Financial inclusion is often framed as a domestic challenge: access to bank accounts, affordable credit, or digital wallets within a single country. The statistics are indeed striking: according to the World Bank, globally, about 1.3 billion adults remain unbanked.
In reality, financial inclusion is increasingly a cross-border issue. For hundreds of millions of individuals and small businesses worldwide, meaningful participation in the financial system depends on the ability to send, receive, and manage money across borders quickly, affordably, and transparently.
Global payments sit at the intersection of globalization, migration, trade, and technology. When these payment rails are slow, expensive, or opaque, they disproportionately harm the very populations financial inclusion efforts aim to serve. Conversely, when cross-border payments are modernized, they become a powerful lever for advancing inclusion at scale.
The inclusion gap: Cross-border payments as a barrier to inclusion
Traditional cross-border payments remain burdened by structural inefficiencies. Many still rely on correspondent banking networks that were designed decades ago, long before digital-first financial ecosystems became the norm. As a result, cross-border transactions often involve high fees, unpredictable settlement times, limited transparency, and restricted access.
Key barriers to financial inclusion
High costs exclude low-income users. Fees that may seem marginal for large corporations can be prohibitive for migrant workers, freelancers, or micro-entrepreneurs sending smaller-value payments.
Slow settlement creates cash-flow stress. Delays of several days can be manageable for large enterprises but destabilizing for individuals or small businesses that rely on timely access to funds.
Limited access to banking infrastructure. In many emerging markets, individuals may have mobile wallets or fintech accounts but lack access to traditional correspondent banking networks needed for international transfers.
Lack of transparency erodes trust. When users cannot predict exchange rates, fees, or delivery times, they are less likely to engage with formal financial systems.
Cash remains dominant in many economies not because it’s efficient, but because digital alternatives, especially for cross-border use cases, often fail to meet users’ needs. When digital payments are expensive or unreliable, cash continues to fill the gap, reinforcing informality and exclusion.
“I think cash has been taken out of the system whenever you have also had governments that really wanted to make that leap from an informal economy to a formal economy,” says Ramiro Nandez from Mercado Pago, the fintech arm of Latin American e-commerce giant Mercado Libre, on a recent Converge podcast. “That means some banned words like taxation, and I think that’s a huge problem in places like Mexico.”
Nandez adds that the digitalization of emerging economies has also been effective at stomping out corruption.
“If you look at other examples in the world, like India or Brazil, you had governments that said, ‘Hey, we want to bring the economy into the light, if you will, and we want to make it a formal economy. We want to bring down corruption,’” Nandez says. “That really pushed digitization as a way of getting rid of corruption, getting rid of the black market economy. And that hasn’t been the case in some other countries, and that’s why you have such a huge cash usage in some places.”
The role of fintech in reimagining global payments
Improving cross-border payments has a cascading effect on financial inclusion. When international payments become faster, cheaper, and more accessible, they unlock new economic opportunities for individuals and businesses that have historically been marginalized.
For migrant workers, lower-cost remittances mean more money reaches families rather than intermediaries. For small exporters, predictable settlement times improve working capital management. For digital workers and freelancers, reliable cross-border payouts enable participation in the global economy regardless of geography.
Fintech innovation is reshaping this landscape by rethinking both the rails and the rules of cross-border payments. Rather than layering digital interfaces on top of legacy systems, newer models are designed from the ground up to prioritize speed, transparency, and interoperability.
Key fintech innovations advancing inclusion include:
- API-driven payment platforms that integrate local clearing systems, reducing reliance on correspondent banks.
- Digital wallets and mobile money interoperability enable cross-border transfers without requiring a traditional bank account.
- Real-time foreign exchange (FX) pricing and upfront fee disclosure improve transparency and user trust.
- Embedded payments enable seamless global transactions within marketplaces, payroll platforms, or trade workflows.
The role of blockchain and tokenization
Distributed ledger technologies and tokenization, when applied pragmatically, can further streamline settlement, reduce reconciliation complexity, and enhance transparency. While blockchain is not a silver bullet, its real-world applications in cross-border payments demonstrate how infrastructure-level innovation can lower barriers to entry and expand access.
“The United Nations, for example, has leveraged the seller blockchain to deliver aid into countries where they may have disruptions in their correspondent banking system or that there may be some gaps in the way in which the government is managing the fiat currency,” says Raja Chakravorti, chief business officer at Stellar Development Foundation, on a recent episode of the Converge podcast. “Whether it be in Argentina, where there’s currency volatility and fluctuations, or in Ukraine, where there’s a disruption in the correspondent banking system.”
Importantly, these technologies are most effective when they are abstracted away from the end user. Financial inclusion does not require users to understand blockchain or payment rails; it requires systems that simply work reliably, affordably, and safely.
Latin America as a case study in inclusion-driven innovation
Latin America offers a compelling example of how improving cross-border payments can accelerate financial inclusion. The region combines high mobile penetration (at 70%), a large unbanked population (35% are unbanked and 42% are underbanked), and significant cross-border payment flows, from remittances to regional trade.
This shift is particularly relevant for cross-border payments. By enabling fintechs to access financial data and payment initiation capabilities, open banking frameworks reduce friction and foster competition. The result is a growing ecosystem of providers offering alternatives to traditional international transfers — often with better pricing and user experiences tailored to local needs.
In 2024, revenues generated by B2B cross-border payments in Latin America were estimated to be as high as $133 billion. They are expected to grow at a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 11% over the next 10 years, reaching a total transactional volume of $1.37 trillion.
Latin America’s progress underscores a broader point: financial inclusion advances fastest when regulatory frameworks, technology, and payment infrastructure evolve together.
However, access alone does not guarantee inclusion. A cross-border payment option that exists in theory but is difficult to use, poorly explained, or financially unpredictable does little to empower users.
Key steps to enhancing global financial access and trust
True inclusion requires payments that align with how people actually live and work by offering:
- Settlement times that match real cash-flow needs
- Pricing structures that scale down for low-value transactions
- Compliance processes that protect the system without excluding legitimate users
- Localized experiences that account for language, regulation, and financial behavior
For payment providers, banks, and fintechs, financial inclusion is no longer a peripheral consideration or a talking point. It’s a strategic growth opportunity. Emerging markets, gig economies, and cross-border small business trade represent significant demand for solutions that remove friction and complexity.
Financial inclusion and cross-border payments are inseparable. As money moves more freely, transparently, and efficiently across borders, inclusion will expand — geographically and economically.
