The Platform PM

Glossary and sources

Field Guide

B2B payments: cross-border payouts

10

Glossary and sources

6 min read · Chapter 10 of 10

Words that mean something else here

TermWhat you'd assumeWhat it means here
Same-day (gpi)Today, for meWithin the receiving bank's business day
No transfer feeFreeThe bank earns an FX markup instead
Mid-market rateThe rate I getThe reference the markup is added to
OURFull value, guaranteedSome intermediaries still deduct and claim later
Local payoutThe money moved when I clickedIt moved earlier, in bulk, as prefunding
RecallA reversalA request the bank or recipient can refuse
CLS settles FXSettlement risk is gone18 currencies between members; not the rupee, real or Philippine peso
StablecoinNo FXIn Brazil, stablecoin trades and cross-border payments are FX operations
RemittanceAny cross-border paymentIn US law, a consumer's transfer; the CFPB rule and the excise tax miss B2B
Travel ruleOne threshold$3,000 in the US; $1,000 under FATF; every international EFT in Canada
Licence, registrationThe same thingStates license transmitters; FinCEN, FINTRAC and the RPAA register them
13th monthOne ruleBrazil: a month's pay in two parts; Philippines: 1/12 of basic pay by Dec 24; Mexico: at least 15 days by Dec 20
Business dayMonday to FridayBrazil's pay-day count includes Saturdays and skips municipal holidays
Nostro, vostroTwo accountsOne account, seen from each bank's side

What surprised me

Correspondent banks look a lot like interconnect carriers from telco. There, each carrier on an international call took a fee, but the price sat on a rate deck I could read. Here each hop can quietly take its fee from the principal, and the biggest cut hides in an exchange rate nobody prints.

From order to cash I brought the idea that remittance data is the hard part, because a payment and its explanation travel separately. Here gpi promises to carry remittance data unaltered; what gets lost is the payee: a one-line address, a missing purpose code, a tax ID the rail now wants.

A bank-detail change works like a number port without a registry. In procure to pay there was nobody to ask whose account it is. Abroad it depends where the money lands: the EU and the UK check names, India offers a lookup, SPEI ignores the name.

In spend management, the fintech rented one sponsor bank's charter, so I thought of the licence as something you rent from one bank. A payout company rents one in every country, from partners that also hold its money and can change terms overnight.

Payroll looked to me like another payment run. In accounts payable, the buyer owns the clock and paying late is a cash decision. In global payroll the pay date is set by law, and in Mexico a worker paid late can quit with full severance.

Sources

Undated entries were read on October 1, 2026; "search result" means seen only as a search snippet.

Standard setters, central banks and data

US regulators and law

Canada

Destination regulators and law

Swift and card networks

Company results and releases (the main players)

Company sizes and buying

Business press on the main players

Law firms and press

Cited without links (the source URL carries a company's name or ticker)

  • A large US bank's international wire page; a Philippine bank's inward remittance fees
  • Filings and results: a public remittance company (10-K, FY2025); a public SMB and marketplace payout company's 8-K and 10-Q (company-reported)
  • Two EOR providers' pricing pages and help centres; aggregator and vendor pages on EOR fees, deposits and German labour leasing; payout APIs' quote documentation; a provider's public price feed (rates on Oct 1, 2026); vendor blogs on wire lifting fees, FX markups and Indian banks' inward charges; a Mexican staffing firm's salary survey; an accounting firm's note on Brazilian payroll costs (vendor sources)
  • A Mexican law firm's note on a bank's licence revocation and liquidation (Oct 2025); a Mexican bank's page on SPID; a payroll-software company's note on Brazil's 2026 income-tax law (Nov 2025)
  • The CFPB's release on an amended order against a cross-border transfer company (May 2025); trade press on a US business-banking fintech's 2024 country offboarding

Field Guides are learning notes, not legal or compliance advice. Rules and fees change; check the cited primary sources before you act on anything here.