Fintech Launches Instant Cross-Border Payroll Solution

New platform delivers real-time, compliant payroll to 220+ markets, slashing FX costs and settlement delays for global employers

San Francisco, CA – November 25, 2025 Global payroll fintech Nium today launched an instant cross-border payroll engine that lets companies fund and deliver employee and contractor wages in local currency within seconds, eliminating the multi-day delays and 6.5 % average fees that still plague legacy correspondent-bank rails. The cloud-native module is embedded inside Nium’s existing real-time payments network, which processed USD 2 billion in payroll disbursements to 134 countries in 2024 and is on track to handle twice that volume in 2025, according to company data released to PaymentsSource.

The release coincides with a World Economic Forum estimate that cross-border payments will top USD 200 trillion annually this year, driven by e-commerce migration and remote-work expansion. “Payroll is the last mile of that flow, and until now it has been the slowest,” said Prajit Nanu, Nium co-founder and CEO. “We’ve closed the gap between treasury click and employee wallet to under ten seconds in 100 live corridors, including the Philippines, Mexico, India and Brazil—markets that absorb 42 % of all global gig-economy wages.”

Unlike traditional payroll providers that require prefunded local accounts, Nium’s engine uses AI-steered FX liquidity pools and 24-hour rate-lock technology to let finance teams fund once in their home currency and schedule bulk payouts in 20+ local currencies without trapped balances. A built-in compliance layer automates Know-Your-Customer (KYC), tax-form generation and Anti-Money-Laundering (AML) screening, cutting onboarding time for new hires to under two days—80 % faster than regional averages, the company said.

Early adopters include Remote, whose platform serves 10,000+ distributed companies. Since piloting the module in June, Remote has reduced payroll exceptions by 37 % and eliminated USD 1.3 million in FX mark-ups, according to an internal case study shared with Finextra. “When payroll fails, talent walks,” said Remote CEO Job van der Voort. “Real-time, transparent wages are now a competitive advantage in hiring globally.”

Market tailwinds are reinforcing demand. The global multi-country payroll solutions market is forecast to reach USD 10.5 billion by 2030, with CAGR of 14.2 %, according to a September 2025 white paper from BCG and Nium. Emerging markets account for 68 % of that growth, fueled by double-digit increases in remote hiring from North American and European firms. “Instant payroll is moving from ‘nice-to-have’ to board-level mandate,” said Sarah Shin, fintech analyst at Gartner, who tracks 37 similar deployments but calls Nium’s “the first to combine real-time settlement, FX optimization and compliance in one API.”

Nium’s network reaches 220 payout markets, 1.5 billion debit cards, 150 digital wallets and 100 real-time payment rails, including India’s UPI, Brazil’s Pix and the UK Faster Payments Service. The company holds Money Transmitter Licenses in 40 jurisdictions and is ISO 20022 native, positioning it to capitalize on the November 2025 Swift MX migration that will require banks to adopt richer data formats for cross-border messages.

Pricing is consumption-based: clients pay USD 0.35–1.20 per transaction plus interbank FX spread as low as 8 basis points, undercutting incumbent payroll processors that typically charge 2–4 % all-in. A self-service dashboard gives treasurers line-item visibility into every payment, while a mobile app lets workers track earnings, download payslips and route funds to bank, card or Alipay, M-Pesa and Paytm wallets.

“Cross-border payroll is the next frontier after B2B invoicing and remittances,” said Nanu. “Our mission is to make every payday feel local, no matter where work happens.”

About Nium

Nium is a global real-time payments platform built for the on-demand economy. Regulated in 40+ markets, the company enables businesses to send, spend and receive funds across 220+ countries and territories. Its API-based infrastructure powers payroll, remittances, travel and marketplace payouts for 500+ enterprises, including Rippling, Remitly and Grab. Founded in 2014, Nium is headquartered in San Francisco with regional offices in Singapore, London, São Paulo and Mumbai. For more information, visit www.nium.com.