Goldman, Fiserv, Team On X-Border Supplier Payments

Goldman Sachs and financial services company Fiserv have teamed on a new initiative aimed at streamlining B2B cross-border supplier payments, Fiserv announced in a Monday (July 26) press release emailed to PYMNTS.

This is the first step in a strategic relationship between Fiserv and Goldman Sachs Transaction Banking, according to the release. The initiative “aims to remove the friction inherent in B2B payments related to high transaction costs and settlement speeds.”

The partnership will give Fiserv clients access to Goldman’s centralized cloud-based payment suite to carry out cross-border payments natively using existing accounts payable/accounts receivable solutions like SnapPay, according to the news release.

“Efficiently managing the delivery of cross-border payments across an extensive network of international suppliers is a pain point for our clients with a large global presence,” Fiserv Head of Global Enterprise Solutions David Ades said in the announcement. “Pairing our B2B accounts payable technology with an industry leader in transaction banking offers these clients a secure solution that brings new levels of automation, efficiency, and cost savings to accounts payable.”

The two companies say Goldman Sachs will manage foreign exchange and domestic payments in over 125 different currencies for Fiserv customers making supplier payments.

The solution will also allow for real-time payment tracking “that reduces payment-related supplier inquiries and streamlines reconciliation of payments to corresponding invoices.”

This partnership is the second of its kind in recent weeks for Goldman Sachs, which last month struck a deal with Visa that will simplify cross-border payment flows for Goldman’s transaction banking customers.

As PYMNTS noted at the time, these types of tools have become increasingly necessary in light of the globalization of trade and the huge digital shift of the past 18 months.

PYMNTS research with Visa found that, on average, 26 percent of a company’s revenue now comes from cross-border commerce. The bigger the company, the larger that percentage. The same study found that companies wait as much as a third longer for cross-border payments to post to their accounts.