For South Africans, navigating the international finance system can feel incredibly complex, particularly when it comes to transferring money or making payments across borders.
By Harry Scherzer, CEO of FutureForex
Every international transaction involving the transfer of funds into or out of the country will have to clear hurdles such as central bank and tax authority compliance. That’s to say nothing of the technical and security challenges associated with connecting different financial systems.
These problems are real and must be addressed, especially because they hinder growth in many economies around the world, including South Africa. As the World Economic Forum (WEF) notes, countries need to prioritise international payment interoperability domestically, strengthen global regulatory collaboration, modernise international payment regulations, and improve collaboration between the public and private sectors. With cross-border payments set to be worth $250-trillion by 2027, global finance leaders must address all of these barriers.
However, in the interim, inefficiencies in the global financial system shouldn’t be a barrier to people and businesses making international payments and transfers. By focusing on automation, transparency, and customer service, international money transfer providers can ensure that their customers can make simple, fast, and seamless transactions, no matter where they’re sending money.
While automation should be implemented as extensively as possible across the international money transfer process, there are a couple of areas where it’s particularly impactful. Take the forms that must be filled out for any international money transfer, for instance.
For bank customers, filling out these forms typically means downloading them, manually inputting the required information, and then either emailing them back to the bank or physically dropping them off at a branch. A bank employee would then have to manually input the information into the bank’s system.
It’s incredibly inefficient and means international money transfers take far longer than they should. If the process were automated, by comparison, it could be completed in a matter of minutes and significantly reduce the risk of human error.
Another area where automation can help reduce inefficiencies is with complexities such as SARS and Reserve Bank approvals or BoP codes. Unfortunately, many traditional international money transfer providers haven’t bothered to provide automated assistance with these requirements.
Another way in which international money transfer providers can help their customers navigate the inefficiencies of the international financial system is through excellent customer service. Providers should be able to offer their customers instant expert assistance across a wide range of communication channels and assign each customer a dedicated Account Manager to handle every step of the process
With expertise on hand, the provider should be able to guide, educate and inform its customers, while providing solutions to any issues that may arise along the way. This should be true whether the issue relates to something within the provider’s systems or outside of it.
Unfortunately, many traditional international money transfer providers don’t do this very well. Many rely on the same contact centre agents they use for every other transaction, who likely have no expertise when it comes to international money transfers and probably don’t work directly for the provider either.
This inevitably means customers being pushed from pillar to post before they get a satisfactory answer to their issue (that’s if they get one at all). All of this can add up to costly delays in a transaction, frustrating individual and business customers alike.
For a truly worthwhile customer experience, it’s also imperative that international payment providers are completely transparent, particularly with the fees they charge. This allows customers to better plan their international transactions and further reduces the risks of complications during the process.
It will, of course, be some time before stakeholders in the international finance system implement the World Economic Forum’s recommendations. And even when they do, it’s unlikely that they’ll be implemented uniformly.
As such, individuals and businesses looking to make international payments must choose providers who can help them overcome the system’s inefficiencies through automation, great customer service, and complete transparency. If customers choose a provider that gets all of these priorities right, chances are they won’t even feel like they’re affected by the system’s inefficiencies.