# Small businesses go global, payments lag behind

> Visa Direct and MassPay are betting the next platform edge is taking cross-border payouts off the SMB owner's desk.
- Title: Small businesses go global, payments lag behind · Pymnts
- Summary: Visa Direct and MassPay are betting the next platform edge is taking cross-border payouts off the SMB owner's desk. Cross-border payouts are now a platform…
- Keywords: cross-border payments, smb, visa direct, fintech, payouts, business, finance, Small, businesses, global, payments, lag
- Source: Pymnts — https://pymnts.com/news/cross-border-payments/2026/visa-direct-targets-cross-border-trades-smb-payment-gap
- Author: PYMNTS
- Published: 2026-09-11T08:03:53+00:00
- Read time: 2 min
- Topics: cross-border payments, smb, visa direct, fintech, payouts, business, finance
## Found in minutes, paid in days
A small business can source a supplier or contractor across the world almost instantly. Then it can spend days trying to work out where the payment actually went.
## No treasury team to call
A multinational hands a stuck wire to its treasury desk. An SMB owner handles it personally, while also trying to run the business.
## Still running on old rails
Justin Zhao of Visa Direct says most cross-border money still moves over Swift and legacy providers, with correspondent banks in the middle.

> The vast majority of transactions today are still delivered on legacy rails like Swift and also through legacy providers.
## Speed is only one problem
Transparency, traceability, service and cost are tangled together. Each hits smaller firms harder because they lack banking relationships and negotiating leverage.
## The payment disappears
Send $1,000 from the US to Europe and it can take one to five days, sometimes more. Meanwhile nobody can say which correspondent bank is holding it.

> The payment disappears.
## The capital-C cost
Zhao's term for the full expense of going international: scattered charges and foreign exchange costs that stack up before the money lands.
## Why wires survive
MassPay CEO Ran Grushkowsky says bank wires persist because they are resilient. A correctly addressed payment arrives, and a misaddressed one eventually comes back.
## A week of locked cash
With an invoice due in seven days and no reliable arrival date, a business sends early to be safe. Predictable delivery frees that money for days.

> You just locked money for a week's time.
## Everyone is international now
Creator businesses, eCommerce sellers and digital firms have customers, suppliers and workers in multiple countries from day one. Even a sole proprietor needs cross-border payouts.
## Platforms see an opening
Creator platforms, marketplaces, cloud accounting and AR tools are all competing for SMB relationships. Cross-border money movement is still rare enough to be a differentiator.
## One API, many endpoints
Visa Direct reaches bank accounts via real-time and ACH networks, plus debit and prepaid cards and 60+ card and wallet networks. MassPay handles routing, orchestration and compliance behind a single API.
## Compliance is the long pole
Zhao says the technology is the easy part. Licensing, compliance and risk management are the real work, and MassPay's implementations have gone from four months to about a week.

> The technology is not necessarily the long pole in the tent. It's not the hard part.
## Key takeaway

Cross-border payouts are now a platform feature, not a treasury function, and the hard part is licensing and compliance, not the tech.