Airwallex reveals outdated payment systems cost global businesses $330 billion every year

• New study from Airwallex and Cebr exposes the 'Global Growth Tariff' holding back international businesses

• Hidden costs for businesses driven by payment failures, foreign exchange spreads, correspondent banking fees and slower settlement cycles

• Businesses across Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) face a particularly acute burden of $144 billion

LONDON - Wednesday 3rd June: New research from Airwallex, a leading global financial platform for modern businesses, has revealed legacy payment systems are tying up billions in working capital and slowing global economic growth.

The analysis conducted by Airwallex and the Centre for Economics and Business Research (Cebr) exposes the true scale of 'Global Growth Tariff' – a term coined by Airwallex to describe the hidden  working capital costs imposed on businesses by inefficiencies in legacy Business-to-Business (B2B) cross-border payment systems.

The Global Growth Tariff represents the $330 billion in working capital lost in the global financial system due to inefficiencies in international B2B payments, equivalent to around 9% of the UK’s annual GDP.  This includes payment failures, foreign exchange spreads and correspondent banking fees and slow settlement cycles.

The research shows that businesses across Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) - a region with a high volume of cross-border trade and diverse banking and regulatory systems - face a significant burden, with an erosion of approximately $144 billion. This means that companies making regular international supplier payments face tens of thousands of dollars in hidden costs and delayed settlements each year, reducing cash flow and growth potential.

"Legacy payment systems are quietly draining billions from businesses that can least afford it. Payment failures, high FX fees, and slow settlement cycles don't just hurt the bottom line - they freeze the capital businesses need to move fast in an unpredictable world. Every dollar stuck in the system is a dollar not invested in growth. Modern infrastructure fixes this: faster, transparent, and built for the way global business actually works today." said Firdevs Abacioglu, Head of Data Science and AI at Airwallex. 

Cebr's research examined B2B payment failure rates, foreign exchange costs across major currency corridors, and settlement timeframes for international supplier and contractor payments. By combining publicly available data on B2B cross-border payment volumes with established research on payment system inefficiencies, the study quantified the scale of capital frozen in the global financial system.

The research revealed that businesses worldwide face an invisible tax on B2B commerce totalling £330 billion, with the Global Growth Tariff breaking down as follows:

• Payment failures and repair costs drain $27.2 billion annually. When B2B payments fail to process automatically, they may require manual intervention. These non-straight-through processing (STP) failures generate repair fees that cascade through supply chains.

• Foreign exchange spreads and correspondent banking fees erode approximately $289 billion in business capital each year globally. 

• The immobilisation of slow settlement cycles cost roughly $14 billion in working capital at any given moment globally. This reduces the amount of productive liquidity available to businesses for growth, investment and operations.

While businesses across EMEA face the most acute regional burden, the US accounts for the single largest national share of losses at $43.7 billion. Across APAC, businesses in major trading hubs including Singapore and Australia also face significant costs, with losses totalling almost $13 billion combined.

“Our analysis identifies a significant and persistent set of inefficiencies within legacy cross-border B2B payment systems, which collectively impose a material drag on business activity,” said Liam Daly, Senior Economist at Cebr. “For Global businesses, these frictions translate directly into higher costs, reduced liquidity and less efficient capital allocation. Addressing them would support more efficient cross-border transactions and unlock capital for productive use.” 

The findings come at a time when businesses across all industries are under increasing pressure to optimise working capital amid ongoing economic uncertainty and growing complexity in global trade. 

Airwallex will release a second phase of this research, examining how the Global Growth Tariff varies across industries and business size, including detailed analysis of sectors such as SaaS, tourism and e-commerce.

ENDS

About Airwallex

Airwallex is a leading global financial platform for modern businesses. We are building the future of global banking for a borderless, real-time, intelligent economy.

More than 250,000 companies worldwide, from startups to public enterprises, use Airwallex to manage their global banking and financial operations, or to build and monetise their own financial products.

Founded in Melbourne in 2015, Airwallex holds 85+ licenses across North America, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia-Pacific, forming one of the most comprehensive financial infrastructures in the world. This regulated backbone powers Airwallex products at global scale, including payment acceptance, billing, global business accounts, corporate cards, and spend management.

The company is co-headquartered in San Francisco and Singapore with over 2,200 employees across 26 offices. Learn more at www.airwallex.com.

Contact

For media inquiries, please contact [email protected] 

About the Centre for Economics and Business Research

Cebr is an independent economics consultancy with over 30 years of experience. We use economics to help businesses make strategic decisions, influence public policy, and lead debate that resonates with key stakeholders. Cebr has extensive experience analysing business trends and a strong track record in payments research.

Notes to editors:

Methodology: The Global Growth Tariff calculation examines business-to-business cross-border payments and combines three primary channels of capital cost: Systemic Frictions (payment failure and repair costs), FX and Fee Drag (foreign exchange spreads and correspondent banking fees), and Liquidity Delays (capital immobilised during settlement). Cebr estimated costs using secondary data on B2B cross-border payment volumes, payment failure rates, average FX spreads across major currency corridors, and settlement timeframes. These three channels were aggregated to produce the total Global Growth Tariff figure. Figures represent the stock of capital affected or annual cost to businesses. Full methodology available upon request.