Globalization has completely revolutionized the business standards with the growing number of individuals and businesses tapping into overseas suppliers. This perspective has resulted in fueling the surge in cross-border payments. The advent of international trade, e-commerce and internationalization of production reveals that cross-border payment demand would continue to grow exponentially. A Forrester study predicts that cross-border eCommerce will span across at least 29 countries over the regions of Europe, Asia Pacific, Africa, North America, Latin America, and the Middle East by the year 2022.
Sending money from one country to another, whether to family, friends or paying for goods and services, is costlier, time-consuming, highly inconvenient, cumbersome and less transparent than domestic payments. It may be due to the complexity of cross-border payments involving more risks and rules than domestic payments.
For addressing these issues, blockchain has emerged as a one-stop solution to improve the overall efficiency of cross-border payments. A cross-border payment solution developed with a blockchain platform like Stellar can ensure that financial services reach people with limited to nonexistent banking services. These include interconnections between domestic payment infrastructures, expansion of closed-loop proprietary systems across borders, and peer-to-peer payment systems based on blockchain.
jessica W. bergstrom 