You don’t have to look far to find uncertainty in the world today. Our planet seems besieged by a moment of considerable strife. In response, businesses are beginning to feel a financial pinch caused by prolonged market volatility. It’s a testing situation,
but fortunately there are banking and payment solutions that can help. Chiefly, now is the time for companies to ensure they are prioritizing the implementation of flexible and adaptable financial tools, which enable them to respond nimbly to an ever-changing
business landscape in an effective manner.
PREVENTING BLOCKAGES, PRESERVING CASH FLOW
Before we get to that, however, let’s begin by assessing what the challenges facing the global business community currently are. As mentioned, the ongoing spectre of global uncertainty continues to hang over the business community in an unsettling way. Many
of these challenges are having a knock-on effect across aspects crucial to world trade. Mainly, the problem is now adversely affecting the global supply chain. Unfortunately, these issues are compounding an existing problem within this area, which emerged
following the COVID-19 pandemic.
The obstacles presented by global supply chain blockages are making it difficult for companies to continue operating in a business-as-usual manner. Given the complex and interconnected nature of global supply chains, even small delays can end up having far
reaching consequences, which can affect the viability of numerous businesses at any one time. While it’s difficult to overcome this challenge unilaterally, companies can ensure they’re doing all they can to limit delays on things like supplier payments.
THE NEED FOR FLEXIBILITY
However, to do this, companies need to ensure they have onboarded flexible and adaptable supplier payment solutions, which enable rapid payments to businesses across the chain. In doing so, companies can help to ensure that cash flow remains unaffected at
this crucial moment. Unfortunately, should this not happen, we may begin to witness almost unprecedented levels of business closures, which will invariably lead to job losses and a further contraction of the global economy.
The good news is that these technologies do exist. Thankfully, businesses already have access to tools, which can help to facilitate quick and reliable payments to suppliers, regardless of where they are in the world. This is important as now more than ever,
the need for frictionless cross-border financial transactions is paramount. Despite this, there is still a large portion of businesses relying on antiquated solutions, which struggle to handle cross-border payments as effectively, and which, in turn, can lead
to costly payment delays within the supply chain that affects the cash flow of businesses.
FINDING THE RIGHT PROVIDER
So, how do businesses go about ensuring that they are implementing the right solutions to help them navigate this period of economic uncertainty? The first step is to look for tech-first solutions, which can be operated remotely and without the need for
in-person interactions, or meetings. The fintech wave of the last few years has brought many such solutions to the fore. However, to have confidence adopting these systems, businesses need to know they are working with a trusted and reliable provider with
a proven track record of delivering high quality services for their clients.
On paper, this may sound simple, but given the scale of new businesses entering the fintech market in recent years it’s rather difficult. There are currently over 26,000 fintech start-ups around the world. Of course, not all these businesses can offer the
level of service needed to allow companies to feel confident switching from a traditional financial institution. As such, it’s essential to be able to decipher the companies that can be trusted in this endeavour, as well as those not up to the task. Choosing
a solution on flexibility alone may help in the short-term but could lead to unintended consequences further down the line.
KNOWING THE SIGNS
Therefore, to ensure you’re making the right choice, it’s important to know some of the tell-tale signs of a flexible fintech solution that can be trusted to facilitate cross-border payments effectively, while providing the reliability associated with a
more traditional financial institution. For me, one of the best ways to do this is to assess the maturity of the business. Despite the fintech sector being relatively new, there are some businesses that have been operating for far longer than others. Choosing
a provider that fits this description is a great first step in ensuring flexible solutions can be implemented in a secure manner.
Next, I would always advise companies to look for solutions with a proven track record of success, especially with major clients, as well as providers who are able to offer services backed by a strong network of financial institutions based across several
countries. By doing so, businesses can ensure they’re working with providers that mitigate the risk of a single point of failure. In turn, this approach helps to severely limit the potential for volatility in a single market to affect the broader payment process.
Considering the events of recent years, this issue alone must now be considered essential.
A PARTNER YOU CAN TRUST
Here at Monneo, we’re proud to fit these criteria, and believe our solution is wholly suitable to helping companies who need help to tackle this period of uncertainty. Of course, we’re not the only ones who are able to do so. Across the fintech community
there are now plenty of businesses who can help companies to implement flexible and adaptable financial solutions into their everyday operations. Hopefully, by considering the points outlaid in this article, and by following the steps we’ve detailed, companies
across the world can begin to contribute to freer flowing capital streams across multiple markets and geographic territories. In doing so, the global business community can put itself on a sure footing as it begins to tackle a moment of intense uncertainty.