From the CFOs Office: Part I

Why the Payment Experience Matters

When money moves between businesses, it does more than settle invoices.

It decides whether factories stay running, whether hospitals get supplies on time, and whether treasurers can give their boards a clear picture of cash.

In the Global South, this reality is sharper.

📊 The numbers are hard to ignore:

• Over $120 trillion in B2B payments move globally each year.
• In emerging markets, up to 40% of working capital can be locked up in delayed or opaque payments.
• Treasury leaders across Africa, India, and Latin America report spending 30–50% of their week untangling reconciliation and visibility issues instead of planning for growth.

Behind every delay or unclear transaction is a CFO’s office trying to answer simple questions:

Where is our cash?

How much working capital do we really have?

Can we meet obligations without over-borrowing?

The opportunity for payment leaders is just as clear. Better payment experiences—faster confirmation, simpler portals, real-time visibility—translate directly into board-level outcomes:

• Reduced cost of capital by unlocking trapped liquidity.
• Higher client retention as businesses choose banks and platforms that give them clarity and confidence.
• New revenue streams from value-added services like real-time dashboards, predictive liquidity tools, and embedded working capital lending.

This series captures the voices of finance leaders across the Global South.

Their stories are unvarnished, often blunt, and always rooted in the daily reality of moving money across borders and industries.

For payment executives, these are signals.

Each one points to a market gap where a better payment experience could both improve lives and generate new value.

Here's the first story:

🇿🇦 Johannesburg, South Africa – Banking CFO

"Every day, billions move across our rails. But what our clients remember is not the volume—it’s the frustration.

A CFO at one of our largest enterprise customers once called me in anger because his team couldn’t reconcile payments for three days. Three days!

It wasn’t fraud, it wasn’t liquidity—it was simply the opacity of our systems. That moment stuck with me. They don’t care about float; they care about visibility and trust."

Breakdown

• Pain Point: Lack of transparency → client CFOs can’t see real-time cash positions.
• Metrics that Matter: Working capital efficiency is eroded, risk perception rises.
• Opportunity: Design-led dashboards, instant reconciliation, and real-time confirmations transform payments from a commodity to a sticky, value-added service.
• Revenue Play: Banks can charge premium fees for transparency tools and win enterprise retention.

Stay tuned as we bring you more stories from the field, from where the future of payments is being shaped!