B2B Cross Border Payments: A Simple Guide for UK Businesses

Sending and receiving money across borders is now routine for UK businesses of every size, but "simple" is rarely the word people use to describe it.

In this guide, we'll break down B2B cross-border payments into plain English so you can understand the rails, the risks and the costs, and choose the right setup for your company.

Along the way, you will see how a Wise Business account can help you avoid hidden FX markups, get paid like a local in 40+ currencies, and manage global cashflow more confidently.

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Key takeaways

Takeaway	Notes
💷 Primary Rails	Most transfers utilise the SWIFT network via correspondent banks, though card schemes and regional account-to-account systems (like SEPA) are common alternatives.
⚠️ Common Friction	Businesses often face "hidden" costs through FX spreads, slow settlement times that lock up working capital, and manual reconciliation errors.
🏦 Traditional Banking	Offers deep expertise and security for large-value trade finance, but is often hampered by legacy systems and a lack of fee transparency.
💻 Fintech Solutions	Providers like Wise Business use local payout networks to bypass the SWIFT chain, offering mid-market exchange rates and lower, upfront fees.
🔎 Cost Components	Total cost isn't just the transfer fee; it includes the FX markup, intermediary bank "lifting" fees, and recipient bank charges.
✅ Best Practices	UK firms should segment payment flows, standardise IBAN/BIC data collection, and use "OUR" charging codes to ensure suppliers receive the full invoice amount.
⚖️ Regulation	UK providers must follow the Payment Services Regulations 2017, with an increasing FCA focus on pricing transparency and "Consumer Duty" outcomes.
🚀 Future Trends	The industry is moving towards ISO 20022 messaging for richer data, instant-payment linkages, and the potential integration of stablecoins for settlement.

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What are B2B cross-border payments, and how do they work in the UK?

B2B cross-border payments are money transfers between businesses based in different countries: for example, a UK wholesaler paying a supplier in Germany in EUR, or a London agency invoicing a client in the US in USD. They underpin trade, SaaS subscriptions, professional services, marketplace payouts and more.

For a UK business, most cross-border payments still move along a few core rails:

SWIFT + correspondent banking: Your UK bank sends a payment instruction over SWIFT to one or more correspondent banks, which route the money to the beneficiary's bank. This is still how about 92% of B2B cross-border transactions are handled globally¹.

Card schemes: Card-based B2B payments (corporate cards, virtual cards, online checkout) ride Visa/Mastercard networks and settle via card acquirers.

Regional account-to-account schemes: For example, SEPA in Europe or Faster Payments linked to a partner's local accounts, sometimes used by fintechs to avoid traditional wire charges.

In the UK, payment service providers must be authorised or registered under the Payment Services Regulations 2017, which implement PSD2 requirements for conduct, safeguarding and transparency².

That applies both to banks and to regulated fintechs offering b2b payment solutions such as Wise Business.

The Wise account is not a bank account but offers some similar features and your money is safeguarded.

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💡 The Wise Business multicurrency account sits on top of these rails but is designed specifically for SMEs.

You can hold 40+ currencies, get local account details in major markets (such as the UK, EU, US, Australia and Singapore) and send or receive B2B payments at the mid-market exchange rate* with no hidden fees.

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*Disclaimer: The UK Wise Business pricing structure is changing with effect from 26/11/2025 date. Receiving money, direct debits and getting paid features are not available with the Essential Plan which you can open for free. Pay a one-time set up fee of £50 to unlock Advanced features including account details to receive payments in 22+ currencies or 8+ currencies for non-swift payments. You’ll also get access to our invoice generating tool, payment links, QuickPay QR codes and the ability to set up direct debits all within one account. Please check our website for the latest pricing information.

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What are the main challenges when doing cross-border business payments as a UK business?

Despite years of innovation, cross-border payments suffer from high costs, low speed, limited access and poor transparency. For UK businesses, the main pain points are³:

• High and unpredictable costs
  • Wire fees, intermediary bank charges, and especially FX spreads can eat into margins
  • Many SMEs discover only after the fact that the supplier received less than expected because intermediary banks took charges en route
• Slow settlement and locked-up working capital
  • Payments can take several days when routed through multiple correspondent banks, particularly in exotic currencies or over holiday periods
  • While funds are "in flight", they are unusable, making cashflow harder to plan
• Opaque FX pricing and fee disclosure
  • There are significant differences in how providers disclose international payment costs and how they use reference exchange rates
• Operational complexity and reconciliation
  • Incomplete or inconsistent payment references cause manual reconciliation and mismatched invoices
  • Different formats (IBAN vs local routing codes, differing address fields) increase error rates
• Regulation, AML and sanctions risk
  • Cross-border payments are heavily scrutinised for money laundering and sanctions breaches, which can lead to delays or rejections if information is missing or a counterparty is flagged

Because of these issues, many UK SMEs either overpay for "safe" bank transfers or rely on ad hoc solutions (card payments, PayPal, etc.) that are convenient but not optimised forglobal payment methods or larger values.

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💡 Wise Business is designed to reduce several of these frictions for smaller firms.

Instead of routing every payment through a long SWIFT chain, Wise uses local account networks where possible and shows you the fee and exchange rate upfront, so you know exactly what your supplier or client will receive.

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Traditional vs. Fintech B2B cross-border payment solutions

Historically, traditional banks have dominated global B2B payments, handling an estimated 92% of B2B cross-border transactions in 2023¹.

The model is familiar: you request an international payment in your online banking or branch, the bank sends a SWIFT message, and the money travels via correspondent banks until it reaches your counterparty.

Advantages ✅	Limitations ❌
Deep experience with large-value corporate payments and trade finance.	Multiple intermediaries, which can mean extra lifting fees and less predictable arrival amounts.
Direct access to central-bank settlement systems and established compliance frameworks.	FX pricing is often embedded as a spread against an undisclosed reference rate rather than a transparent fee.
Existing relationships and credit lines for bigger clients.	Legacy systems leading to slower processing, especially outside core currencies.

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💡 With Wise Business, you can:

• Send payments to 140+ countries, holding and converting between 40+ currencies
• Receive money with local account details in key markets (only with Wise Business Advanced)
• Integrate with accounting tools and use batch payments to pay up to 1,000 suppliers at once, useful for platforms, agencies or wholesalers paying many smaller vendors

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*Disclaimer: The UK Wise Business pricing structure is changing with effect from 26/11/2025 date. Receiving money, direct debits and getting paid features are not available with the Essential Plan which you can open for free. Pay a one-time set up fee of £50 to unlock Advanced features including account details to receive payments in 22+ currencies or 8+ currencies for non-swift payments. You’ll also get access to our invoice generating tool, payment links, QuickPay QR codes and the ability to set up direct debits all within one account. Please check our website for the latest pricing information.

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Managing the financial impact: Fees, exchange rates, and markups

The true cost of a cross-border payment has several layers:

1. Transfer fees – upfront charges for sending or receiving the payment
2. FX spread or markup – the difference between the rate you get and the mid-market rate
3. Intermediary (correspondent) bank fees – deducted en route, so the beneficiary receives less
4. Recipient bank fees – incoming-wire charges or handling fees

The FCA's 2025 review of international payment pricing transparency found that many firms either buried FX markups in the rate or made it hard for customers to understand how reference rates (such as mid-market or ECB rates) were used⁵.

In other words, the headline fee is only part of the picture.

To manage the impact on your P&L:

• Always compare the total cost, not just the stated fee
  • Look at the effective FX rate vs a trusted mid-market benchmark (for example, Reuters, Wise, or currency converters)
• Standardise charging options (OUR/BEN/SHA)
  • For important supplier payments, you may choose OUR (you pay all fees, so the supplier receives the full invoiced amount), but understand what that will cost
• Use the right currency for pricing and paying
  • Sometimes it is cheaper to price or pay in the supplier's local currency and manage FX centrally instead of letting them convert at their end with retail spreads
• Consolidate currency conversion
  • Converting once at a favourable rate in a multi-currency account can be cheaper than multiple ad hoc conversions spread across suppliers and banks.

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💡 Wise Business is explicitly built around this "total cost" logic:

• You get the mid-market exchange rate and all fees are clearly written
• Wise uses local payout rails where possible, helping to avoid unexpected intermediary lifting fees
• Wise lets you hold 40+ currencies, so you can convert when rates look favourable and pay from the relevant currency later

For a UK business trading regularly with Europe and the US, that can mean pricing contracts in EUR or USD, getting paid locally into Wise Business, and then converting to GBP or other currencies only when needed, with far clearer visibility over spreads and fees.

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*Disclaimer: The UK Wise Business pricing structure is changing with effect from 26/11/2025 date. Receiving money, direct debits and getting paid features are not available with the Essential Plan which you can open for free. Pay a one-time set up fee of £50 to unlock Advanced features including account details to receive payments in 22+ currencies or 8+ currencies for non-swift payments. You’ll also get access to our invoice generating tool, payment links, QuickPay QR codes and the ability to set up direct debits all within one account. Please check our website for the latest pricing information.

Register for Wise Business ✍️

Best practices for efficient international payment management and compliance

To make cross-border business payments work smoothly and safely, UK companies should treat them as a structured process, not just one-off transactions. Good practice includes:

1. Segment your payment flows
   • Utilising professionalbusiness payment services includes segmenting your payment flows, with separate supplier payments, payroll/contractor payments, platform payouts and customer refunds (each may justify a different rail or provider)
2. Standardise data and formats
   • Collect IBANs, SWIFT/BIC, routing numbers and full beneficiary details in a consistent format
   • Use structured payment references (invoice numbers, PO numbers) to reduce reconciliation time
3. Automate where possible
   • Integrate payment tools with accounting/ERP to reduce manual entry and errors
   • Use batch payments for regular supplier runs or contractor payouts
4. Embed compliance into workflow
   • Screen counterparties against sanctions lists and watchlists
   • Ensure source-of-funds and purpose-of-payment information is clear enough to avoid compliance holds
5. Set clear policies on currency and fee allocation
   • Decide centrally which side usually pays fees and which currency is used for quoting and settlement, so your teams are consistent
6. Monitor performance and exceptions
   • Track average payment times, failure rates and cost per transaction
   • Use this data to decide when to route payments through a faster or cheaper rail

Wise Business supports many of these practices out of the box.

You can give multi-user access with permissions so finance staff can prepare payments while directors approve, sync transactions with cloud accounting platforms, and use batch payments to send up to 1,000 transfers at once, with full visibility of fees and FX before you approve.

*Disclaimer: The UK Wise Business pricing structure is changing with effect from 26/11/2025 date. Receiving money, direct debits and getting paid features are not available with the Essential Plan which you can open for free. Pay a one-time set up fee of £50 to unlock Advanced features including account details to receive payments in 22+ currencies or 8+ currencies for non-swift payments. You’ll also get access to our invoice generating tool, payment links, QuickPay QR codes and the ability to set up direct debits all within one account. Please check our website for the latest pricing information.

Register for Wise Business ✍️

Future trends in global B2B payments and regulation

The global B2B payments landscape is changing fast, driven by technology, competition and regulatory pressure. Here are some key trends UK business owners should be aware of:

• Faster, richer payment rails⁴
  • SWIFT gpi, ISO 20022 messaging and regional instant-payment linkages are lifting expectations on speed and tracking. Modern businesses are increasingly looking toward a payment processing API to automate these movements directly from their existing software.
  • Initiatives like the G20 Roadmap on cross-border payments aim to make payments cheaper, faster and more transparent worldwide.
• Account-to-account and wallet interoperability
  • Projects such as PayPal's new "PayPal World" cross-border wallet hub show how local wallets and payment systems are being stitched together for smoother international commerce⁶
• Digital currencies and tokenised money⁴
  • Major players are experimenting with stablecoins and tokenised deposits to reduce friction in cross-border settlement
  • Central banks are exploring cross-border use cases for CBDCs, although mainstream B2B usage is still emerging
• Regional payment platforms
  • Regional blocs, such as COMESA in Africa, have launched systems that let businesses settle cross-border trade in local currencies, reducing reliance on the US dollar and cutting transaction costs for SMEs⁷
• Regulatory focus on transparency and customer outcomes
  • In the UK, the FCA's Consumer Duty and related reviews on international payment pricing transparency are pushing providers to disclose FX and fee information more clearly⁶
  • In the EU, CBPR2 builds on earlier rules to improve transparency for euro cross-border payments within the EEA⁸
    Given these shifts, it is likely that UK businesses will have more choice in B2B cross-border payment solutions, but also more scrutiny on how they manage FX and fees on behalf of their customers.

Never compromise on cross-border payment fee transparency with Wise Business

Whatever technology or rail you use, international B2B payments will always involve some cost, but paying more than necessary, or being unsure where the money goes, is increasingly hard to justify.

Wise Business is built around the opposite approach: explicit, line-item fee transparency.

Before you send a payment, you always see the mid-market exchange rate and Wise's fee shown separately, so you can compare directly against other quotes or public benchmarks.

Behind the scenes, Wise uses local payout rails and in-country accounts wherever possible, which can reduce unexpected correspondent "lifting" fees and give clearer arrival estimates for suppliers and partners.

And you can hold, send and receive money in 40+ currencies with local account details in major markets, so many of your B2B flows start to behave more like domestic payments, with fewer intermediaries and fewer surprises in the final amount received.

Be Smart, Get Wise.

Register for Wise Business ✍️

*Disclaimer: The UK Wise Business pricing structure is changing with effect from 26/11/2025 date. Receiving money, direct debits and getting paid features are not available with the Essential Plan which you can open for free. Pay a one-time set up fee of £50 to unlock Advanced features including account details to receive payments in 22+ currencies or 8+ currencies for non-swift payments. You’ll also get access to our invoice generating tool, payment links, QuickPay QR codes and the ability to set up direct debits all within one account. Please check our website for the latest pricing information.

FAQs

What are B2B cross-border payments used for in a typical UK SME?

Most UK SMEs use B2B cross-border payments to pay overseas suppliers, contractors, logistics providers and SaaS platforms, or to collect revenue from foreign customers, marketplaces and resellers.

Common use cases include paying manufacturers in Europe or Asia, settling invoices for cloud software in USD, and receiving EUR or USD from export customers.

A multi-currency account, such as Wise Business , can simplify this by allowing you to receive in local currencies and convert centrally at transparent rates.

How long do B2B cross-border payments take from the UK?

Timings depend on the route, currency pair and providers involved. Traditional bank SWIFT transfers can take anywhere from same day to several business days, especially if multiple correspondent banks are used or if there are compliance checks.

Fintech providers that use local rails can often deliver payments within a day or even in minutes for some routes, particularly in major currencies.

Wise Business, for example, gives an estimated arrival time before you confirm each transfer, so you can plan supplier payments and payroll runs with more certainty.

Transaction speed claims depends on individual circumstances and may not be available for all transactions.

What information do I need to send a B2B cross-border payment from the UK?

You will typically need the beneficiary's full legal name, bank name, IBAN or account number, SWIFT/BIC (or local routing codes), and sometimes their address and tax reference, depending on the route and value.

You should also include a clear payment reference (such as invoice number and customer code) to simplify reconciliation. Some providers may request information about the payment's purpose for compliance reasons.

Using a platform like Wise Business, you can store beneficiary details, reuse them for future payments, and keep references consistent across batches to reduce errors and manual work.

Sources:

1. Supercharging global B2B payments for banks and the modern economy – Mastercard
2. Payment Services and Electronic Money – Our approach – Financial Conduct Authority
3. Top 8 Challenges in Cross-Border Payments and How to Overcome Them – Rapyd
4. Cross-border payments: Landscape, challenges and innovations – ACI
5. Consumer Duty: International payment pricing transparency – good and poor practice – Financial Conduct Authority
6. PayPal's new cross-border payments platform looks to make sending money easier for 2 billion users – TechRadar
7. African trade bloc COMESA launches digital payments system – Reuters
8. Cross Border Payments Regulation 2 – fscom

Sources last checked on 28th January 2026