A Dubai-based electronics company sources semiconductors from Taiwan, batteries from Japan, and screens from South Korea. It assembles closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras in its Dubai facility and ships them to other manufacturers and resellers in Europe, Africa, and South Asia.
To keep its supply chains and distribution lines running smoothly, it must use business money transfer to pay its Taiwanese, Japanese, and South Korean suppliers in their local currencies. It should also be able to receive payments from its clients and distributors, preferably in its local currency.
When remitting funds, it needs to deal with currency conversion to ensure minimal fees. Of course, it must be able to send and receive funds quickly to avoid operational delays.
Business Money Transfer Use Cases
Enterprises need business money transfer services in the following instances:
Supplier Payments
A coffee trader in Abu Dhabi imports coffee from Ethiopia, Brazil, and India. It uses business money transfer to pay coffee farmers and cooperatives after every shipment.
Employee Payroll in Multiple Countries
A video production studio based in Dubai Media City has remote employees in Europe, Asia, and South America. It uses a global payroll provider to transfer salaries in various currencies, pay employees in local currencies and comply with each country’s tax and legal requirements.
Freelancer or Contractors
A digital marketing agency in Sharjah hires freelance content writers and graphics designers based in Malaysia. It pays its freelancers by remitting funds as and when needed to ensure uninterrupted content production.
Overseas Services
A software company in Dubai uses a technical support team based in India to troubleshoot issues for its customers in the United Kingdom. It pays its team members in India salaries, benefits, and incentives and receives payments from its customers in the UK through global remittance channels.
Mergers & Acquisitions
A tire company acquires a rubber plantation in Thailand, so it uses a corporate remittance service to deposit funds directly into a Thailand bank account and complete the acquisition.
Overseas Taxes and Duties
An Australian e-commerce business operates a warehouse in the Dubai Airport Freezone.
Every shipment of products into Europe means paying various European governments the appropriate customs duties and taxes.
Overseas Subsidiaries
A corporation headquartered in France sends operational funds to its branches in Abu Dhabi, using international money transfer services to ensure their UAE operations have the resources to cover local expenses, salaries, and projects.
Things to Look For in Corporate Remittance Services
There are many channels and services you can use to process business money transfers. What should you look for when deciding which corporate remittance provider to use?
Reach
Find a provider with a local presence in the markets where you operate. Better yet, find one with a universal presence so you won’t need to change providers when you expand your supply chain and distribution scope.
Competitive Currency Exchange Rates
Different providers may use distinct currency exchange rates. You want a remittance company that sells the currency you need at the cheapest rate.
Between one that sells $1 for AED 4 and another that charges AED 3.8 for the same amount of American currency, you’ll appreciate the 0.2 discount on the latter. If you’re remitting $100,000, the latter rate will cost you AED 400,000, while the latter will cost you AED 380,000, which translates to AED 20,000 in savings on a single transaction.
An Extensive Network of Banks and Agents
If your vendors and suppliers prefer to get cash payouts and your distributors prefer to pay at a branch, a remittance provider with over half a million branches worldwide can make dealing with you more accessible and convenient.
Fast, Secure Transfers
Security is a non-negotiable. Lost remittances mean you may need to repeat your payment while you wait for issue resolution.
Flexibility
Choose a remittance service provider that gives you many options to pay for or fund your transactions and your recipients various ways to receive your transfer.
Options can include direct bank account debits and deposits, door-to-door collection and delivery, and branch transactions.
Administrative Ease
If you regularly and frequently send and receive business remittances, you want a universal dashboard that provides a bird’s-eye view of all your transactions, both domestic and international. It’s also great if you can easily print reports to facilitate your internal control and audit functions.
The Importance of Corporate Remittance
Enterprises are increasingly interconnected. The depth of this interdependence was particularly obvious during the pandemic, when international trade ground to a halt because of broken global supply chains and distribution lines.
In such a context, money must move seamlessly across borders to keep supply and distribution chains intact. Thus, you need a reliable remittance service.
The choice of provider also deserves careful consideration because of the cost. Business money transfers mean transaction fees, service charges, exchange rate margins, and currency conversion tariffs, so you need solutions that minimize your overhead but do not compromise on convenience, speed, security, and quality of service.
