Five ways a unified pay-in and payout service can benefit your business

We look at some of the top advantages of having a combined solution. And why having multiple providers is not the most beneficial option to businesses.

Most payment systems are domestic and operate in a single currency. Yet people and businesses want to make and receive payments across national borders.

To achieve global coverage, banks have built an international network of relationships to connect their domestic systems.

Great in theory, but – you’ve guessed it – complex in practice. Frequently, all this complexity translates into payments that are expensive, slow and lacking transparency.

So, how can pay-in and pay-out services from a single provider be an antidote to payment complexity?

1. Focus on your core business

A unified payments platform helps businesses get on with what they’re good at.

Your business skips the time-consuming, resource-intensive, costly, behind-the-scenes stuff. That’s things like building your own network and the rails between participants.

Plus, back-end tasks like systems upgrades and maintenance; researching regulatory requirements country to country; optimizing uptime and more.

Instead, you’re free to focus on expanding into new countries or regions. And developing new products, services and customer experiences. In other words, front-end activities that add value and differentiate you in the market.

2. Scale fast

Let’s say you’re developing a remittance product for customers to send money back home. You’ve developed a mobile app with a slick UX. You want to add new payment pathways and grow existing ones quickly.

A unified payments platform packaged in a single API will help you scale fast and with minimum fuss. For example, Inpay’s network is available through a single API, file upload or SWIFT.

That’s 200+ countries. It’s access to the 36 SEPA countries via the standard and instant SEPA solutions. Plus, there’s the UK with instant GBP and further afield with local payment offerings via a single connection to power your global growth.

3. Avoid multi-supplier headaches

When the pay-in/pay-out solution comes from one place, customers can manage payments end-to-end on a single contract.

At Inpay, we centralize all the systems, relationships and expertise involved. This saves time, resource, budget and more, as there’s no need to conduct RFPs, do due diligence, manage performance for each supplier relationship.

4. Simplify multi-currency logistics

The trouble with international payments is that it’s not always possible to know how much they’ll cost.

It depends how many banks are involved in a SWIFT transfer chain, and which ones. Generally, the more banks involved, the slower and more expensive the transfer. Deductions also depend on who pays the transfer fee: the sender, the recipient or both parties.

With a unified payments provider, it’s different. If they also determine the routing, they can offer consistent fees, known up front with no deductions. Plus, support scores of local currencies and simplify the logistics of multi-currency for you and your customers, which helps you capitalize on overseas opportunities with minimal effort.

5. Maximize back-office efficiencies

With so many payment pathways, currency pairings and transfer timeframes, international payments can quickly become complex. Reconciliation even more so.

Almost every business wants to harness operational efficiencies. That’s particularly around repetitive admin tasks such as payment reconciliation, which is not their core business.

A unified payments platform helps simplify reconciliation on the back end. That’s usually by consolidating payments into a single format or statement, plus allowing self-service tracking via an online app or portal.