Small Businesses Skip the Cross-Border Plumbing Big Companies Can’t Escape

Conventional wisdom says large corporations should dominate cross-border payments. They have global banks, treasury teams, negotiated FX rates, sophisticated treasury management system (TMS) platforms and local accounts. But the 2026 payments infrastructure may be creating a strange inversion where a small business can get a simpler cross-border payment experience than a multinational with 100 banking relationships.