Managing Banking Partners Across Jurisdictions: Cross-Border Payments for Fintechs

Managing Banking Partners Across Jurisdictions:

Cross-Border Payments for Fintechs

Managing banking relationships and cross-border payments for fintechs across multiple jurisdictions is one of the most persistent operational difficulties for growing organisations. Multiple providers, multiple logins, fragmented reconciliation - it adds up fast, and it slows expansion down just as fast.

In a recent Corpay Cross-Border webinar, Imran Shiraz, VP of Enterprise and Payment Solutions, and Sean Beavis, who leads Technical Sales at Corpay, were joined by Hugo Rémi, CEO of Cardaq, to talk through why the traditional banking model breaks down at scale and what an infrastructure-led alternative looks like in practice.

The session was hosted by Agneiszka Jablonska, Director of Marketing, UK and EMEA at Corpay Cross-Border.

Keep reading to understand how to simplify cross-border payments and how the right infrastructure can help you get there.

Why the Traditional Banking Model Doesn't Scale

The regulatory burden of opening bank accounts directly, market by market, is significant on its own. As Sean put it:

'The regulatory footprint and requirements our clients need if they're dealing with banks directly to open bank accounts is one of the most important things to consider. Quite often it means having offices within the country, employees in-country. And naturally there's a cost to it.'

But the deeper problem is structural. Many fintechs built their payment ecosystems by stitching together multiple providers - one for foreign currency accounts, one for FX hedging and execution, another for reporting. That approach works until a business tries to scale:

'As they expanded into new markets, it became very difficult to scale healthily while managing all of these different relationships and technology types,' Imran Shiraz explained.

Manual processes like reconciliations tend to slow down the ability to scale and can fragment offerings to clients/customers.

'You think, well, that took several months just to prop up a currency account in this market. It doesn't just deter you from wanting to expand. The length of time to get to market becomes a hindrance in itself,' added Imran.

The operational cost compounds daily. Multiple banks mean multiple logins and approval workflows, reports and statements landing on different schedules from different providers, all of which have to be manually integrated into a business's own ERP systems.

Hugo Rémi, whose fintech Cardaq has spent years managing exactly this kind of complexity, confirmed the pain point from the client side, pointing to the UK's newer surrogate regime as one live example of how quickly things can become unmanageable:

'I can tell you the new surrogate regime in the UK becomes extremely tough. I believe many companies struggle because of that,' Hugo said.

With reference to the 'new surrogate regime' - here's what it means: as banks become increasingly reliant on cloud providers, the UK has introduced new safeguards that place major technology providers under direct regulatory oversight. The move is designed to strengthen operational resilience and reduce the risk of disruption across the financial system.

A live poll during the session reflects this reality: roughly half of attendees said they currently work with just one to two banking partners, with the rest split between three to five, and six to ten.

'Right now we have three to five [banking partners], but we are slowly shutting down all the providers because it doesn't make sense anymore to us. All we need is Corpay as our settlement solution, and a safeguarding bank — a high street bank for day-to-day operations, and a second one for regulatory purposes as a backup,' says Hugo.

The Shift to Infrastructure-Led Cross-Border Payments

This is where the conversation turned to what Corpay calls “infrastructure-led banking”. Imran defined it simply:

'For us, infrastructure-led banking means a reliable and cost-efficient way of effectively offering multiple currencies for payables and receivables across the globe - infrastructure that comes from a ready-made solution you can use to scale your business,' Imran said.

‘As an example, our Multi-Currency Accounts can literally be switched on [for our clients] within seconds of a request being made. That allows our clients to open up different markets and receive funds - locally or via SWIFT - without the cost of opening bank accounts in each jurisdiction, and without the regulatory footprint admin, and red tape that comes with it.'

He described the practical flexibility this gives clients, currently around 20+ currencies, on either a single IBAN or one IBAN per currency:

'You're receiving money in, converting those funds when it suits you, as opposed to auto-conversions from banks if you don't have currency accounts. And it means you can pay out of those currencies as well. If you have costs, in-country salespeople, et cetera, you've got a means of minimizing that FX impact too.

Choosing the Right Integration Model

Access to that infrastructure isn't one-size-fits-all. Corpay works across a range of integration modalities, depending on a client's existing tech stack and how quickly they need to move.

For speed, secure white-label platforms offer an out-of-the-box solution that can be branded and market-ready within weeks.

'Beyond that it comes down to preference: file upload solutions, secure transfer, market standards like ISO 20022 for standardized, data-enriched payment execution, and finally, deeper embedded integration via a REST API,' says Sean.

The API route, he noted, takes longer to implement but unlocks the most capability:

'It gives clients full end-to-end capability - onboarding clients, managing beneficiaries and vendors, FX and payment execution - plus more self-serve capability that we're seeing more demand for: payment tracking and transparency into the movement of funds through reporting tools available via the APIs,' he adds.

Imran added a specific example of what the API layer enables operationally: access to credit facilities.

'One of the interesting points with the API is that we can have integration which allows our partners to utilize credit facilities, releasing payments quicker before we have settlement, and helping ensure we don't miss cut-off times for different currencies. That's really where our APIs genuinely streamline the process,' Imran said.

Multi-currency accounts, reporting, end-of-day reconciliation, and credit facility visibility can all sit under a single integration — a meaningful contrast to the fragmented, multi-vendor setup many fintechs start out with.

An example from one of Corpay's clients illustrates the point: a treasury and FX management software provider, built to help CFOs and treasury teams analyze currency exposure and optimize hedging strategies, was running into high payment failure rates on the execution side. By integrating Corpay's REST API endpoints into their own platform, they were able to streamline everything from client onboarding to payment execution and reconciliation consolidating what had been a fragmented, multi-relationship process into one.

Practical Takeaways for Fintech: Cross-Border Payment Operations

Closing out the session, Imran distilled the discussion into a few core recommendations for fintechs evaluating their own banking setup:

'Look at the number of banking relationships you currently have, and exactly what services you're getting from each, that could be price-driven or jurisdiction-driven,' Imran said. 'What we know is our pricing model is very transparent, and the infrastructure and global coverage we have is significant — connectivity not just to SEPA and FPS, but local rails in the Nordics, LATAM, and Asia, where we've been investing in local collections and local payment rails heavily. And owning that reconciliation piece — rather than relying on banking partners to provide statements or platform access at certain times — is something we can provide directly from our platform and our APIs.'

He added that the right approach has to balance technology with regulatory reality:

'Every client wants everything better, quicker, cheaper than they had it a year or eighteen months ago. There are ways to achieve that, but the approach has to be technology-driven with the regulatory and compliance framework in mind — what can we achieve with the partners we work with, as opposed to where do we need to be regulated to start receiving money from?'

Sean's advice was more succinct:

'Look at how you can consolidate your infrastructure model so you can focus on what you enjoy doing — building and enhancing your own products and services — while utilizing a tailored provider to handle end-to-end integration,' he said.

'Partner with someone who can give you flexibility in modalities and operating models to scale with your infrastructure three to five years from now, as opposed to just looking at what's important today.'

And Hugo, closing as the client voice in the room, kept it simple:

'We've worked with Corpay since 2019, and I think that says everything — one of the most reliable and trustedl partners I can point the audience to. I hope we'll work together twice as long — see each other in twenty years, still working together.'

Cardaq's Next Chapter

Cardaq's own roadmap builds on this same API infrastructure. The company is working toward offering its own core banking system, powered by Corpay's API and virtual IBANs, alongside the one-to-one settlement project already underway.

'Our idea for expansion of services is to offer, together with Corpay, our own core banking system with a Corpay API virtual IBAN,' Hugo said.

The problem the project solves is a subtle but costly one: card schemes typically manage multiple authorization currencies but settle in far fewer settlement currencies, determining unilaterally which FX conversions to apply and disclosing neither the fees nor the conversion ratio involved.

Under Cardaq's one-to-one settlement model, card schemes will be obligated to settle funds in the same currency originally taken from the cardholder, after which the customer, inside Cardaq's system, can choose whether to hold that currency for a future transaction or convert it. The payoff is meaningful savings for the end customer, improved service levels, and features that Hugo argues traditional banks simply aren't positioned to offer. It's the team's largest project on the roadmap for the next several quarters.

Implementation Questions for Fintech Payment Integration

Two audience questions rounded out the session.

1. How long does implementation typically take, and what should businesses consider when choosing an integration model? 'It really depends on the modality type. White-labeled solutions are very quick. You can generally turn those around in a couple of weeks. API integrations work at the pace of the partner and their own development resources. But with consultancy provided, that could take two to three months on average, though we've seen clients turn it around in less than four weeks,' Sean said. 'It is a modular API setup, and our platform is actually built on our API, so clients don't have to go live with everything from day one - they can choose certain modules to go live with and develop as they go.'

2. What's the main operational benefit of integration? It's basically time to delivery. A direct API integration means you can get your transactions approved and out the door quicker - plugged into an ERP system generating payments throughout the day, pushed out in real time,' Imran answered. 'The reconciliation and reporting piece is key too, because you're receiving real-time reporting and reconciliation. If there are requirements from an auditing perspective, you can get to-the-minute reporting.'

Sean made one final point on transparency:

'The only thing I'd add is really again with those types of integrations, you get all of the self-serve capabilities - payment tracking, transparency into the movement of funds in real time.'

Hugo’s last word is on service:

'For me, the most important thing is the SLA — the service level Corpay provides to customers. It's currently the best I've seen: the speed of resolving finance issues, the speed of payments.

‘When customers ask what's unique about Cardaq, I say, honestly, nothing — we just provide great service. And we can provide great service because of partners like Corpay. Delivering on time is only half of success. The rest comes together with Corpay.'

If your fintech is managing cross-border payments across multiple providers, currencies, and jurisdictions, Corpay Cross-Border can help you explore infrastructure options that support payment execution, reporting, reconciliation, and integration. Learn more about Corpay’s global payment solutions.

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