Multi-Currency Invoicing 2026 [Full Report]

US small businesses lost an estimated $800 million to hidden cross-border foreign-exchange fees in 2023 alone, according to research from Capital Economics commissioned by Wise. That figure sits on top of a currency-conversion cost most invoicing businesses never see itemized: it is baked into the exchange rate rather than billed as a separate line, so a business can lose money on every international invoice without ever spotting a fee. This report pulls together the current data on what cross-border invoicing actually costs, how fast it settles, and which currencies the money actually moves in.

Figure 1: US small businesses lost an estimated $800 million to hidden cross-border FX fees in 2023. Source: Capital Economics, commissioned by Wise, published January 2024.

How much do businesses actually lose to cross-border payment fees?

The $800 million figure is an aggregate, but the sentiment data behind it explains why the loss keeps happening year after year. A Censuswide survey of 1,003 US small business decision makers, fielded for Wise in April 2024 with at least 125 respondents in each of Texas, California, Florida, and New York, found that 82% either don’t believe or aren’t sure their bank is honest about what it charges for cross-border payments. That confusion has a business cost: 49% of the same group said the complexity of international payments is a barrier to expanding operations abroad, and 31% said they would enter new markets if payment costs were lower. The problem isn’t a lack of demand for international business, it’s that the cost of moving money across a border is structurally hard for a small business to price in advance, because the fee is folded into the exchange rate rather than itemized as a separate line the way a wire fee or a card surcharge would be. A business invoicing a client abroad for the first time has no easy way to know, from the invoice alone, how much of the payment its bank will quietly keep.

Figure 2: Share of US small business decision makers reporting each cross-border payment concern. Source: Censuswide survey for Wise, 1,003 US SMB respondents, April 2024.

What does it cost to actually send money across a border?

Currency-conversion spreads are the single biggest reason cross-border invoicing costs more than domestic invoicing, and the gap has narrowed only slowly. The World Bank’s Remittance Prices Worldwide report put the global average cost of an international money transfer at 6.36% of the amount sent in the third quarter of 2025, edging down from 6.49% in the first quarter of the same year. Both figures remain more than double the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal target of bringing that cost under 3% by 2030, and the World Bank’s own tracking shows nearly half of all payment corridors worldwide still charge more than 5%. Cost also varies sharply by region: the World Bank’s index consistently names Sub-Saharan Africa as the most expensive corridor group to send money into, at close to three times the UN’s target rate. For an invoice paid across a border, that spread comes straight out of either the sender’s or the recipient’s margin, depending on who absorbs the conversion, and neither side usually agrees on that split before the invoice goes out.

Figure 3: Global average cost of an international money transfer, Q3 2025, plotted against the UN’s 3% Sustainable Development Goal target. Source: World Bank, Remittance Prices Worldwide, Issue 54, September 2025.

How fast do multi-currency invoices actually get paid?

Cost isn’t the only friction point; settlement speed matters just as much once an invoice crosses a border. SWIFT’s own gpi tracking data shows that 92% of cross-border payments sent over its network are credited to the beneficiary’s account within 24 hours, and nearly 60% arrive within 30 minutes. That is a marked change from the multi-day wire transfers cross-border invoicing was known for a decade ago, back when a payment often had to pass through two or three correspondent banks before it reached the recipient, and each hop added its own cutoff time and processing window. The remaining delay tends to happen after the money technically arrives: SWIFT estimates that local checks at the receiving bank, including regulatory reporting, FX controls, and operating hours, make up roughly 80% of a slow payment’s total journey time, not the transfer itself. For invoicing businesses, that means a payment can clear the network fast and still sit uncredited if the recipient’s bank has its own processing queue, which is exactly the kind of delay that makes a paid invoice look overdue on both sides of the relationship.

Figure 4: Share of SWIFT gpi cross-border payments credited to the beneficiary within 24 hours. Source: SWIFT, gpi tracking data.

Which currency do cross-border invoices actually settle in?

Despite the wide range of currencies a global client base might prefer, the US dollar remains the default settlement currency by a wide margin. SWIFT’s RMB Tracker put the dollar’s share of global payment value at 58.62% in December 2025, with the euro a distant second at 13.68%, and the British pound and Japanese yen close behind each other at roughly 5%. That dollar default creates a real cost for suppliers: a February 2026 PYMNTS and Mastercard study of 535 US small businesses found that 57% now source from overseas suppliers, and many of them still pay those suppliers in US dollars even when the supplier operates in a completely different currency. Researchers described this as shifting the currency risk and conversion cost onto whichever side has the least leverage to refuse it, typically the smaller supplier on the other end of the invoice. Multi-currency invoicing exists to close that gap: an invoice that states the amount in the recipient’s own currency removes the ambiguity that pushes conversion risk onto the wrong party.

Figure 5: Share of global cross-border payment value by currency, December 2025. Source: SWIFT RMB Tracker, December 2025 edition.

The market underneath all of this is still growing. Global B2B cross-border payment value is projected to grow from $39.3 trillion in 2023 to $56 trillion by 2030, a 43% increase, according to FXC Intelligence’s cross-border payments research. More of that volume is expected to move over instant-payment rails: FXC Intelligence and Juniper Research both track a rising share of cross-border B2B payments settling same-day rather than over several business days, though the multi-day bank wire remains the default for a large share of small business invoicing today. None of that growth changes the core problem an individual invoice still runs into: the currency it’s issued in decides who absorbs the conversion cost, and right now that is usually decided by default, not by agreement. BillyPaid’s late payment data shows that ambiguity of any kind, whether it’s payment terms or which currency is actually owed, is one of the most common reasons an invoice sits unpaid past its due date.

Multi-Currency Invoicing Cost and Speed at a Glance

Metric	Figure	Source
US SMB losses to hidden FX fees (2023)	$800 million	Capital Economics for Wise
Global average cross-border transfer cost (Q3 2025)	6.36% of amount sent	World Bank, Remittance Prices Worldwide
SWIFT gpi payments credited within 24 hours	92%	SWIFT gpi tracking data
USD share of global payment value (Dec 2025)	58.62%	SWIFT RMB Tracker

Table 1: Key cross-border invoicing cost, speed, and currency figures referenced throughout this report.

The Bottom Line

The data points in one direction: cross-border invoicing is growing fast, but the cost and currency mechanics behind it are still opaque to the businesses paying for them. Sending money across a border costs 6.36% of the transfer value on average, more than double what the UN considers acceptable, and most of that cost is hidden inside the exchange rate rather than disclosed as a fee, which is exactly why 82% of US small business leaders say they can’t tell what their bank actually charges. The US dollar’s dominance as a default settlement currency compounds the problem for the growing share of businesses sourcing or selling overseas, because whoever doesn’t get to invoice in their own currency ends up absorbing a conversion cost they never agreed to. Stating the currency clearly on the invoice itself is a small fix for a large amount of ambiguity. A BillyPaid invoice sent as a payable link states the amount and currency up front, so neither side is guessing which exchange rate applies by the time the payment actually lands.

Frequently Asked Questions

How much do small businesses lose to hidden cross-border fees? US small and medium businesses lost an estimated $800 million to opaque foreign-exchange fees in 2023 alone, according to research from Capital Economics commissioned by Wise. A separate Censuswide survey of 1,003 US SMB decision makers found 82% either do not believe or are unsure that their bank is transparent about cross-border costs.

How much does it cost to send money internationally in 2026? The global average cost of sending money across a border was 6.36% of the transfer value in the third quarter of 2025, per the World Bank’s Remittance Prices Worldwide report, down slightly from 6.49% in the first quarter of 2025 but still more than double the United Nations’ target of 3%.

How fast do cross-border invoice payments actually settle? 92% of SWIFT gpi cross-border payments are credited to the beneficiary’s account within 24 hours, and nearly 60% arrive within 30 minutes, according to SWIFT’s own tracking data. Once a payment reaches the beneficiary’s bank, local checks and operating hours can still add delay on top of that.

What currency do most cross-border invoices settle in? The US dollar remains the dominant invoicing and settlement currency, accounting for 58.62% of global payment value by currency in December 2025, according to SWIFT’s RMB Tracker. The euro was a distant second at 13.68%, followed by the British pound and Japanese yen at roughly 5% each.

Sources and References

1. Wise, Hidden Costs, Complexity of International Payments Threaten Small Business Expansion (Capital Economics estimate and Censuswide survey of 1,003 US SMBs, January and April 2024), hidden FX fee losses and small business payment sentiment.
2. World Bank, Remittance Prices Worldwide, Issue 54 (September 2025), global average cost of cross-border money transfers.
3. SWIFT, gpi cross-border payment settlement speed data, share of payments credited within 24 hours and within 30 minutes.
4. SWIFT, RMB Tracker (December 2025 edition), global payment value share by currency.
5. FXC Intelligence, Global B2B Cross-Border Payments to Grow 43% to $56tn by 2030, B2B cross-border payment market size forecast.
6. PYMNTS and Mastercard, The Cross-Border Opportunity: What Global Sourcing by US SMBs Means for Payment Providers (535 firms, February 2026), share of small businesses sourcing overseas and default-currency payment risk.

Note: All figures verified as of August 2026.