By TC Guruprasad, Managing Director & CEO, EbixCash World Money Limited
A cross-border payment can now be initiated in seconds. Trust still takes longer to build. The sender wants to know the exchange rate, the fee, when the money will arrive, and what happens if it does not. The provider, meanwhile, has to establish who is sending the funds, why they are moving and whether the transaction meets the rules of every relevant jurisdiction.
That tension will define the next phase of cross-border payments. Speed and convenience are becoming expected features. The harder competitive advantage is confidence that the transaction is transparent, compliant and recoverable when something goes wrong.
The scale makes that responsibility difficult to ignore. An IMF working paper published in 2025 estimated that traditional and crypto cross-border payments together approached USD 1 quadrillion globally in 2024. India’s Economic Survey 2025–26 recorded USD 135.4 billion in remittance inflows in FY25, keeping India the world’s largest recipient.
A payment carries more than money
Domestic payments usually move within one regulatory and currency environment. A cross-border transaction can involve different banks, currencies, payment networks, foreign-exchange rules and reporting requirements before the beneficiary receives the funds.
That makes information as important as movement. Sender and beneficiary details, the purpose of payment, source of funds where required and transaction records have to remain accurate across the chain. A fast transfer with incomplete information can simply move a compliance problem faster.
The Reserve Bank of India’s framework brings entities facilitating cross-border import and export payments under direct regulation as Payment Aggregators–Cross Border. Licensing and authorisation establish who can handle regulated activities and the standards under which they are conducted.
Compliance is part of the product
KYC and anti-money-laundering controls are sometimes described as friction in the payment journey. Their purpose is to let legitimate customers use the system without sharing it with fraudsters, sanctioned entities or criminal proceeds.
This requires more than collecting an identity document at onboarding. Customer verification, beneficial-ownership checks where applicable, transaction monitoring, sanctions screening and escalation of unusual activity have to work throughout the relationship. The RBI’s KYC framework and obligations under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act sit alongside foreign-exchange and payments regulation.
Global rules are moving in the same direction. In June 2025, the Financial Action Task Force revised Recommendation 16 on payment transparency, clarifying information requirements and responsibilities across cross-border payment chains. The objective is to improve both safety and efficiency through better data.
Transparency starts before the customer presses send
Customers judge a cross-border payment partly by what they can see. The quoted exchange rate should be understandable. Charges should not appear unexpectedly after initiation. The expected amount at the other end and the likely delivery time should be clear wherever possible.
Technology can also make compliance more efficient. Digital KYC can shorten onboarding, rules engines can identify transactions needing additional review, and automated monitoring can focus investigators on unusual patterns. Strong authentication can reduce account takeover risks, while end-to-end tracking can show customers where a payment is.
Trust also depends on what happens to data
Cross-border providers handle identity, banking and transaction information that is valuable to criminals and sensitive to customers. Data privacy, access controls, secure storage and clear retention practices must therefore be built into the operating model. The same applies when technology vendors or overseas partners are involved; outsourcing a process does not outsource accountability.
Customer support completes the picture. A failed transfer, compliance hold or incorrect beneficiary detail is the moment when a provider’s promises are tested. Customers need an explanation, a route to resolution and someone accountable for the case.
Outward remittance carries a weight of its own
Outward remittance is where the trust question becomes personal. A parent funding a child’s education abroad, a traveller paying for a course or a professional supporting family overseas is trusting a provider with money that usually cannot be sent twice. These flows fall within the Reserve Bank of India’s Liberalised Remittance Scheme, which caps how much a resident individual can remit in a financial year and requires the purpose of the transfer to be declared and verifiable.
The regulatory framework requires providers to maintain accurate documentation, verify the purpose of transfers and ensure compliance with applicable foreign-exchange rules. These checks are central to protecting customers and maintaining the integrity of cross-border payment systems.
As international travel, education, commerce and remittances expand, payment products will become easier to compare and harder to differentiate on speed alone. Trust will be earned elsewhere: in the accuracy of the quote, the strength of verification, the visibility of the transaction and the quality of help when the journey breaks.
In cross-border payments, compliance is not the price paid for trust. Done well, it is how trust is built.