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.
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.
A number of economic, political, and technical factors are changing the types of cross-border transactions conducted.