Recently, BILL introduced a new way to make international B2B payments—BILL Local Transfer.
While it won’t replace international wires in every situation, BILL Local Transfer is changing the game for our customers that pay vendors and suppliers internationally. Here’s what you need to know.
Local Transfer is a way to pay vendors internationally in their foreign currency, through the local payment network of the recipient’s country. By contrast, wire payments are typically delivered via wire networks such as the SWIFT network or intermediary banks.
This makes Local Transfer much faster than paying by international wire, and it also makes life easier on vendors, which can receive these payments just as easily as payments from their home country.
In fact, Local Transfer payments are typically delivered the same day or the next day, which is up to 4 days faster than BILL’s wires in local currency and up to 3 days faster than BILL’s USD wires.
Better yet, Local Transfer payments can also be much less expensive than wires. There’s no transaction fee to send them, no intermediary banks to charge fees along the way, and no receiving fees for the vendor either.
Ultimately, while exchange rates will always factor into the cost of international business, vendors get the assurance of receiving the guaranteed amount in the invoice, which can cut down on vendor upcharges, improve transparency, and strengthen relationships.
Although working with international vendors can bring many benefits, the process of paying them can be a challenge. For one thing, traditional wires often involve bank fees for both the sender and the recipient, and intermediary banks tend to add fees at multiple stages in the process.
Traditional wires can also take many days to clear due to the complexity of international banking networks, and transparency is often difficult. As a result, businesses have a hard time anticipating the full costs and final timing of international payments.
This might not seem terrible when the number of payments is limited, but as businesses grow, the scope of their operations expands, often extending their international supply chain to include contractors, manufacturers, suppliers, developers, and more.
Making multiple international payments can compound these problems—frustrating the ability to manage cash flow for both payors and vendors alike and potentially eroding those critical relationships.
Recognizing these challenges, various countries and regions around the world have been working diligently to put better systems in place for international payments—systems with payment rails that operate much closer to real-time.
In the US, the FedNow Service infrastructure from the Federal Reserve supports instant payments in real-time, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. In India, Unified Payments Interface (UPI) also facilitates immediate money transfers via mobile device around the clock, every day. And in Europe, the Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) project makes it easier to pay in euros across 36 countries and territories.
As the world continues to develop new digital infrastructures, BILL is committed to staying on top of emerging payment technologies to keep making cross-border transactions faster, more transparent, and more cost-effective.
Local Transfer is built right into the BILL platform, streamlining cross-border transactions and simplifying payment data requirements.
For customers, the experience is seamless, offering Local Transfer payments through the same convenient process as domestic payments or international wires. In fact, some real-time payment networks have transaction limits—when a transaction surpasses those limits, international wires are still available in the same portal.
And, of course, the BILL platform also helps customers to ensure compliance with regulatory standards, while tracking and managing all their payments, including international ones.
When you schedule foreign currency payment in BILL, the platform will automatically check whether Local Transfer is an option. If it is, you’ll be able to choose whether to send the payment as a Local Transfer or a wire transfer. It’s really that simple.
This clear choice makes it easy to see when payments can be delivered faster while also providing the more traditional option of wire transfers when they’re needed.
At BILL, our mission is to make it simple to connect and do business. In an increasingly global marketplace, that includes fostering smoother business operations and supply chain management internationally.
Beyond the obvious benefits of speed, cost, and reliability, real-time settlements also help:
In fact, because they use local networks, Local Transfer payments arrive for vendors in the same way as payments that originate within their home country—making the payment process feel seamless and familiar to your international partners. For more information on Local Transfer, please visit our FAQ page to learn more.
Over the next 5–10 years, global payments are likely to see broader adoption of real-time payments as more countries implement or expand these networks, offering accelerated transactions in new markets.
As technology makes it easier than ever to do business internationally, BILL remains committed to innovation in enhanced cross-border payment solutions.
If your business is expanding into new markets or doing business abroad, we’ll be right there with you, making it simple to connect and do business.