This Proof of Concept illustrates how innovation is providing cost-efficient and speedy cross border remittance for businesses that also serve as a payment solution for eCommerce merchants, in turn increasing transaction volume and customer acquisition rate.

1. Cross-border remittance solution
for business to business (B2B)
High-margin foreign exchange (FX) rates
Many banks and money transfer operators (MTOs)
add margins of 2%-11% and hidden fees to their FX
rates.
Challenges faced by companies
Cheap and fast
cross-border remittance solution
Mid-market rates + nominal fee
(0.25% to 1%)
Zero-Margin FX rates
Cheap fees
Case study
Context:
A start-up e-commerce platform was selling
Australian FMCG in the Hong Kong (HK)
market. High-consumer bounce rates are
observed on the payment page where the
customers were shown the high FX rate
incurred by VISA and MasterCard. The
platform was looking for a suitable overseas
money transfer solution providing a
reasonable FX rate, allowing them to
improve customer satisfaction. The platform
also wanted to increase the cash receivable
turnover rate.
Value-added:
The remittance platform served as a
payment solution for the e-commerce. The
solution increased transaction volume and
customer acquisition. Customers can now
purchase goods at a competitive FX rate,
resulting in a cheaper final product.
The e-commerce also receives revenue
within one day of transaction.
EY’s role and activities:
• Market landscape analysis of cross-
border remittance platforms
• Benchmarking, analysis, comparison and
selection of available platforms
• Developed a sales acceleration platform,
including product and business definition,
vendor solution gap analysis and
management dashboard definitions
Client impact:
• Increase in total transaction volume and
customer acquisition
• Decrease in service fees payable for cross-
border transactions
• Decrease in the cash receivable turnover
time from five business days to one
business day
Slow transfers
After submitting all the documents, the
recipient has to wait for three to five business
days to receive the money.
Complicated procedure
Currently, many paper-based documents need to
be submitted by banks for cross-border remittance.
Email ID, mobile number, identification
number and address proof documents are
needed to create an account
Simple account
creation
Takes one business day to complete a
transferQuick receive
Easy procedure
Required to submit payee’s information and
the purpose of remittance
Remitter Platform Payee
Apply online
Transfer local
currency
Payee account
on platform
Payor account
on platform
Receives
foreign
currency
Payee
information
Bank
Local
Currency
Foreign
Currency
Money transfer process
Varun Mittal
Global Emerging Markets
FinTech lead
varun.mittal@sg.ey.com
Contact us
FinTech Hub
www.ey.com/sg/FinTechHub