The business landscape has transcended borders, becoming truly global. For the past fifty years, lowering barriers to international trade has become the axiom of governments and businesses almost everywhere. The digital revolution, fierce competition between companies and socio-cultural convergences between nations have helped businesses quickly scale from local to global.

Despite best intentions, many businesses are still restricted by unseen borders. Navigating local logistics or understanding the nuances in taxes and customs, for instance, can present a huge barrier for organisations, particularly those not operating with local teams. Even if these are understood, collecting payments can be hard; cross-border payments remain hampered by high costs, slow speed and a lack of transparency. Even the Committee on Payments and Market Infrastructures (CPMI) conceded that ‘cross-border payments do involve more risks, complexities and rules than domestic payments… but the difference can often feel disproportionate.’

Thankfully, these complexities are being addressed. Advancements in technology are helping businesses, banks, digital platforms and financial institutions conduct international trade more efficiently, with the emergence of Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) spearheading change across the sector.

What is an API?

In a nutshell, APIs allow two applications to seamlessly communicate and share data with one another. These are used by developers to bridge the gaps between chunks of code to create applications and use cases that are powerful, resilient, secure, and able to meet user needs.

To offer a visual analogy, APIs can be considered similar to Lego — you take blocks and combine them to create a larger, whole object. Developers can insert them directly into code to help build specific actions and offer broader functionalities for the customer.

APIs are already everywhere in our digital day-to-day. Checking the weather, hailing a ride or ordering a food-delivery all rely on a complex web of APIs — all of which are invisible to the naked eye.

How APIs are disrupting the global payment industry

APIs are driving significant disruption when it comes to global trade. Sending and receiving money abroad is still largely dependent on the SWIFT network, which can be slow, expensive and lack transparency. With APIs, however, institutions can benefit from faster processes and usually lower fees, as well as having access to information in real-time.

Our PagoNxt Emoney platform aims to help businesses operate globally as easily as locally. We have built a platform that can be accessed through a single API connection, enabling our customers to manage money with more flexibility, benefit from optimised FX pricing, and send and receive money globally.

It’s time to enable businesses to grow from local to global. International borders and all the infrastructure complexities and nuances that come with them must not cause friction. APIs hold enormous potential to disrupt the status quo, offering businesses a simple but truly effective way to maximise revenues and profit.

If you want to find out more about our PagoNxt Emoney solutions, get in touch with us today.

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