline
Founded: 1974
CEO: Gilles Grapinet
Customer focus: Merchants, Financial Services
Focus region: France, Global
Years on Top 100 Map: 4
Worldline is a French multinational payments company with more than 18,000 employees, operating in more than 40 countries. The business specialises in merchant and transactional services for processing in-store and online payments. Overall, Worldline serves more than one million merchants and over 1,200 financial institutions. The company reported that revenues rose 10.7% to €4.36bn in 2022, and it also sold its terminals, solutions and services segment just two years after acquiring French payments rival Ingenico. Also last year, the company accelerated expansion through other payment company acquisitions, including controlling stakes of Axepta Italy and ANZ and Eurobank’s merchant acquiring activities in Greece. It also launched a buy now, pay later service in partnership with travel payment provider Fly Now Pay later.
How do these companies’ payments capabilities differ?
Independently owned
Our top cross-border payments companies in this section are independently owned, meaning they are not (at the time of writing) listed on the stock market.
Al Fardan Exchange
Founded: 1971
CEO: Hasan Fardan Al Fardan
Customer focus: Remittances, SMES, Enterprises
Focus region: Middle East, Europe, APAC, LatAm
Years on Top 100 Map: 3
UAE-based Al Fardan Exchange is a leading foreign exchange and money transfer business, offering cross-border payments and forex solutions, with over 85 branches across the UAE and partnerships with 150 financial services organisations worldwide.
The company recently partnered with Thunes to enable instant payments across 87 countries spanning Europe, Africa, APAC and LatAm. Business and retail customers can make these payments directly to bank accounts, mobile wallets and cash pickup points.
Fexco
Founded: 1981
CEO: Neil Hosty
Customer focus: B2B Payments
Focus region: Europe, APAC, South America
Years on Top 100 Map: 5
Ireland-based Fexco processes more than €34bn in transactions across the financial exchange, treasury, digital tax and government-backed financing sectors. It provides solutions spanning currency conversion, international payments, retail FX and asset finance. The company now has over 2,500 employees across 29 countries. It facilitates payments across 130 currencies to 200 countries worldwide, and has more than 3,000 customers.
In 2022, Fexco provided support to a new venture capital fund launched by Dublin-based venture capital firm Delta with the aim of supporting startups in Ireland. In 2020, the company launched its new research and development hub, which it built with a €21m investment.
Mukuru
Founded: 2004
CEO: Andy Jury
Customer focus: Remittances
Focus region: Africa
Years on Top 100 Map: 4
Mukuru offers cash collections and bank and mobile wallet top-up services, allowing people to send money to Africa from the rest of the world. With more than 10 million customers, the company enables over 100 million money transactions globally. Mukuru has 320,000 pay-in and payout locations, and 42 branches across Africa.
Through 60 partnerships, the company enables more than 100 brands to provide cash out points. has an established network. It recently partnered with WorldRemit to become its remittances payout partner in territories where it has locations, and has been one of several African remittance players looking to expand services in West Africa. In 2023, Mukuru launched ‘drive-through’ money transfer services in Zimbabwe.
Sigue
Founded: 1996
CEO: Guillermo de la Viña
Customer focus: Remittances, SMES
Focus region: US, Central America, South America, Europe, Africa, Asia
Years on Top 100 Map: 5
Based in California, US, Sigue provides money transfer, remittance, foreign exchange and international payment services. The company has a large network of locations across the US and covers payouts in over 170 countries. Remittances can be made in person, online or via the company’s app.
Sigue enables money transfers to 60 countries with hundreds of thousands of payout locations. It has offices in 15 countries with a global operations arm headquartered in London, UK. In 2021, Sigue partnered with MoneyGram to access the money transfer player’s large payments network in the US.
SWIFT
Founded: 1973
CEO: Javier Pérez-Tasso
Customer focus: Financial Institutions
Focus region: Global
Years on Top 100 Map: 1
SWIFT is the world’s leading provider of financial messaging services, with a payments network spanning more than 11,000 financial institutions across more than 200 countries and territories. The company provides the messaging network that banks use to send payment instructions to other banks worldwide.
In recent years, SWIFT has participated in a number of initiatives to try and improve efficiency and reduce costs of cross-border payments. This includes migrating its payment messaging platform so that it complies with the ISO 20022 standard; working with the G20 to achieve its goals for enhancing cross-border payments; launching Swift Go, a product targeting low-value payments that is being used by more than 500 banks; supporting the development of central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) and partnering with crypto companies, such as crypto data provider Chainlink.
Travelex
Founded: 1976
CEO: Richard Wazacz
Customer focus: Remittances, Consumers, Travel Providers
Focus region: UK, Global
Years on Top 100 Map: 5
London-based Travelex is a forex company specialising in foreign exchange solutions and cross-border payments for remittances and travel purposes, as well as major banks, travel agencies and hotels. The company operates across 20 countries, and has a growing network of over 900 ATMs and more than 1,100 outlets in airports, major transport and retail hubs, and city centres.
In early 2023, Travelex partnered with American online travel agency Kayak to bolster travel options for customers in the UK and Australia, as well as launching a pre-order FX service through which holidaymakers can fix exchange rates while booking flights. Last year, it partnered with crypto payments infrastructure company Ripple to bring crypto-enabled payments solutions to Brazil.
Viamericas
Founded: 2000
CEO: Paul Dwyer
Customer focus: Consumers, Remittances, Merchants
Focus region: US, LatAm, APAC, Africa
Years on Top 100 Map: 3
US-based Viamericas provides money transfer, bill payment, processing and top-up services across a payment network spanning 100,000 payout locations in 80 countries. The company supports businesses and merchants aiming to implement international payment services, and enables money transfers to over 2,000 banks and more than 40 mobile wallets.
In years leading up to 2023, Viamericas has partnered with Mastercard and Union Plus to bolster its remittances presence worldwide, and also been involved in the crypto space, having used one of Ripple’s products designed to boost cross-border transaction speeds.
How are these companies competing on price?
Crypto
Crypto may have seen a downturn last year, but digital currencies remain a hot topic for cross-border payments, with some commentators claiming that distributed ledger technologies (DLT) are making payments faster, easier and more secure. Here are our three picks for the biggest crypto and DLT cross-border payments companies in 2023.
Circle
Founded: 2013
CEO: Jeremy Allaire
Customer focus: Businesses, Financial Services, Crypto Companies
Focus region: US, South America, Europe
Years on Top 100 Map: 2
Headquartered in Boston, US, Circle is a global finance firm that helps businesses, crypto exchanges and financial institutions store, manage, pay out and accept payments made with digital currencies. It issues the USD Coin (USDC), a US dollar-backed digital currency that is supported on several blockchains and has been the subject of many cross-border payments projects, including supporting MoneyGram with its crypto remittances project. Circle says that since 2017, customers in the US, UK and Europe have been able to send money instantly with no fees or markup on foreign exchange rate.
Circle has raised a total of $1.1bn in funding over 11 rounds. The company has been working with Mastercard and Visa to help build an interoperable payments network powered by USDC, for which it is continuing to seek other payment partners. Since June 2022, the company has been working to launch its new Euro-pegged stablecoin, Euro Coin (EUROC), across various crypto exchanges, including Bitso and Coinbase.
Ripple
Founded: 2012
CEO: Brad Garlinghouse
Customer focus: Businesses, Financial Services, Crypto-Native Companies
Focus region: US, Global
Years on Top 100 Map: 5
Founded in Canada and based in the US, Ripple gives businesses and financial institutions access to a blockchain-based digital payment network, as well as issuing the cryptocurrency XRP. Through its services, businesses can enable crypto services such as remittances and SME payments, as well as mint and manage new CBDCs. The company is expanding quickly, with more than 800 employees across 15 global offices. Its products are used by customers across more than 50 countries.
Since the start of 2022, Ripple has enabled crypto-powered money transfer and payment services for a number of companies, including Germany-based retail group Lunu, Thailand-based remittance provider DeeMoney and B2B payments provider Modulr. It is continually building ‘RippleNet’ – the company’s network of providers enabling cross-border payments globally. In April 2023, the Central Bank of Montenegro became the latest company to announce a plan to test a CBDC in collaboration with Ripple.
Stellar
Founded: 2014
CEO: Denelle Dixon
Customer focus: Money Transfer Companies, SMEs, Large Enterprises
Focus region: US, Global
Years on Top 100 Map: 2
Stellar is a decentralised network for sending cryptocurrencies to accounts around the world. It is being developed by the Stellar Development Foundation (SDF) with the aim of creating a stable financial network that exists outside global economies. The SDF is building technology to help payments companies create crypto-powered payment and money transfer services. Stellar powers crypto remittances for money transfer companies, including MoneyGram, which introduced the ability to convert crypto into cash (and vice versa) using the Stellar platform in June 2022. As of Q4 2022, the company had more than 7.4 million customer accounts, while total operations processed on the network surpassed one billion in Q4 2022. In 2023, the company is looking to scale its system further and improve its wallet building tools for developers, amongst other priorities.
How do cryptocurrency remittances compete on price?
Private equity-backed
We distinguish private equity-owned companies from those that have received venture or growth financing, in part because they are generally more established, long-running businesses. Here are FXC Intelligence’s top cross-border payment picks that are backed by private equity investors in 2023.
Banking Circle
Founded: 2013
CEO: Anders la Cour
Customer focus: SMEs, Large Enterprises, Merchants, Banks, Payment Businesses
Focus region: Europe
Years on Top 100 Map: 5
Headquartered in Luxembourg, Banking Circle provides financial institutions with direct access to clearing and payment schemes in multiple countries, allowing them to provide low-cost cross-border payment services. As of October 2022, it facilitates payments across up to 25 currencies for more than 250 financial institutions worldwide. The company also has offices in the UK, Germany and Denmark.
In October 2022, Banking Circle reported that it was settling more than 10% of B2C ecommerce flows in Europe (based on market sizing figures from Worldpay’s 2022 Global Payments Report). In July 2022, it added USDC to its payment services in response to higher demand for cryptocurrencies at the time. More recently in February 2023, Banking Circle launched a new Agency Banking service to give clients faster access to the European payments market.
Convera
Founded: 2009
CEO: Patrick Gauthier
Customer focus: B2B Payments, SMEs, Large Businesses, Fintechs, Financial Services
Focus region: US, Global
Years on Top 100 Map: 2
Convera provides FX risk management, international payments and education payment services to over 30,000 customers, spanning more than 140 currencies and over 200 countries and territories. It has over 60 global banking partners and claims to be the largest non-bank global B2B payments platform.
Formerly Western Union Business Solutions, itself formed from the acquisitions of Custom House in 2009 and Travelex Global Business Payments in 2011, US-based Convera was formed in 2022 from a $910m private equity buyout from parent Western Union. The company is focused on customers across B2B, B2C and C2B, but (as our piece on Forbes discusses) Convera’s CEO Patrick Gauthier is pursuing the fragmented B2B market as a strong growth opportunity.
Currencies Direct (TorFX)
Founded: 1996
CEO: Antony Jenkins
Customer focus: Consumer, SME
Focus region: Europe
Years on Top 100 Map: 5
With more than 20 branches worldwide, UK-based Currencies Direct has facilitated international money transfers for more than 425,000 people. It currently enables money transfers to 120 countries across more than 40 currencies. Money transfers amounted to more than £7.5bn in 2022.
In March 2022, the company received a £140m investment from alternative asset investment manager Blackstone. Currencies Direct is one of few players of scale left that serves the high-touch, higher end consumer money transfer segment. It owns a number of other money transfer/payments brands, including TorFX.
EQ Global
Founded: 2007
CEO: Paul Lynam
Customer focus: SMEs, Large Corporates, Public Organisations
Focus region: Global
Years on Top 100 Map: 5
UK-based EQ Global is a global financial services company serving shareholder, pension and credit technology to businesses across manufacturing, retirement and a range of other industries. It owns EQPay, an international payments platform that allows companies to make payments across 130 currencies to over 180 countries, and has processed at least £300bn to date. Overall, EQ has more than 6,000 employees worldwide and claims that its services benefit 36 million people worldwide.
In March 2023, EQ combined three of its businesses (EQ Credit Services, EQ Riskfactor and EQ KYC Solutions) to form Lenvi, a fintech specialising in B2B, consumer and commercial lending solutions. Last year, it replaced its CEO for the Americas region, shortly after EQ was acquired by affiliates of the Sirius Capital investment group in December 2021.
Lumon
Founded: 2000
CEO: TBC (Former CEO Shamus Hodgson departed April 2023)
Customer focus: Consumers, SMEs, Financial Institutions
Focus region: Europe
Years on Top 100 Map: 4
Known as Foreign Currency Direct until a 2021 rebrand, UK-based Lumon specialises in international money transfers, FX risk management and international payments services for businesses and financial institutions. In 2021, the company served 53,000 clients, made over 112,500 payments totalling over £3.3bn, and grew to more than 150 employees. The company has offices in the UK, Ireland, Spain and Portugal.
In Lumon’s 2022 results, the company reported 27% revenue growth to £26m, driven by its corporate division and customer growth from acquisitions over the last five years, which include NU Currencies, Infinity International, Earthport FX and Pure FX.
MoneyCorp
Founded: 1962
CEO: Mark Horgan
Customer focus: Consumers, SMEs, Large Enterprises
Focus region: Europe, Americas, APAC, Middle East
Years in Top 100 Map: 5
Moneycorp is an international payments company with headquarters in the UK. It provides corporate and personal money transfer services across 120 currencies and more than 190 countries, as well as FX risk management solutions. According to figures from 2021, the company traded £38bn in currencies that year, with over one million payments sent.
Over recent years, the company has shifted away from the high-end consumer and travel money segments to re-focus on B2B payments and its Fedwire business. MoneyCorp has also been continuing its expansion, opening a new office in Paris in September 2022, having previously acquired banking licences in Canada, Spain, Romania, the US, Brazil and Gibraltar.
MoneyGram
Founded: 1940
CEO: Alex Holmes
Customer focus: Remittances, Consumers
Focus region: US, Global
Years in Top 100 Map: 5
Tracing its roots back to 1940 as Travellers Express, MoneyGram has since become one of the biggest money transfer companies in the world with one of the largest cash payout networks globally. More than 150 million MoneyGram customers send money online or at one of more than 380,000 locations to more than 200 countries.
In February 2022, MoneyGram agreed to be taken private by private equity firm Madison Dearborn Partners in a $1.8bn deal, expected to close this year. In its most recent results, the company highlighted its progress towards becoming a digital-first company, with digital’s average share of total money transfers being 44% across the whole year. The company is also partnering with Stellar on crypto remittance services and is currently sponsoring Formula 1 team Haas F1.
Small World
Founded: 2005
CEO: Khalid Fellahi
Customer focus: Remittances, Businesses
Focus region: Europe, Americas, Africa
Years in Top 100 Map: 5
London-based Small World is a provider of international payment services for consumers and businesses. The company enables customers across more than 60 countries to send money to over 180 destinations worldwide, with cash payouts available across 360,000 pickup locations. Overall, the company facilitates more than 15 million transactions annually, and has more than 1,000 employees across offices in 19 countries. After the announcement that it was being acquired by private equity firm Equistone Partners Europe in 2018, Small World FS acquired French international payments firm MoneyGlobe in 2020. Original founder and CEO Nick Day was replaced by Khalid Fellahi as CEO in March 2022.
