The Transfer Is the Easy Part. The Work Around It Isn't.

McKinsey says initiating a transfer is a fraction of the work. Here's where the rest of it lives.

Cross-border payments have gotten fast and cheap. For a finance team, that solved one step in a much longer process. McKinsey's recent analysis of the industry makes the point directly: for the average business, initiating a transfer accounts for only a fraction of the work involved in an international payment.

The rest of the work is what a fast, cheap rail was never going to fix on its own.

Where the Manual Work Actually Sits

McKinsey identifies the real operational friction as the manual workflows surrounding the transaction: invoice matching, accounts-payable approvals, tax compliance, and ERP reconciliation.

A standalone banking portal doesn't remove any of that. It forces employees to bridge each of those steps by hand. The money moves quickly, and the finance team's workload stays the same.

McKinsey's view is that integrating payments directly into payroll, accounts receivable, or treasury workflows removes that manual effort and allows near-instant reconciliation. The value sits in how well the payment connects to the systems around it, not in the transfer itself.

E-Invoicing Mandates Raise the Stakes

The cost of disconnected systems is also rising for regulatory reasons. McKinsey notes that more than 80 countries have introduced or mandated e-invoicing regimes. These require businesses to exchange standardized invoice data, comply with real-time tax reporting, and maintain digital audit trails.

Those obligations are difficult to meet when invoicing, payments, reconciliation, and tax reporting are managed across disconnected systems. For a company operating in several markets, each new regime adds another set of requirements to a process that was already largely manual.

Complexity Compounds With Cross-Border Exposure

McKinsey also makes a distinction between simple and complex international activity. Low-cost payments may be enough for businesses with straightforward international transactions. Companies with more complex import, export, and treasury needs require more than a cheaper way to move money. They need tools to manage FX exposure, liquidity, and cash flow across multiple markets.

The backdrop is not getting calmer. McKinsey reports that foreign-exchange turnover hit a record $9.6 trillion per day in April 2025, 25 percent above 2022 levels, as tariffs roiled major currencies.

The Takeaway

Speed and cost have become table stakes, which is a good outcome for everyone who sends money across borders. But it means the transfer is no longer where the work is.

For a CFO or finance lead, the more useful questions sit around the payment. How much manual matching does your team do after funds move? How do approvals, tax compliance, and reconciliation connect to the payment itself? Would your current setup hold up under an e-invoicing mandate in a market you operate in?

The cost of cross-border payments was never in the transfer.