3% of US Small Businesses Now Source Internationally — and Most Overpay for It

A recent PYMNTS report found that 63% of US small businesses now source goods, services, or talent from outside the country. That number has been climbing steadily — driven by remote hiring, overseas manufacturing, and the fact that a freelance developer in Krakow costs a third of what one costs in San Francisco.

The surprise isn’t that SMBs are going international. It’s that most of them are still paying for it like it’s 2010.

The default payment stack — and what it costs

When a small business needs to pay a supplier in Mexico, a contractor in the Philippines, or a manufacturer in Vietnam, the default move is still a bank wire transfer. It works. It’s familiar. And it’s expensive in ways that don’t always show up on the invoice.

Cost layer	Bank wire	PayPal Business	Fintech (Wise, etc.)
Sending fee	$25-$50 per transfer	2.9% + fixed fee	0.4-1.0%
FX markup	1-3% above mid-market	3-4% above mid-market	0-0.6% above mid-market
Intermediary bank fees	$15-$30 (deducted from transfer)	None	None
Receiving-side fee	$10-$20 (recipient’s bank)	Varies by country	Usually none
Speed	2-5 business days	Minutes to hours	Minutes to 1 day

Run the math on a business sending $10,000/month internationally through bank wires: the sending fee ($35 average x 4 payments = $140), FX markup (2% = $200), intermediary fees ($20 x 4 = $80), and receiving fees ($15 x 4 = $60) add up to roughly $480/month — or $5,760/year. On a fintech platform with mid-market rates, the same volume costs closer to $600-$1,200/year.

That’s $4,500+ in annual savings. For a 10-person business, that’s a meaningful number.

Why SMBs stay on bank wires

If the savings are this clear, why do so many businesses still default to wire transfers? Three reasons come up consistently:

1. “It’s what our accountant set up.” Most small business payment flows are configured once and never revisited. The bank wire was set up when the first international invoice arrived, and inertia keeps it running. Nobody questions a cost that’s always been there.

2. Trust and perceived legitimacy. A wire from Chase or Bank of America feels “official.” Paying a $50,000 supplier through a fintech app feels risky — even when the fintech is licensed, regulated, and moves money through the same banking rails. Perception lags reality by years.

3. The business doesn’t see the FX markup. Wire transfer FX markups are invisible. The bank doesn’t show you the mid-market rate alongside the rate they gave you. You see “$10,000 sent” on one end and “MXN 189,000 received” on the other. Whether you should have gotten MXN 194,000 at mid-market never enters the conversation.

What the modern payment stack looks like

SMBs that have updated their cross-border payment setup typically use a layered approach:

• Multi-currency accounts for holding USD, EUR, and local currencies. Convert when rates are favorable, not when the invoice is due.
• Fintech rails (Wise, OFX, or similar) for regular supplier payments. Lower fees, transparent FX, faster settlement.
• Stablecoin settlement for contractors who accept USDC. Near-instant, near-free, no intermediary bank. Growing especially with tech contractors in Eastern Europe and Southeast Asia.
• Bank wires only for large, one-time transfers where the fixed fee is a small percentage of the total and the receiving party requires a SWIFT wire.

The shift isn’t about abandoning banks. It’s about using the right rail for each payment type instead of routing everything through the most expensive one by default.

The Mastercard/TIPS signal

In June 2026, Mastercard announced a pilot with the Eurosystem’s TARGET Instant Payment Settlement (TIPS) platform, testing instant cross-currency payments settled in central bank money. Payments between euros and Danish kroner were settled atomically — both currency legs completed simultaneously, eliminating settlement risk.

This is infrastructure-level change. When card networks and central banks are building instant cross-currency settlement, the direction is clear: cross-border payments are becoming faster, cheaper, and more transparent at every layer. Businesses still paying 2-3% FX markups on bank wires are subsidizing a system that the industry itself is replacing.

A simple audit for your international payments

If your business pays anyone outside the US, run this check:

1. List every international payment from the last 3 months. Amount, destination country, method used, total cost (including FX markup — check against mid-market rate at the time).
2. Calculate the all-in cost per payment. Include sending fees, FX markup, intermediary fees, and receiving-side fees.
3. Compare against a fintech alternative. Wise, OFX, and similar platforms publish their rates transparently. Run the same payments through their fee calculators.
4. Identify which payments can move to cheaper rails. Regular contractor payments are the easiest to switch. Large one-time purchases may still warrant a wire.

Most businesses find they can cut international payment costs by 50-80% by matching the payment method to the payment type. The savings compound every month.

VaultLeap provides multi-currency USD, EUR, and MXN accounts with transparent FX and stablecoin settlement — built for businesses and earners who move money across borders regularly. See how it works at vaultleap.com.

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Bridge Ventures LLC (“Bridge”) is not a bank. Bridge is a financial technology company and is the Program Manager responsible for managing and operating the Card on behalf of Lead Bank. VaultLeap is not a bank. VaultLeap is a financial technology company and is the Platform Provider responsible for the application, access, and management of/for the card.