Traditionally, sending and receiving remittance payments has been a tedious process. With services only being available at certain times during the day, accessibility is very limited; for those living in rural areas with a lack of financial services, this process is made even more difficult. Tackling this issue, fintech specialist Tranglo has expanded its cross-border payments network.

Following the expansion, Tranglo will offer instant and direct transfers to more than 30 e-wallets. These e-wallets stay open 24/7, meaning that those who have wanted to transfer money outside of the traditional business hours now have the flexibility to do so.

The service will build upon Tranglo’s existing offering Tranglo Connect. Financial institutions and businesses can pay using its proprietary cross-border payments solution. It integrates payout and partner services with direct API connectivity.  Furthermore, with Tranglo Connect, companies can make payments to over 80 countries reliably and securely.

The new offering will be made available in:

• Bangladesh
• Cambodia
• China
• Indonesia
• Nepal
• Pakistan
• The Philippines
• Vietnam

More countries to be announced.

Perks of digital wallets

Tranglo Group CEO, Jacky Lee said: “Our data shows that cross-border transactions to e-wallets have doubled since 2021. Across the board, eWallet payouts are outpacing banking channels this year, with some corridors, like GCC to Pakistan, experiencing a surge of nearly 400 per cent in transactions.”

“It’s all about helping businesses create more value. For example, one of our biggest partners in the UAE saw an eight-fold increase in transactions to Pakistan and Indonesia after adding our eWallet payout service. The growth opportunity presented by eWallet cannot be overstated.”

Digital wallets have experienced exponential growth, especially after the pandemic. Valued at $9.55billion in 2023, the global e-wallet market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 28 per cent. Asia Pacific has the largest share by region at 32.3 per cent. By 2026, more than 60 per cent of the world’s population will use an e-wallet.

Payments are arguably the face of fintech. When you think about financial technology, it is easy to think about solutions which are making payments faster, easier and more accessible.

In January 2024, we focused on generative artificial intelligence (AI) and how it has emerged onto the fintech scene following its boom in 2023. Artificial intelligence has many uses, and while it can be used for good, it can also be abused by bad actors.  As a result, we set out to investigate the impact the popular technology is going to have on the cross-border payments sector – specifically looking at security.

AI is not a barrier for cross-border payments

Serena Smith, chief client officer, at i2c Inc, the card issuer and payment processor, explains that AI will not be the main hindrance for cross-border payments growth in 2024. It will play a big part in ensuring the new payment rails are well protected.

“Artificial Intelligence (AI) will play a pivotal role in elevating security within the cross-border payments space. It will be instrumental in detecting fraud, predicting potential risks, and monitoring transactions in real-time.

“However, the growth of cross-border payments faces several challenges, including intricate regulatory environments, high transaction fees, delays in transfer processes, and disparities in technological infrastructures across regions. Addressing these issues is essential for the sustained expansion and modernisation of cross-border payment systems.”

A proactive way of tackling fraud

Jonathan Shiery, partner, payments modernisation and digital assets, Guidehouse, the consulting firm, notes how AI can be utilised to stop crime in real-time. Consequently, organisations don’t need to take a responsive approach, but rather a proactive one.

“AI will be able to increase security procedures through behaviour prediction, identifying abnormal activity that may be fraudulent and notifying businesses when necessary. Additionally, AI and machine learning will both be able to identify potentially fraudulent activities in real-time and continually learn from past transaction data, allowing businesses to be better equipped and more proactive in preventing fraud from occurring.”

Eyal Moldovan, co-founder and CEO, 40seas, the cross-border trade financing platform, shared similar views, stating: “From a security perspective, AI can be put to work to detect fraudulent transactions more effectively. For instance, AI-driven algorithms can analyse vast datasets in real-time, identifying unusual patterns and anomalies, thus preventing fraudulent activities and enhancing the overall security of international financial transactions.”

Finding a needle in a haystack made possible

AI has the capability to explore complex data points which humans cannot analyse effectively within a certain time constraint says, Clark Frogley, head of financial crime solutions, Quantexa, the big data and enterprise intelligence provider.

“Uncovering criminals using cross-border payments to launder or hide money is like trying to find the proverbial needle in dozens of haystacks, spread across the globe. Although criminals seek to anonymise themselves and their networks, financial footprints and data trails do exist. But without AI and machine learning, it’s an almost impossible task.

“AI allows investigators to find connections in a complex web of multiple data points across potentially dozens of accounts and institutions. A combination of big data, network analytics and AI can sift through the transactions revealing the hard-to-find, hidden links between individuals, companies, and their counterparties, transactions, and addresses across the entire supply chain.

“By resolving seemingly unconnected entities, context-driven AI technology and analytics builds a detailed picture of the criminal’s network, and how the victim and the various professional enablers that facilitate and/or benefit from this activity are connected.”

AI is a two-sided coin

Claire Huddleston, sales and marketing director, Clear Junction, the payments provider, looks at the bigger picture and how AI can be misused in the wrong hands: “The positive developments that AI brings to the fintech industry also present opportunities for fraudulent activities. AI tools, such as ChatGPT, are being turned against fintech companies and their customers, with the creation of fake customer profiles and deceptive tactics to extract sensitive data from customers and financial personnel.

“As real-time connectivity increases transaction volumes, this provides more avenues for fraudsters, and traditional reactive approaches to fraud prevention are no longer sufficient. Instead, banks and fintechs must adopt proactive and pre-emptive measures. As more transactions go cross-border, the risks of breaching compliance obligations intensify. Unlike domestic transactions, international transactions come with greater counterparty and foreign exchange risk, and Anti-Money Laundering (AML), Know Your Customer (KYC), and sanctions screening work to do.

“It’s unsurprising that AI and machine learning tools are being used to automate and streamline what were slow and manually intensive fraud prevention and AML/KYC verification processes, and more quickly identify violations to reduce the risk of falling out of compliance.

“The great thing about AI is that it never gets bored. Its ability to speed-read vast amounts of data in milliseconds and conduct speedy customer ID verification to identify violations enhances the efficiency of these operations. In the blink of an eye, it can ingest large volumes of data, standardise it, categorise it, and index it, making it easier for businesses to analyse it.

“Predictive AI algorithms, capable of detecting suspicious fraud patterns at lightning speed, empower fintechs to move beyond rigid rules-based systems. This enables them to identify and halt bad actors before significant damage occurs.”

The adoption of digital payments is rapidly developing markets to the point that the value of B2B payments are set to grow by 40 per cent by 2028, from $89trillion in 2024 according to research from Juniper Research, the market research firm.

The new market research suite by Juniper Research offers a comprehensive assessment of the B2B payments market. It provides analysis and forecasts of over 65,000 datapoints across 60 markets over five years. It includes a ‘Competitor Leaderboard’ and examination of current and future market opportunities.

Within the research, Juniper Research found instant payments will revolutionise B2B payments by enabling cheaper and more secure cross-border trade. They will reach 42 per cent of all cross-border payments by 2028, at $16trillion; up from just 17 per cent in 2024, at $5trillion.

Instant payment innovation cutting costs for businesses

The research anticipates the adoption of ISO 20022, a universal standard for instant payments’ financial messaging. The study predicts it will drive third-party providers to build additional value-added services that create efficiencies for businesses. The extra remittance data that modern systems support can enable use cases such as automated accounting; drawing businesses to modern payment rails.

Report author Michael Greenwood stated: “The key advantage of the messaging language used in ISO 20022 is that messages are easier for machines to read. This makes it simpler to develop AI-based solutions around these payments; driving innovation.”

Digital wallets critical to serving small businesses in emerging markets

The research found in many emerging markets, there were gaps in the access to banking for smaller businesses. This was restricting digital access and innovation. To better serve smaller businesses, B2B payment providers must focus on offering B2B payment capabilities via popular local digital wallets and mobile money services.

This approach can then provide improved access to low-cost digital payments, and can help B2B providers to create value-added services offering access to credit; a key pain point for small businesses

Bitcoin (BTC) is lining up an “early bull market” as a unique chart feature plays out for the first time in history.

In a post on X (formerly Twitter) on Dec. 7, entrepreneur Alistair Milne drew attention to Bitcoin’s first ever weekly “golden cross.”

Bitcoin goes from death cross to golden cross in 10 months

Recent BTC price upside has delivered considerable profits to various Bitcoin investor cohorts, but 165% year-to-date gains are now significant for another reason.

Should current performance continue, Bitcoin will witness a crossover of two weekly moving averages (MAs) which have never delivered such a bull signal before.

The 50-week and 200-week MAs are key trendlines for Bitcoin traders and analysts alike. The latter is the ultimate bear market support level, and it has so far never decreased in value.

The 200-week MA made the headlines earlier this year when spot price fell below it in an unprecedented move.

Now back above, BTC price strength is on the way to taking the 50-week MA trendline above the 200-week counterpart. Known as a “golden cross,” on lower timeframes, this is considered a classic bullish signal, and for Milne, the impetus is that considerable upside could be in store should the phenomenon play out.

“This bear market was the ‘worst’ in that we spent time under the 200-week moving average price (red) for the 1st time in Bitcoin’s history,” he commented.

“The 50-week moving average will now soon cross back above the 200-week MA making a ‘golden cross’ for the 1st time. QED: Early bull market.”

Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView suggests that BTC/USD could even achieve the weekly golden cross before the end of 2023.

Bearish BTC price predictions endure

As Cointelegraph reported, not every popular market commentator is bullish on Bitcoin after its swift march to $44,000 this week.

Related: Bitcoin HODL Waves: 2020 bull market buyers now control 16% of supply

Some believe that buyer momentum is exhausted, and that powerful large-volume sellers are still able to drive the market significantly lower.

Among them is popular trader Crypto Chase, who revealed a short BTC position as Bitcoin crossed $43,000. What comes next, he warned, could involve a trip all the way to the low $20,000 range.

“I’ve not changed bias. I’m still bearish from the 40’s looking for low 30’s or even low 20’s before new ATH’s, and that’s where I’m at atm,” part of X analysis read on the day.

Crypto Chase added that only a move to new all-time highs, or ATHs, would change the prognosis, but that he “did not believe” this to be on the way.

He is not alone. Still holding firm on this even more bearish BTC price prediction is controversial trader Il Capo of Crypto, who maintains that $12,000 is Bitcoin’s true bottom target.

In a post to Telegram channel subscribers on Dec. 1, he called for a “big dump to $30k-31k with altcoins dumping about 30-40%.”

“That would be the beginning of the capitulation event,” he claimed.

This article does not contain investment advice or recommendations. Every investment and trading move involves risk, and readers should conduct their own research when making a decision.