Complexity is frequently the default setting for business-to-business (B2B) payments, particularly cross-border ones.
But the industry is moving toward greater simplicity and automation with the help of innovations such as embedded finance, API-driven seamless integrations, and artificial intelligence (AI) powered workflows that collectively promise to remove friction and align systems.
And with the news Thursday (Nov. 21) that Mastercard’s Multi-Token Network (MTN) has connected to J.P. Morgan’s Kinexys Digital Payments to streamline cross-border B2B transactions, leveraging blockchain for better payments is top of mind for B2B firms operating internationally.
The partnership allows for the real-time transfer of value, reducing time zone friction and settlement delays — a critical development for industries operating 24/7 supply chains.
Kinexys is a blockchain-based payment platform that uses commercial bank money for real-time value transfers, while MTN is a collection of blockchain-based tools and standards designed to facilitate innovative business models. The integration of these two platforms allows mutual clients to settle transactions more quickly and efficiently through a single API, reducing the complexities and time constraints often associated with cross-border payments.
“For years, both Mastercard and Kinexys by J.P. Morgan have been committed to innovating for the future of digital asset and commercial infrastructure. By bringing together the power and connectivity of Mastercard’s MTN with Kinexys Digital Payments, we are unlocking greater speed and settlement capabilities for the entire value chain,” Raj Dhamodharan, executive vice president, Blockchain and Digital Assets at Mastercard, said in press release.
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The integration of the J.P. Morgan blockchain with Mastercard’s capabilities addresses longstanding challenges in B2B payments, including time zone friction, settlement delays and limited transparency. By enabling mutual customers to settle transactions through a single API, the partnership reduces operational complexities and accelerates payment processing across borders.
This move aligns with broader industry trends emphasizing the importance of speed and efficiency in global commerce, while also reflecting the growing importance of interoperability in the payments ecosystem.
“Blockchain technology, and public blockchains in particular, are opening up a number of new use cases, one of which is to transfer value … from one country to another,” Dhamodharan told PYMNTS in an earlier interview.
And as PYMNTS has covered, consensus is slowly but steadily building among industry experts that blockchain technology and new infrastructures could transform the future of cross-border payments.
“Blockchain solutions and stablecoins, I don’t like to use the term crypto because this is more about FinTech, they’ve found product-market-fit in cross-border payments,” Sheraz Shere, GM payments and commerce at Solana Foundation, told PYMNTS. “You get the disintermediation, you get the speed, you get the transparency, you get extremely low cost.”
For example, PayPal will begin letting its disbursement partners use PayPal USD to settle cross-border money transfers. The new service will be offered through PayPal’s Xoom cross-border payments business, according to a Tuesday (Nov. 19) press release. Philippines-based financial services firm Cebuana Lhuillier and Africa’s Yellow Card are the first users.
Read more: How AI and Blockchain Innovations Are Reshaping Cross-Border Commerce
Blockchain technology, once synonymous with cryptocurrencies and speculative trading, is finding a more grounded — and potentially transformative — application in the world of B2B payments.
The global B2B payments market is vast, expected to surpass $120 trillion annually by 2030, according to industry analysts. Yet despite its size, the sector remains bogged down by friction. Payment processing times can stretch into days, driven by disparate banking systems, time zone differences, and manual reconciliation. Fees for intermediary services often cut into margins, particularly for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). For companies reliant on predictable cash flow, such delays are more than an inconvenience — they’re a financial risk.
As digital assets and blockchain technology gain traction in the B2B sector, partnerships like the one between Mastercard and J.P. Morgan underscore the potential for collaboration between legacy financial institutions and blockchain innovators.
Tony McLaughlin, emerging payments at Citi Services, told PYMNTS he envisions a future where blockchain plays a complementary role to existing financial messaging systems, offering a new level of coordination and efficiency. Using an analogy, he compared today’s financial transactions to organizing a dinner party via email, where multiple threads of communication make coordination difficult. By contrast, blockchain could act like a messaging app, where all parties have a shared understanding of the transaction’s status — a “common state” that allows for better orchestration of balance sheet updates.
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