Cross-Border Payments for Digital Native Economies

3 Cross-Border Payments for Digital Native Economies: Unlocking Speed and Efficiency Emerging API solutions Application programming interfaces (APIs) have become increasingly important to the financial services industry in recent years. APIs can help digital native companies unlock efficiency in their cross-border payments in multiple ways. For example, Citi’s API Payment Rules enable digital native companies to request payment formatting information for making cross-border payments. This up-to- date, regulatory aligned payment formatting information is delivered in real time to clients through APIs. • e-commerce: Integrating API Payment Rules will help ensure the right information is being collected from suppliers, landlords or even app developers, ahead of payments being made. • Payment service providers: API Payment Rules can be integrated into payment service providers’ front-end payment applications, prompting their underlying clients to provide the correct payment details when making cross-border payments. This removes the need for payment service providers to maintain static data, which can become quickly outdated as regulations change, and is costly to maintain. When combining API solutions such as Payment Rules with API-enabled FX and access to cross-border payment solutions, digital native companies can unlock unprecedented improvements to the consumer experience. “Cross-border payments have long been considered a pain point. They usually imply manual tasks, high and often hidden costs, foreign exchange risk, delayed payments or missing funds. With the emergence of APIs, FX and international payments are gradually becoming embedded in the user experience,” says Kantox CEO, Philippe Gelis.