This past week, our Founder and CEO, Rupert Shaw, joined Paul David on the Tech Can’t Save Us podcast to dive deep into a critical gap in the financial world: the “last mile” of cross-border payments.
While global remittances have successfully digitized the money transfer process, a huge challenge remains: converting that digital cash into tangible value for families back home.
The Problem: Money Sent vs. Bills Paid
The remittance landscape has moved leaps and bounds from cash-only transfers, with customers now demanding speed, transparency, and convenience. Yet, two major pain points persist:
- The “Last Mile” Inefficiency: Getting the funds to their final intended purpose—paying the actual utility bill, for example—is still inefficient and costly.
- Lack of Control: The sender often has no guarantee the money will be used for what it was sent for, such as keeping the lights on. Economic migrants want peace of mind that their hard-earned money is securing their family’s needs.
For the financial institutions (Fintechs, banks, and remittance companies) trying to solve this, the obstacle is technical: connecting to thousands of individual billers across multiple countries is a “technical and commercial nightmare”. It involves signing dozens of contracts and building brittle, non-scalable integrations.
The BILRS Solution: Embedded Finance and One API
This is where BILRS steps in, defining the massive opportunity in embedded financial services.
BILRS enables any digital wallet or remittance company to embed cross-border bill payments directly into their existing app using one modern REST API.
What does this single integration handle?
- Connecting to our entire global biller network.
- Managing all the complex commercial relationships.
- Handling reconciliation and FX conversions.
- Standardizing complex biller data (from 6-digit to 28-digit account numbers, and various rules on over/under-payment).
For our partner, Al Fardan in the UAE, this means a customer supporting family in the Philippines can open the app, enter an electricity account number, see the bill’s exact amount in both currencies, and pay it instantly. The sender remains in control, and the family is secure.
Driving Retention and Real-World Value
By solving this core human need, BILRS helps partners achieve what Rupert learned is vital during his 20-year career at companies like EA and Ding.com: customer retention and engagement.
The service moves beyond a simple transaction and becomes a value-added service. We help partners:
- Become “Stickier”: Providing a tangible service that keeps customers engaged.
- Drive Retention: Allowing the platform to notify customers when a new bill is due, moving the platform from a ‘pull’ to a ‘push’ status.
- Offer Financial Insights: Starting partners on the path toward offering more financial guidance to their users.
We’re only at the start of what BILRS can deliver, but we are proud to be driving growth through partnerships and solving real, impactful challenges in the global economy.
Interested in offering Global Bill Payments through a single integration? Contact us today to learn how the BILRS API can transform your customer retention and expand your service offering.
