Payment leaders push for interoperability to solve SME cash flow

Bridging the gap requires a regulatory framework to achieve finality in payments.

Major payment and banking institutions are focusing on digital interoperability and new technologies to directly address the operational bottlenecks that cost small and medium-sized enterprises time and money.

Helena Forest, EVP for Real Time Payments Product and Commercial at Mastercard, highlighted that the firm's real-time payment (RTP) technology now powers 12 economies globally and has brought over 8 million SMEs in Thailand alone into the digital payment space, calling the adoption of RTP in Thailand an "incredible success story."

“Mastercard's design philosophy is rooted in interoperability, an effort that requires working with direct competitors to ensure standards achieve trust and adoption at a global scale,” she said during a panel discussion at the Singapore Fintech Festival 2025.

The focus on payment transparency and speed is also central to UnionPay's strategy, according to Au Chong Wei, Senior Head of Regional Innovative Product at UnionPay International.

Wei stated that the company is shifting to operate as a platform rather than a card scheme to foster ecosystem connections.

UnionPay's "Silk Road initiative," a collaboration with a Shanghai regulator, aims to connect taxation and customs systems to reduce processing time for SME trade, countering research that shows 75% of SMEs face delayed payments.

“This new portal aims to reduce clearance and payment cycles to one to two days,” Wei said.

In the Middle East, the regulatory landscape is being transformed to accelerate SME inclusion, as detailed by Amit Malhotra, Global Head of Retail Banking at Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank (ADIB).

Malhotra noted the UAE has over 25 licensing authorities, and a major change has been the use of Blockchain for KYB (Know Your Business) to allow SMEs to open accounts in a few seconds or in a few minutes.

The UAE's new national payment scheme mandates 24/7 instant payments across the entire SME ecosystem. Malhotra projected that the next 12 to 18 months will involve moving from proofs-of-concept (POCs) to real production for use cases like AI-driven instant credit and Blockchain-based cross-border payments.

Milind Sanghavi, Founder and CEO at XWeave.io, stressed that many SMEs are not without products, but are ‘crappily banked’, citing a personal example where a fund transfer cost a startup 65 basis points (bips).

“Bridging the gap requires a regulatory framework to achieve finality in payments, where the exact amount shows up to the second decimal,” Sanghavi said.

He concluded that cooperation, historically 85% partnership amongst industry players, must now extend to the institutional and digital asset worlds to unlock long-term commercial success.