Voice of the Industry

Neema's take on global payments: deep B2C roots

Tuesday 2 July 2024 12:44 CET | Editor: Irina Ionescu | Voice of the industry

Moshe Kimhi, Neema’s CEO, shares how hands-on experience and challenges have shaped Neema’s innovative approach to global payments.


Modern cross-border payment solutions deliver better, faster, and cheaper services with wider reach than traditional SWIFT systems. However, finding a solution that offers high-quality service to a wide variety of payment methods and countries remains a challenge. Neema’s Global Payments Network steps in to fill this gap. Our uniqueness lies in the fact that our expertise was born from our own need and pain.

 


The current situation of cross-border payments

The world of cross-border payments is evolving quickly, but the main challenges remain limited reach, high costs, slow transactions, and a lack of transparency. Businesses are still dealing with these issues, constantly seeking for efficient solutions.

  • Limited reach: The traditional banking system primarily connects bank accounts, limiting its reach. Coverage is often insufficient in emerging regions and underserved populations, leaving a significant gap. In fact, approximately 1.7 billion adults globally remain unbanked, highlighting the need for more inclusive payment methods such as digital wallets, mobile money, cards, and more.

  • High costs: According to McKinsey, cross-border transactions can cost up to ten times as much as domestic ones, with average fees ranging from 7% to 10% of the transfer amount. These high costs are a serious barrier to financial inclusion, especially in countries whose economies rely on remittances.

  • Slow transactions: In 2024, nearly 50% of global payments, according to SWIFT, take two to five days to execute. For businesses, this means delayed transactions, disrupted cash flow, and the potential loss of trust from partners and clients who expect timely payments.

  • Lack of transparency: Transparency remains a critical issue in cross-border payments. Lack of transparency makes cash flow management difficult and costly. According to a 2023 FSB report, over 60% of surveyed businesses highlighted the need for improved transparency and real-time tracking in cross-border transactions.

Despite these challenges, the future looks promising. Forecasts suggest that the global cross-border payment market will grow from USD 22 trillion in 2023 to USD 30 trillion by 2028, fuelled by increasing digitalisation and globalisation. To keep pace, financial institutions are beginning to heavily invest in technology and partner with fintechs.

A journey driven by real needs

We started as a digital account, aiming to bring financial freedom and inclusion to all. One of the greatest pains we solved was the need for migrant workers to save money and send it back to their home countries.

As we added cross-border solutions to our product, we sought a partner to meet our standards and deliver wide reach with real-time, low-cost transactions. Unable to find such a partner, we began building our own network of global financial connections. During this time, we learned that our pain was not unique. Many financial institutions and fintech startups shared the same challenge: the gap between their evolving business needs and the capabilities of existing cross-border payment solutions.


Neema’s edge - the moment we realised what we built

A couple of years ago, it struck us — our own network had become so strong, with exceptional reach and outstanding success rates. Serving only ourselves, we felt it was underutilised. 

Our network was only serving ourselves, so we felt it was highly underutilised. Thus, we decided to brand it through a modern API and started distributing on a global scale. Currently we serve banks, EMIs, and FIs, as we know their pain better than anyone. Fast forward to present days – with millions of banks and countless payment methods accessible in real time through our network, our API serves numerous financial institutions around the globe.

 


Live the network. Feel its pulse 

The payments arena is ever-evolving, and keeping track of the changes is challenging. Whether it's knowing first about a new digital wallet in the Philippines, the conflict in Ukraine creating high demand for card accounts, or the Brexit impacting EU to UK transfers, our direct engagement with real senders connects us directly to current and future trends, ensuring we expand our services accordingly. 

This engagement also serves as a valuable testing ground for our network. If UPI in India is down or payments in Sri Lanka are not real-time, we know about it the same instant. The countless insights that flow in around the clock help us add new payment methods and corridors and bettering existing ones on a daily basis. This way, we ensure that transactions always go through smoothly with an excellent success rate and grow the network at a pace other companies just can’t compete with.

Why Neema is the preferred choice for financial institutions worldwide

Our journey from serving individuals to serving financial institutions globally has equipped us with unique insights and capabilities. 

Wide Coverage – our extensive real-time network connects millions of banks, digital accounts, wallets, and cards, reaching remote destinations, be it bank cards in Ukraine, Mobile Money in Africa, or UnionPay in China. We aim to make moving money easy and secure. With 150+ countries, hundreds of new corridors each year, and countless local payment methods, we ensure money can reach every corner of the globe.

Stability and reliability are the cornerstones of our global payment network  –  at its core, our network was designed for uninterrupted operation. Using our dynamic routing technology, we ensure excellent success rates.

Experts in EMIs and FIs – Neema’s cross-border payment solutions are focused on serving financial institutions and EMIs. With industry expertise and deep understanding of their tailored needs, we provide top service quality, so your business can expand globally with confidence.

Secure and compliance – Neema leverages cutting-edge AI for advanced AML and transaction monitoring, ensuring every transaction is secure and compliant. Our screening process offers peace of mind, keeping all transactions safe and compliant.



About Moshe Kimhi

Moshe Kimhi is one of the founders of Neema, the CEO of the company since late 2015, and a board member in SensePass since 2022. He has a B.A. in both Accounting & Economics and Advanced Accounting Studies from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and an MBA in Finance & Financial Management Services from the University of Tel Aviv. Before his role at Neema, Moshe had worked in several positions in both the finance and IT sectors, including PwC Israel. 



About Neema

Neema is an Israeli fintech company providing a real-time, cross-border payment network for banks and financial institutions globally, specialising in hard-to-reach destinations and local payment methods. Our commitment to financial inclusion drives us to offer our innovative products through a mobile digital account, allowing users everywhere to benefit from our technology effortlessly. Our robust API and expansive network ensure seamless transactions across 150+ countries and 50+ currencies, embodying our vision for a globally connected financial ecosystem.

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Keywords: cross-border payments, cross-border ecommerce, SWIFT, cash flow, real-time payments, digital payments, digitalisation, Global Payments, fintech, financial inclusion, startup, API, EMI licence, financial institutions
Categories: Payments & Commerce
Companies: Neema
Countries: World
This article is part of category

Payments & Commerce

Neema

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