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Latin American companies seeking to operate and collect payments in the United States face regulatory barriers, cross-border frictions, and high costs. In this landscape, cross-border payment solutions are becoming essential to overcome these challenges.
Cross-border payments are experiencing a global surge fueled by the boom in remittances, the rise of remote global workers, and the international financial activity of companies across Latin America.
In an increasingly interconnected and digital environment, Latin American companies continue to prioritize access to global markets like the United States despite challenges driven by trade tensions. Their objectives include selling products and services, acquiring strategic goods, and expanding operations through commercial alliances and internationalization strategies.
The United States remains the region’s main trading partner. According to data from the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), exports from Latin America to the United States and the European Union grew 5 percent year over year in the first half of this year. In 2024, trade in goods between Latin America and the United States reached USD 1.07 trillion, nearly triple the figures seen in the early 2000s.
In 2024, minority-owned businesses in the United States generated almost USD 600 billion in total economic output, a 9.4 percent year-over-year increase, according to a report by the National Minority Supplier Development Council (NMSDC). The report notes that these companies supported more than 2.2 million jobs and contributed USD 168 billion in wages to American workers last year.
All this commercial flow depends on efficient payment systems and integrated technological solutions that enable money to move securely between regions. Ultimately, these factors determine how competitive and attractive a company can be in international trade.
The global cross-border payments market moved approximately USD 194.6 trillion in 2024 and could reach USD 320 trillion by 2032, according to financial data firm FXC Intelligence. “Market growth will be driven largely by digital innovation, regulatory evolution, and rising consumer expectations,” the company explains.
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For companies in the region, having integrated cross-border and instant payment solutions has become increasingly important to support expansion commitments. This trend is also pushing financial institutions to become more agile.
“The cross-border payments landscape has undergone significant changes that are reshaping business models, technological capabilities, and the global flow of money,” notes U.S. bank JP Morgan in an analysis.
From a regulatory perspective, Latin American companies seeking to operate in the United States must comply with strict and varied rules that include licensing requirements and complex compliance standards. Without the right expertise, these processes can complicate and delay market entry.
They also face common frictions such as delays, rejected payments, and intermediary costs due to limited interoperability between financial systems, additional validations, and perceived risk from institutions.
These challenges can affect the final customer experience and create complications for companies that need to receive or send payments quickly, whether to suppliers, users, or commercial partners.
In addition, international fees, currency spreads, and risk management costs significantly increase the price of operating and collecting payments in the United States, especially for mid-sized and small businesses.
Inswitch enables Latin American companies to expand globally by integrating efficient and scalable payment solutions into their operations.
For example, an online store in Mexico can offer customers real-time local and international payments, issue virtual cards for loyalty programs, and manage multiple currencies without regulatory complications.
Thanks to its modular API-based platform, the company can adopt only the services it needs, optimizing cash flow, reducing transaction costs, and ensuring regulatory compliance, which simplifies expansion into markets like the United States without the need for complex financial infrastructure.
Opportunities for New Payment Solutions
While Latin American companies face strict regulations, fragmented processes, and high costs when operating or collecting payments in the United States, these same challenges create space for technological solutions that integrate compliance, payments, and financial management in a single model.
In this context, Inswitch, now backed by TransNetwork, emerges as a key enabler for this type of financial operation by allowing companies to integrate and scale these services within their platforms.
Inswitch offers an embedded finance platform with a single API that enables rapid integration of payments, both pay ins and pay outs, cross-border services, wallets, FX, remittances, card issuing, and a full banking core.
Automated KYC and AML, access to pre-approved licenses, and the ability to operate in multiple currencies significantly reduce regulatory burden and accelerate market entry, explains Ronald Alvarenga, Chief Innovation Officer at TransNetwork.
At the same time, interoperability across systems, automatic selection of the most efficient payment rail, and aggregation of multiple payment methods help reduce payment failures, improve user experience, and lower operational costs.
Capabilities such as embedded wallets, proprietary card issuance, and automated reconciliation turn cross-border flows into simpler and more efficient processes, giving companies the ability to scale in the United States with more control, speed, and lower costs.
The Future of Embedded Finance
The growth of fintech and the rise of digital services have accelerated the Banking as a Service model, which allows companies of all sizes to integrate financial functions without relying on traditional banking infrastructure.
According to another analysis by JP Morgan, “Latin America is undergoing a payments transformation driven by digitalization, government initiatives, and fintech innovation, moving away from cash-based transactions toward digital payment methods.”
The bank explains that the region has historically faced complexities in cross-border payments due to political and currency volatility, complicated regulatory frameworks, limited interoperability, and technological gaps that slow modernization.
These challenges often lead to higher costs tied to outdated infrastructure and the need to use multiple intermediaries, which makes international operations more expensive and slower, according to JP Morgan in its report titled Breaking Barriers: How Latin America Is Redefining Cross-Border Payments.
But these same challenges have pushed Latin America to accelerate innovation in digital payments, prompting regulators to adapt to the wave of new technological solutions.
Today, local instant payment systems such as PIX, developed and managed by the Central Bank of Brazil, are seen as global pioneers as more countries in the region develop their own solutions.
Improving cross-border payments in the region requires a comprehensive approach that includes strong governance rules, harmonized regulatory frameworks, and common standards that ensure interoperability between systems, according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) report Cross-Border Payments Integration in Latin America and the Caribbean.
It is also essential to promote collaboration between central banks, financial institutions, and payment providers, adopt digital and fintech technologies, strengthen risk management and security, promote financial inclusion, and establish continuous monitoring mechanisms to adapt systems as technology and the market evolve.
Embedded finance and cross-border payments have the potential to help Latin American companies expand into the United States because they allow businesses to collect, pay, and operate in different markets without friction, adapting to local regulations, currencies, and payment methods through a single infrastructure.
By integrating these technological solutions, companies reduce costs, accelerate market entry, and offer a smoother experience for customers and partners, making internationalization more accessible and scalable.
The expansion of Latin American companies into the United States is accelerating demand for more agile, interoperable, and efficient cross-border payment solutions.
Although barriers persist, market growth creates an opportunity for integrated platforms to modernize how companies collect payments, make payouts, and operate internationally.
The combination of innovation, automated compliance, and instant payments is emerging as the foundation that will enable more companies to scale their global operations without the traditional limitations that have slowed international expansion.
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