What are customers demanding most from cross-border payments?

The cross-border payments market is constantly evolving, making it increasingly difficult for industry players to keep up with emerging trends and shifting customer expectations. And yet, understanding those expectations has never been more important.

In 2023, the global payments industry processed 3.4 trillion transactions. The following year, the entire wholesale and retail cross-border payments market had a total addressable market of $194.6 trillion. And it's projected to grow to $320.2 trillion by 2032. If providers want to capture these growth opportunities, they need to understand what customers expect from their services.

So, what exactly do customers expect from cross-border payments today?

To help answer that question, we looked at the priorities payment professionals themselves are focusing on. In our latest white paper in collaboration with The Payments Association, The interoperability imperative: Building the next generation of cross-border payments, we surveyed 75 payments professionals and interviewed senior industry leaders. The findings reveal four key areas where payment providers are investing and improving in response to changing customer expectations.

Key takeaways

• Payments professionals named four priorities in response to changing customer expectations: customer experience (51%), real-time payment capabilities (41%), payment transparency and improved reliability (39%), and faster settlement (36%).
• Customers expect cross-border payments to feel as simple, fast and familiar as the domestic payments and digital wallets they use every day, without having to think about the infrastructure behind them.
• Transparency means clear information on fees, exchange rates, delivery times, and payment status. Reliability means confidence that funds will arrive as expected.
• Customers increasingly judge payments on "time to money": how quickly the recipient can actually access and use the funds.
• Intelligent interoperability coordinates multiple payment infrastructures through a common operating layer, which lets providers meet these expectations while keeping the complexity behind the scenes.

Greater customer experience

When asked where their organizations are focusing their efforts, 51% of respondents identified customer experience as a priority, making it the most frequently cited area for improvement.

Customers increasingly expect cross-border payments to feel as simple and intuitive as the payment tools they use every day. As modern payments ecosystems continue to reshape consumer behavior, users want international transactions to fit seamlessly into the payment methods they already know and trust.

This shift is particularly visible in markets where digital wallets and local payment systems have become part of daily life. Nicolas del Aguila Bonifaz, Business Development and Strategic Partnerships Manager at Yape explains it perfectly: in Peru, users expect cross-border payments to feel no different from the domestic payments they already make through digital wallets.

For payment providers, this means they are expected to deliver a cross-border experience that feels as familiar and intuitive as a domestic payment. Customers neither need nor want to think about the infrastructure, networks, or processes behind a transaction: they care less about how a payment works than about the experience it delivers.

Real-time payment capabilities

Real-time payment capabilities emerged as the second most frequently cited area for improvement in our survey, with 41% of respondents identifying it as a priority.

The result reflects another significant shift in customer expectations. As instant payment systems become increasingly common around the world, especially domestic real-time payment systems, customers are growing accustomed to moving money in seconds rather than days. What was once considered a premium service is quickly becoming the norm.

For payment providers, the challenge lies in delivering the speed customers expect while coordinating multiple payment networks, currencies, and regulatory requirements behind the scenes. Yet, from the customer's perspective, the expectation is simple: if domestic payments can happen in real time, cross-border payments should be able to do the same.

Payment transparency and improved reliability

The third most frequently cited area for improvement in our survey was payment transparency and improved reliability (39%).

Customers want more than speed alone. They also want to know when funds will arrive, how much the transaction will cost, and where the payment is at any given moment. Transparency is becoming increasingly important as customers expect greater visibility throughout the whole payment journey. In practical terms, this means that customers want clear information about fees, exchange rates, delivery times, and payment status.

Customers also expect improved reliability. This means that they want to be confident that their money will reach its destination as expected. Reliable processing reduces that uncertainty, improves the overall customer experience, strengthens trust, and increases customer retention. That matters, given that it only takes one bad experience for more than half of consumers to switch to a competitor.

Faster settlement

When asked where their organizations are focusing improvement efforts, 36% of respondents identified faster settlement as a priority.

For customers, a fast payment is only valuable if the funds become available quickly. Individuals and businesses are more and more focused not only on how fast a payment is sent, but on how quickly the recipient can actually access and use the money. In our white paper, Hanif Dharamsi, Global Head & Director of Market Development at Xoom, a PayPal service, describes this concept as "time to money": the time it takes for funds to actually reach the recipient.

So customers are now evaluating payment services based on the overall outcome: how quickly the money arrives, how predictable the process is, and whether the payment reaches its destination without issues. Reducing settlement times is therefore becoming an important part of delivering better payment outcomes, an important challenge as we know that providers must now orchestrate payments across multiple methods, currencies, regulatory environments, and technical standards.

So, what's the plan?

Meeting these expectations is becoming increasingly complex. Customers want cross-border payments to offer the same levels of familiarity, convenience, speed, transparency, reliability, and effectiveness as domestic alternatives. They want payments that feel local, move in real time, provide greater visibility, and deliver funds quickly, and they want the process behind it to remain invisible. At the same time, payment providers must manage multiple networks, payment methods, currencies, and regulatory requirements.

This is where the concept of intelligent interoperability comes in. Rather than relying on a single payment rail, providers can coordinate multiple payment infrastructures through a common operating layer, allowing them to select the most appropriate route, payment method, and capabilities for each transaction. The objective is simple: deliver better payment outcomes while keeping the complexity behind the scenes.

If you want to read more about intelligent interoperability, read the full white paper.