As global trade and corporate international expansion accelerate, cross-border payments are becoming a critical foundational capability for businesses going global. The challenge for enterprises is no longer simply "how to complete a cross-border payment," but whether they can make fund flows smarter, more efficient, and more controllable within complex multi-market, multi-currency, and multi-entity environments.
By 2025, the volume of global cross-border payment flows is projected to reach approximately $208 trillion. As a fundamental capability connecting global commerce, cross-border payments are undergoing rapid upgrades. Against this backdrop, Visa hosted its "Payments in Motion Shanghai" event, facilitating in-depth discussions with financial institutions, fintech companies, and corporate representatives on the core topic of AI-driven corporate cross-border payments and fund flows.
The event focused on reshaping the long-term competitiveness of corporate cross-border payments around the core principles of trust and intelligence. The Global Senior Vice President and Greater China President of Visa emphasized in her opening remarks that against the backdrop of AI and digitalization continuously reshaping the business world, the core competitiveness of corporate cross-border payments is shifting from "the ability to complete a transaction" to "possessing a long-term, stable, scalable, and sustainable fund flow capability."
She pointed out that what truly supports corporate globalization is not just technological innovation itself, but the payment infrastructure built on trust, stability, and global connectivity. Visa will continue to leverage its global payment network, commercial payment and fund flow solutions, and AI-centric value-added service capabilities, collaborating with ecosystem partners to help businesses achieve more stable and sustainable growth in complex cross-border environments.
Regarding the deep restructuring of the payment system by AI, the Global Senior Vice President and General Manager of Commercial Payments and Money Movement for Asia Pacific at Visa highlighted in a keynote speech that as business scales expand and payment pathways and settlement methods grow increasingly complex, reliance solely on manual rules and traditional automation can no longer support corporate growth.
She stated that artificial intelligence is progressively becoming involved in key decisions behind payments—from how funds are routed and risks are identified, to authorization success rates and exception handling methods. This helps enterprises improve efficiency and certainty while ensuring security and compliance. Payment systems are evolving from being "execution tools" into "intelligent decision-making systems."
The Global Vice President and China President of Visa noted in his remarks that cross-border commerce and corporate globalization are reshaping the role of payments. Payments are no longer just the endpoint of a transaction but serve as vital operational infrastructure that runs through corporate procurement, supply chain settlements, platform revenue sharing, and corporate expenditures.
In the context of expanding cross-border operations, what businesses truly care about is not just "whether the payment can be sent," but whether funds can flow securely, stably, and scalably within complex environments.
The complexity of corporate cross-border payments is particularly pronounced. The Global Vice President and General Manager of Commercial & Money Movement for Greater China at Visa pointed out that when a payment system lacks unified management and intelligent support, larger business scales can lead to higher complexity and risk.
He indicated that what enterprises need is no longer just "faster payments," but stable, predictable, and replicable cross-border fund flow capabilities to support long-term operations and sustained growth. If cross-border payments are not deeply integrated with business operations, they can often become hidden costs and sources of risk during expansion.
As the scale of cross-border trade and corporate activity grows, risks, disputes, and operational friction also amplify. Relying on post-event processing and static rules is not only costly but can also negatively impact customer experience. AI-driven real-time risk control, identity verification, and dispute management capabilities enable businesses to identify risks earlier, reduce misjudgments, and protect revenue and trust without sacrificing growth. Visa's value-added services are transitioning from being "supplementary capabilities" to becoming key components of corporate cross-border payment systems.
Beyond payment challenges at the operational level, cross-border demand itself is continuously releasing new momentum. The event coincided with the 2026 Formula 1 Shanghai Grand Prix. The Global Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer for Asia Pacific at Visa invited the founder of Morningside Heights Racing Consulting to discuss how demand-side factors, represented by the "event economy," drive cross-border trade.
The Chief Marketing Officer noted that what often drives cross-border flows and transactions is not the payment itself, but human passion—whether for business collaboration or cross-border demand generated around sports, music, and lifestyle. Passion can inspire action, but only through ecosystem collaboration can these actions be transformed into sustainable, measurable business outcomes.
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