Acceptance of Discover and Diners Club Across Key Markets
Reaching customers worldwide starts with offering them the payment methods they trust. While Visa and Mastercard dominate much of the global market, many regions rely on alternative card networks. One of the latest advancements in payment infrastructure is the global acceptance of Discover and Diners Club cards across key regions including Australia, Europe, Hong Kong, Singapore, and the United Kingdom.
This shift supports a combined global cardholder base of over 345 million users across more than 200 countries. Businesses with an international presence can now accept payments from a larger pool of consumers without relying on multiple gateway integrations. Checkout abandonment, often driven by limited payment options, can now be significantly reduced with this addition.
Enabling alternative card networks empowers businesses to grow faster and scale without worrying about region-specific payment gaps. Whether it’s retail, hospitality, or professional services, unlocking more ways to pay helps improve conversion rates, customer retention, and overall revenue performance.
Expansion of Digital Wallets and Physical Cards in Canada and New Zealand
Digital wallets have become a cornerstone of modern payments. Consumers in many countries now prefer to pay using their mobile phones or wearable devices instead of carrying physical cards. The availability of physical and digital card options in both Canada and New Zealand reflects a broader push toward flexible and contactless payment experiences.
In Canada, businesses now have the option to issue physical cards along with mobile wallet compatibility for both Apple Pay and Google Pay. This feature is particularly useful for teams managing employee expenses, procurement, or client-facing services that require fast and secure payment methods.
Meanwhile, businesses in New Zealand can now issue physical cards as well, with support for Google Pay available for mobile payments. Although Apple Pay is not currently available in this market, the integration of Google Pay offers a significant step forward in providing more options for businesses and consumers alike.
By offering both physical and digital payment options, companies can streamline expense processes, improve user convenience, and manage spending with greater oversight.
Real-Time Account Funding in Singapore with eGIRO
Singapore continues to position itself as a leader in financial innovation, and real-time account funding has now become a reality through the implementation of eGIRO direct debit. Businesses operating in Singapore can instantly top up funds from verified local bank accounts, enabling faster movement of money with fewer dependencies on traditional bank transfers.
For businesses managing inventory, payroll, or just-in-time service delivery, real-time funding eliminates the risks associated with cash flow gaps. With a default daily limit of S$50,000 and higher limits available upon request, this new method of account funding is designed to accommodate both small businesses and large enterprises.
Deposits under S$200,000 are settled instantly, while those over that threshold are processed within two business days. This hybrid model ensures that most everyday transactions are handled in real time, while maintaining flexibility for high-value operations.
For companies using APIs to automate financial flows, eGIRO also integrates seamlessly into backend systems, allowing businesses to programmatically initiate top-ups without manual intervention.
Instant Local Settlements via eDDA in Hong Kong
For businesses operating in Hong Kong, managing liquidity in multiple currencies is often a necessity. With the introduction of eDDA (Electronic Direct Debit Authorization), it is now possible to instantly add funds in HKD or CNY from locally linked bank accounts.
This capability introduces real-time settlement with a daily default limit of HK$100,000 or 100,000 CNY, and provides the flexibility to scale as needed. The 24/7 availability of eDDA makes it particularly valuable for industries with continuous payment needs, such as logistics, e-commerce, or financial services.
Companies can now enjoy uninterrupted access to working capital without the administrative burden of manual bank transfers or the lag time associated with clearinghouse delays. The introduction of instant direct debit capabilities aligns Hong Kong’s financial infrastructure with modern business expectations.
Local ILS Accounts for Seamless Operations in Israel
Israel has long been a hub for innovation and technology, yet cross-border financial operations have often been challenging due to regulatory and infrastructure limitations. With the introduction of local accounts capable of receiving Israeli Shekel payments via domestic methods such as MASAV and ZAHAV, doing business in Israel has become significantly more accessible.
These new accounts allow companies to receive local payments directly and benefit from faster settlement cycles, typically within zero to one business day. Transaction limits of up to one million shekels per transfer (depending on the sending bank) provide sufficient flexibility for both SMEs and large corporations.
For export businesses, tech firms, and service providers working with Israeli clients or partners, local account support reduces reliance on intermediary banking solutions. It also removes unnecessary currency conversions, making it easier to reconcile income, manage tax obligations, and monitor receivables.
Enhancing GBP Transactions with Local UK Account Features
The United Kingdom remains a vital market for global commerce, and managing GBP payments has traditionally required coordination across multiple banking layers. The latest enhancements now provide access to fully functional UK-based accounts with an individual Sort Code and SWIFT BIC.
Support for a broad range of payment rails—Faster Payments, CHAPS, Bacs Direct Credit, and SWIFT—makes these accounts suitable for any business model, from payroll processing to vendor payments and client settlements. Domestic and cross-border transfers can be managed from one interface, with high levels of transparency and speed.
A standout improvement is the extension of the Bacs direct debit rejection window from just six hours to up to 45 hours. This longer window gives finance teams more time to identify and address payment issues, reducing operational risk and enabling a more proactive approach to managing incoming and outgoing funds.
This improved infrastructure creates a more resilient financial system that can support larger payment volumes, complex approval flows, and recurring billing without sacrificing efficiency.
Improving Business-to-Business Transfers in Mainland China
Sending funds to China for business purposes has long been considered complex, often involving regulatory constraints and documentation requirements. Recent changes now make it easier for companies to process B2B transfers in Chinese yuan by simplifying the document upload process and removing previous transaction limits.
There is no longer a 300,000 yuan cap per transaction, and businesses can now upload multiple supporting documents in a single batch. This streamlined approach allows compliance teams to process payments more quickly and reduces the chances of delays due to missing information.
In addition, the ability to match prepayment deposits up to 100 percent of the transaction value improves cash flow and gives buyers more flexibility in structuring agreements. This is particularly relevant for manufacturing companies, international wholesalers, and e-commerce platforms that rely on complex supply chain arrangements.
The new process reduces friction by improving the risk check timeline and removing traditional bottlenecks associated with high-value transfers.
Supporting Global Growth with Multi-Market Infrastructure
As businesses grow beyond their local markets, they often face operational and financial fragmentation. Multiple bank accounts, limited support for foreign currencies, and high transaction costs can all pose challenges to scale. The improvements to cross-border payments and account infrastructure offer a foundation for unified global operations.
Real-time funding tools, instant settlement capabilities, and localized accounts help businesses take control of their finances in every market they enter. Whether it’s issuing employee expense cards in Canada, collecting ILS payments in Israel, or topping up SGD accounts on-demand, companies now have the flexibility to match financial tools with their strategic goals.
These changes represent more than just feature updates—they reflect a new vision of how businesses should manage international money flows. The ability to centralize operations, reduce manual tasks, and operate in local currencies without compromise is no longer a luxury. It’s becoming the standard.
Streamlining Global Finance
As modern businesses scale across borders, the need for financial systems that unify accounting, vendor management, and entity oversight has become critical. Gone are the days when finance teams could rely on disjointed spreadsheets and manual reconciliations. Today, real-time data syncing, automation, and centralized control are essential to support agility, transparency, and compliance across markets.
Recent innovations in financial operations technology now allow companies to better manage accounts payable, reduce manual errors, and keep their global books aligned with local requirements. With enhanced integrations, vendor tools, and entity-level insights, companies can move faster and scale with confidence.
Real-Time Syncing with Exact Online in the Netherlands
Financial reconciliation is one of the most time-consuming and error-prone aspects of accounting. In markets like the Netherlands, the integration with Exact Online now allows businesses to streamline this process with real-time transaction syncing.
This integration supports multi-currency environments, enabling automatic mapping of foreign payments to the correct accounts. Businesses can close their books faster and generate more accurate reports across departments and locations.
By connecting transactional data directly to the accounting system, finance teams reduce the need for double data entry and can ensure that ledger records are updated as soon as a payment is processed. This improves audit readiness and makes monthly, quarterly, or annual reporting significantly easier.
Companies using Exact Online can now align their accounting with bank activity in real time, simplifying everything from tax reporting to budget forecasting.
In-App Vendor Management
The complexity of global vendor networks is often underestimated. From supplier onboarding to approval workflows and payment compliance, managing vendor relationships efficiently requires dedicated systems.
A newly introduced vendor management feature allows businesses to bring all these elements under one roof. Vendor data can now be imported directly from existing accounting software, creating a unified vendor directory that reduces duplication and manual data input.
Users can configure approval workflows to enforce spend controls before a payment is released. This ensures that all vendor payments are reviewed and aligned with internal policies, which is especially helpful for decentralized teams or rapidly growing organizations.
Fields like charts of account codes and tax rates are now automatically populated, based on the vendor’s profile. This intelligent automation eliminates redundant data entry and improves accuracy across the entire purchase-to-pay lifecycle.
Audit logs are also available for tracking any changes to vendor details, giving teams greater visibility into who approved what, when, and why. This not only increases transparency but also supports compliance with international audit standards.
Making Secure Vendor Payments Simpler
Security in financial transactions is critical, especially in cross-border business environments. With the new vendor payment capabilities, companies can now make secure payments using saved vendor information. This reduces errors caused by re-entering account details and helps protect against fraud by ensuring that all payment data is verified before use.
Once a vendor has been onboarded, approved, and verified, their payment details are stored securely and linked to their invoice and tax profile. Future payments to that vendor can be scheduled or automated, with strict controls around amounts, currencies, and payment methods.
Payment confirmation, currency conversion, and audit tracking are built directly into the process, giving teams peace of mind when sending funds across borders. These tools are particularly useful for finance departments that need to manage hundreds or thousands of vendor payments per month.
Expanding Financial Oversight with Global Entity Management
For multinational companies, managing financial operations across various legal entities can be one of the biggest operational challenges. Different currencies, tax laws, reporting requirements, and internal processes all create barriers to efficiency. The enhanced global entity management solution now provides a centralized platform to oversee multiple business units, user roles, and spending policies.
Previously available for NetSuite and Xero users, support has now been expanded to include QuickBooks and custom integrations. This flexibility allows businesses to connect their preferred systems to a centralized control environment, regardless of which software stack they use.
Within this platform, finance leaders can monitor spending patterns, enforce approval rules, and ensure that each entity’s operations are compliant with local and global regulations. Centralizing this data improves strategic planning, facilitates internal controls, and makes it easier to allocate resources effectively.
By creating a single source of truth for multi-entity finance, businesses can operate with a level of oversight that was previously difficult to achieve, particularly across diverse geographic markets.
Automating Chart of Accounts and Tax Fields
One of the persistent frustrations in accounting is the need to manually code every transaction with the appropriate general ledger account and tax classification. When this process is performed manually, it often leads to misclassification, audit delays, and tax discrepancies.
The latest automation features solve this issue by intelligently linking transactions to the correct fields. When payments are made, the system can automatically assign the appropriate chart of accounts and tax rate based on preconfigured rules or vendor attributes.
This level of automation improves bookkeeping accuracy and reduces the workload for accounting teams. It also accelerates month-end reconciliation and ensures consistency across financial statements.
Automated coding is especially beneficial for companies operating in multiple jurisdictions, where tax regulations and reporting standards differ. By standardizing the way tax fields and accounts are applied, organizations can ensure that compliance is maintained across all their business units.
Tracking Vendor Payments with Built-In Audit Trails
With the increasing scrutiny on corporate governance and anti-fraud measures, having a reliable audit trail is no longer optional. Every financial decision, especially those involving vendor payments, must be traceable and transparent.
The current vendor management system now includes complete audit logs, capturing all changes to vendor records, payment approvals, and transaction details. This allows internal teams, auditors, and regulators to see who made changes, what was modified, and when the action took place.
These audit trails are timestamped and immutable, offering a reliable source of evidence for internal reviews, dispute resolution, or tax audits. For growing organizations, this functionality is crucial in maintaining trust, ensuring accountability, and passing compliance checks.
Streamlining AP with Integrated Vendor Approval Workflows
Manual invoice approvals often lead to delays, duplicate payments, and miscommunications. By embedding vendor approval workflows into the payment platform itself, businesses can now streamline accounts payable and ensure that payments are authorized before they are released.
Finance administrators can define approval thresholds based on payment amount, department, or vendor type. For example, payments over a certain threshold can be routed to multiple stakeholders for approval, while low-value payments can follow an express workflow.
This approach reduces the risk of fraud and enforces financial discipline across departments. With all approvals captured in a digital log, there’s no need to chase emails or confirm verbal approvals. The embedded workflows also reduce the back-and-forth between finance teams and business units, helping to accelerate invoice cycles and improve vendor satisfaction.
Bringing Everything Together with Multi-Platform Integration
One of the biggest advantages of modern financial tools is the ability to integrate with multiple systems. By connecting accounting software, bank data, vendor directories, and entity controls into a single interface, finance teams can build a cohesive ecosystem that supports real-time decision-making. Recent updates have added compatibility with a broader range of platforms and tools, including API support for custom ERP integrations.
This ensures that businesses with unique requirements or legacy systems can still benefit from automation and real-time insights. These integrations eliminate the need for manual file uploads or inconsistent data exports, reducing the chance of errors and ensuring that financial records reflect actual business activity. Centralized data also empowers leadership to analyze global cash flow, forecast future spend, and optimize financial strategy without relying on siloed information or guesswork.
Elevating Vendor Experience with Accurate and Fast Payments
Vendors are a critical part of any business. Delays in payment or errors in billing can erode trust and disrupt supply chains. The improvements in vendor payment systems now allow companies to pay their suppliers faster, more securely, and with full transparency.
Whether paying freelancers, large-scale manufacturers, or SaaS providers, businesses can ensure that payments are processed on time and with the correct references. Payment confirmations and remittance details are automatically generated, reducing confusion and the need for follow-up communication.
Multi-currency capabilities also allow vendors to be paid in their local currency, reducing their exposure to foreign exchange fluctuations. This leads to stronger vendor relationships and a more resilient supply chain.
Data-Driven Financial Management for Global Scale
As businesses grow beyond borders, they require systems that scale with them. With accounting automation, embedded approvals, real-time vendor management, and global integrations, finance teams now have the infrastructure needed to support aggressive growth strategies.
These tools are designed not just to handle complexity but to reduce it. By eliminating manual processes, standardizing compliance, and giving leadership greater visibility into financial operations, organizations are better equipped to navigate global markets with agility and confidence.
Enhancing Commerce and Payment Infrastructure with Embedded APIs and Global Checkout Innovation
In a digital-first world, the evolution of e-commerce and embedded finance platforms has revolutionized how businesses engage customers, accept payments, and mitigate risk. As expectations for seamless user experiences and real-time operations grow, merchants, developers, and platforms alike require robust tools to drive conversion, reduce fraud, and scale infrastructure.
Today’s financial ecosystems are built on APIs, automation, and cross-border capabilities. Companies expanding their footprint need configurable tools that integrate directly into their platforms, offer global reach, and provide real-time insight into every transaction. This shift is driving a wave of innovations across hosted checkout pages, localized payment experiences, fraud prevention, and tax compliance.
Supporting Region-Specific Pricing Across E-Commerce Platforms
Localization is at the core of global e-commerce strategy. With customers spread across continents, offering region-specific pricing is not just a value-add—it’s an expectation. The latest update to commerce tools includes full support for multi-market pricing models within integrated checkout platforms.
Merchants can now set differentiated product prices for each region or market they serve. This allows for better alignment with local purchasing power, currency expectations, and competitive positioning. Whether the goal is to run targeted promotions in Southeast Asia or adjust margins for European taxes, these tools give merchants full control over their global pricing strategy.
This market-aware pricing model helps reduce cart abandonment by ensuring shoppers are not surprised by unexpected costs. It also helps improve profit margins by giving businesses more precise control over pricing by location, currency, and consumer behavior.
Seamless Currency Experience Through Automatic Conversion
As companies expand into new territories, enabling customers to pay in their local currencies becomes a critical part of the checkout experience. Automatic currency conversion is now integrated across all major checkout modules, including hosted payment pages, payment links, and e-commerce apps.
Shoppers can browse, shop, and pay in over 130 local currencies, removing a major barrier to purchase. For businesses, this eliminates the need to maintain local banking infrastructure or perform manual conversions. Transactions are processed with zero foreign exchange fees on the business side, preserving revenue and improving accounting predictability.
Whether a customer is in Brazil, Malaysia, or Germany, the local checkout flow now adapts in real time to reflect the appropriate currency, pricing, and tax logic. This dynamic pricing capability makes businesses more competitive and helps build trust with global shoppers.
Checkout Integration for Leading Platforms
To ensure broad accessibility, the enhanced checkout and pricing capabilities are now available across popular e-commerce platforms. Integration modules are live for Shopify and Shopline, with extensions for others on the way.
These modules are optimized for merchants seeking to operate stores across multiple regions without duplicating store structures or managing separate inventories. The system synchronizes pricing, inventory, order data, and shipping preferences automatically.
Additionally, digital invoices generated through platforms like Xero are also compatible with the new payment and currency modules, providing a seamless bridge between the front-end e-commerce experience and back-office accounting.
Streamlining Order Management with Platform Sync
Order management becomes increasingly complex as sales volumes grow. An upcoming enhancement includes direct synchronization of order and tracking data between checkout platforms and the central dashboard.
For merchants using connected platforms, order IDs will be automatically linked to payment records, reducing the need for manual reconciliation. Shipping updates can also be captured and reflected in customer-facing dashboards, improving transparency and post-sale service.
In some cases, payment methods like Klarna will also allow merchants to push tracking details directly to end-users, giving them better visibility into their orders and reducing customer support inquiries. This seamless integration of order, payment, and shipping data helps merchants build stronger relationships with customers, especially in cross-border or high-volume environments.
Fraud Feedback API for Real-Time Risk Management
As digital commerce grows, so does the sophistication of fraud. The need for dynamic fraud mitigation tools is more urgent than ever. A new Fraud Feedback API now empowers platforms to report fraud signals in real time, enhancing the ability to detect and prevent suspicious activity.
This API allows platforms to send detailed feedback on confirmed fraud cases, suspicious behavior, or chargeback disputes. These signals are then incorporated into risk models, which can adapt in real time across the network.
By closing the feedback loop between businesses and fraud detection systems, companies benefit from faster adjustments to evolving threats and fewer false positives that block legitimate customers. This tool is particularly beneficial for platforms that manage large numbers of sellers or users, as it enables them to build more intelligent risk filters based on actual transaction behavior.
Lifecycle ID for Transaction Grouping and Reporting
Understanding the full lifecycle of a transaction is key to resolving disputes, reconciling balances, and analyzing customer behavior. A new identifier—lifecycle ID—has been introduced to make this process easier and more accurate.
This ID allows related issuing transactions, such as incremental authorizations or split captures, to be grouped under a single reference. For example, when a hotel places a pre-authorization and then captures the final amount upon checkout, both actions are now tied together.
This simplifies reporting, improves reconciliation, and gives merchants a clear view of transaction flows. It also aids in compliance and auditing by clearly linking all activities related to a single customer interaction or order.
Advanced Card Controls Through APIs
Customizing card behavior is crucial for companies issuing corporate, virtual, or programmatic payment cards. Advanced card control functionality is now available via APIs, giving developers and platform owners granular control over how, where, and when a card can be used.
Businesses can restrict cards by transaction type (e.g., block ATM withdrawals), usage region (e.g., allow only domestic transactions), or merchant category codes. These rules can be set at issuance or updated dynamically based on usage.
This level of control is particularly useful for embedded finance platforms that need to issue cards to users but enforce strict spend policies for compliance, budgeting, or user safety. For example, a platform issuing cards to gig workers can limit their use to specific merchant categories or geographic areas. With real-time control updates, businesses can respond to unusual activity, adjust policies on the fly, or instantly deactivate cards if a security risk is detected.
Embedded Tax Compliance for US Marketplaces
Managing tax compliance in the United States presents a unique set of challenges for platforms and marketplaces. A new toolset has been launched to support seamless 1099-NEC filings and contractor compliance.
This system enables businesses to collect tax information using digital W-8 and W-9 forms, verify Taxpayer Identification Numbers (TINs), and track payments throughout the year. Once thresholds are met—typically $600 or more—platforms can file 1099-NEC forms directly with the IRS.
Filed forms are downloadable for both the business and the contractor, simplifying year-end reporting and recordkeeping. This is especially helpful for platforms working with freelancers, gig workers, or independent sellers who must report their earnings. By integrating tax compliance into the platform experience, companies reduce the administrative burden while ensuring regulatory obligations are met.
Expanding In-App Support with Dynamic Ticketing
As platforms scale, customer support needs become more complex. In-app ticketing systems have now been deployed across European, Middle Eastern, and African markets to streamline the support experience.
Users can submit tickets directly within the interface, with contextual prompts and dynamic forms based on where the user is within the app. This reduces friction, ensures that the support team receives all necessary information, and speeds up response times. Articles from the help center are dynamically suggested based on the support issue selected, helping users find answers quickly without leaving the platform.
Additionally, a floating support widget is available on every page, ensuring help is always within reach. This infrastructure improves the self-service experience and supports faster resolution of payment, compliance, or technical issues.
Accelerating Developer Innovation with Embedded Finance APIs
The demand for embedded finance continues to grow, with more platforms looking to integrate financial services directly into their apps. A suite of APIs has been released to support this trend, making it easier for platforms to offer payments, card issuing, fraud control, and compliance features within their own environments.
These APIs are fully documented and designed for flexibility, allowing developers to build financial flows that match their exact business models. Whether it’s enabling payout functionality for a marketplace, or offering virtual cards for a travel platform, these tools provide the building blocks to innovate faster.
Features like webhook support, environment switching, and role-based API keys give engineering teams full control over testing and deployment. These APIs also offer built-in security protocols and monitoring dashboards, ensuring that financial operations meet enterprise standards.
Creating Scalable Checkout Flows for the Future
With the global commerce environment evolving at an unprecedented pace, businesses need checkout flows that adapt quickly. From currency localization and fraud prevention to real-time tax reporting and embedded card controls, the new tools empower companies to build their financial infrastructure with scale and resilience in mind.
This new generation of commerce tools is built for flexibility, with the needs of developers, merchants, and global consumers at its core. Whether it’s a growing e-commerce store, a fintech platform, or a SaaS company, the infrastructure now exists to create fast, secure, and localized payment experiences without building from scratch.
Conclusion
As global commerce accelerates and technology reshapes how businesses operate, the need for integrated, scalable financial infrastructure has never been more critical. Across all this series, it’s clear that modern payment ecosystems are no longer just about processing transactions—they are foundational enablers of growth, compliance, and customer experience.
We explored how global card acceptance, digital wallets, and physical issuance are redefining the boundaries of payment access and flexibility. Businesses can now empower their teams and customers with seamless payment tools across continents, while reducing friction at checkout and increasing global reach.
Highlighted the transformation of business account capabilities, with instant settlement, real-time top-ups, and multi-region support creating faster, more reliable capital flow. These innovations eliminate delays, optimize liquidity, and allow businesses to operate with greater agility in multiple jurisdictions.
We examined how advanced checkout tools, fraud protection APIs, card control mechanisms, and embedded tax solutions are powering a new era of intelligent commerce. These tools not only simplify operations and ensure compliance but also deliver smoother experiences for users and customers at every touchpoint.
Together, these advancements signal a fundamental shift in how companies of all sizes manage payments, spend, compliance, and growth. By leveraging configurable APIs, intelligent infrastructure, and localized experiences, businesses can scale confidently across borders, industries, and technologies—unlocking new efficiencies, markets, and opportunities for the future.
