Examples of payment systems that have become globally available are credit card and automated teller machine (ATM) networks.
Domestically this is accomplished by using Automated clearing house (ACH) and real-time gross settlement (RTGS) systems.
An efficient national payment system reduces the cost of exchanging goods, services, and assets.
A weak payment system may severely drag on the stability and developmental capacity of a national economy.
An automated clearing house (ACH) system processes transactions in batches, storing, and transmitting them in groups.
Consumers are also transacting more on a global basis—buying from foreign eCommerce sites as well as traveling, living, and working abroad.
Payments systems set up decades ago continue to be used sometimes retrofitted, sometimes force-fitted—to meet the needs of modern corporations.
For users of these systems, on both the paying and receiving sides, it can be difficult and time-consuming to learn how to use cross-border payments tools, and how to set up processes to make optimal use of them.
Solution providers (both banks and non-banks) also face challenges cobbling together old systems to meet new demands.
For these providers, cross-border payments are both lucrative (especially given foreign exchange conversion revenue) and rewarding, in terms of the overall financial relationship created with the end customer.