How Singapore's cross-border small businesses are rethinking the way they get paid

A Singapore business selling home goods to retailers in Jakarta, Manila and Ho Chi Minh City may close a sale in a day but wait several more for the payment to arrive. The time it takes to collect funds can affect when it pays suppliers, replenishes inventory and fulfils its next order.

For small businesses trading across Southeast Asia, cross-border payments are not simply a back-office function. They are part of the working capital equation. Delays, foreign exchange costs and limited visibility over incoming funds can make it harder to manage cash flow as a business expands into new markets.

The challenge of moving money across borders

Domestic payments in Singapore have become increasingly efficient. Cross-border transactions, however, involve additional considerations, including differences in banking systems, currencies, settlement arrangements, and compliance requirements.

Payment service providers and fintech companies help businesses navigate these complexities. Yet as they expand across Southeast Asia, they face their own operational challenges: connecting payment channels across markets, managing liquidity and transaction flows, and providing reliable services without building every part of the underlying infrastructure themselves.

Technology is creating new options. Regional payment linkages can improve interoperability between domestic systems, while digital asset networks offer additional ways to transfer value across borders. Stablecoins, which are designed to maintain a relatively stable value against a reference asset such as the US dollar, are one area attracting attention from payment providers exploring new settlement models.

Their potential extends beyond transaction speed. Digital asset infrastructure can help connect financial institutions and payment providers across markets, supporting the development of new settlement services and giving businesses more options for managing cross-border flows. The practical benefits depend on the institutions involved, local requirements, currency conversion, and access to banking services.

Building connections across payment networks

For most businesses, adopting these capabilities does not mean managing digital assets directly. They access them through payment providers and fintech platforms that integrate the technology into their existing services.

Behind those services is a layer of infrastructure responsible for wallet management, transaction execution, access controls and operational oversight. Building and maintaining these capabilities requires technical expertise as well as processes for managing risk, monitoring transactions and maintaining records.

Cregis, a digital asset infrastructure provider founded in 2017, works with businesses across this ecosystem, including digital banks, payment service providers, fintechs and other enterprises managing digital asset transactions. The company serves more than 4,000 businesses across over 50 countries and reports more than US$300 billion (S$383.97 billion) in cumulative transaction volume.

Its infrastructure supports several parts of the process. Cregis Wallet-as-a-Service (WaaS) enables businesses to integrate digital asset wallets into their platforms, with multi-party computation (MPC) technology supporting private-key security. Cregis Rails, its payment engine, supports payment and settlement workflows across blockchain networks through API integrations, allowing providers to build on existing infrastructure rather than develop every component in-house.

Cregis Trust Vault provides additional controls for digital asset operations, including approval workflows, governance, and audit trails. Its security framework is backed by SOC 2 Type I and Type II reports and ISO 27001 certification.

Together, these capabilities can help payment providers develop services that connect digital asset settlement with their wider payment operations. Rather than operating as a standalone alternative to financial institutions, the technology can serve as an additional layer through which providers and institutional partners build and manage cross-border payment flows.

For a provider serving businesses in Singapore and Indonesia, for example, the infrastructure can support the integration of collection channels, digital asset transfers and payout processes. How the funds move, when they become available and what they cost will depend on the provider's operating model, its banking and liquidity arrangements, and the requirements of the markets involved.

From infrastructure to everyday business

For Cregis founder and chief executive officer Shawn Yan, the opportunity lies in helping businesses and financial institutions build the connections needed to support digital asset services as the market develops. “I often describe this as following momentum rather than simply reacting to demand,” Yan says.

As digital assets become more integrated into financial services, the role of infrastructure providers is evolving. Beyond supplying wallet technology or transaction tools, they can help connect institutions across markets and support the operational requirements of cross-border settlement. Banks and payment providers remain central to this process, bringing their customer relationships, local market access and financial services expertise.

For Southeast Asian businesses, the implications are practical. Better-connected payment services can give merchants more ways to collect funds, manage liquidity and serve customers in different markets. The value will depend not on the technology alone, but on how effectively it works with the financial institutions and payment channels businesses already rely on.

Cross-border payments will continue to involve different currencies, institutions, and local requirements. But as the infrastructure connecting them develops, smaller businesses may gain access to payment services that were once harder to offer across multiple markets. The technology sits behind the transaction; its significance lies in helping businesses operate with greater flexibility as they grow across borders.