A textile business in London sources fabric from a supplier in Istanbul. The supplier is ready to ship when the deposit clears. The business initiates a wire transfer on Monday. The supplier confirms receipt on Thursday — four days later, after the payment has passed through a correspondent chain, been screened at two intermediary institutions, and landed in a Turkish bank account. The shipment leaves on Friday. If the season is tight, those four days are not just a delay. They are a problem.
This is not an unusual situation. It is the standard one for any business with international suppliers. Standard SWIFT wire transfers typically take one to five business days to settle, with each additional correspondent-bank hop adding roughly one business day for screening and booking (industry analyses of SWIFT processing flows, 2026). For a business paying suppliers in Turkey, India, Ghana, Indonesia, or Mexico — markets where correspondent-banking coverage is thinner — the wait is at the upper end of that range.
And the cost accumulates on top of the delay. Banks averaged 9.50% on a USD 200 send in Q1 2025 (World Bank, Remittance Prices Worldwide Issue 53, 2025). For businesses, the relevant send is not usually USD 200 — it is a USD 2,000 invoice, or a USD 20,000 deposit. At 9.50%, a USD 5,000 supplier payment costs the business USD 475 before the goods have moved an inch.
Why the wire transfer is still the default
SWIFT wire transfers have been the default for international business payments for decades because they were the only infrastructure reliable enough to carry significant value across borders. A business with a supplier in a different country had no other option: initiate the wire, wait for it to clear, and plan the supply chain around a settlement window measured in business days.
That default has persisted even as the rationale for it has weakened. The G20's cross-border payment roadmap set a target that 75% of cross-border retail payments be credited within one hour of initiation. As of the BIS CPMI's 2024 monitoring survey, only 35% of global cross-border retail payments met that benchmark (BIS, 2024 cross-border payments monitoring survey, 2025). Infrastructure-level progress is real. The end-user experience of waiting three days for a payment to settle is also real.
For businesses, the gap between the target and the reality is a supply-chain variable they plan around: initiate the payment early enough that the supplier confirms receipt before the goods need to leave. That means holding more working capital in transit, building buffers into timelines that could be tighter, and treating the payment as a logistical problem to manage rather than a simple confirmation to send.
In Q1 2025, banks averaged 9.50% on a USD 200 international send while digital providers averaged 3.65%. For businesses paying international suppliers by wire transfer, the same gap applies at every invoice size — and the three-to-five-day settlement window compounds the cost.
— World Bank, Remittance Prices Worldwide Issue 53, Q1 2025
What changes when the payment is the confirmation
The shift from a wire transfer to a peer-to-peer payment is not just a speed difference. It changes the structure of the commercial relationship itself.
When a payment takes five days to clear, the supplier holds the goods for five days, the business holds an open invoice for five days, and both sides of the transaction carry uncertainty for five days. Neither can fully close the loop on one order before the next begins. The payment is a separate administrative step — initiated on Monday, confirmed on Thursday — that sits outside the commercial conversation and requires follow-up from both sides to close.
When a payment settles in seconds, the business sends at the moment it wants to — when the invoice is confirmed, when the delivery is accepted, when the order is placed — and the supplier receives confirmation before the conversation has moved on. The payment is the confirmation. There is no separate "did the wire land?" email to send, no "please check your account" message to wait for. The commercial conversation and the payment settlement happen at the same time, because they are the same event.
A clothing brand in London sends a deposit to a manufacturer in Bangladesh when the design is finalised. The manufacturer confirms — not because they received a notification two days later, but because the balance is in their wallet the moment the send is confirmed. Production starts the same afternoon. An architecture firm in Berlin pays a sub-contractor in Lagos when the delivery milestone is reached; the payment is the milestone sign-off. A technology business in Singapore settles a development invoice with a team in Manila on the day the sprint closes; the project timeline does not have a "payment pending" status to manage around.
How Spondula handles the business payment flow
On the Spondula network, a business pays an international supplier in one of two ways: by sending directly to the supplier's Shandle, or by generating a payment link and sending it in the same email as the order confirmation.
The Shandle route works for established supplier relationships. The supplier claims a Shandle when they join the network — a short, memorable payment address that replaces account numbers, IBANs, and SWIFT codes. The business saves it to their contacts list. Every subsequent payment to that supplier is a handle, an amount, and a confirm. The supplier sees the balance in their wallet before the send confirmation has faded from the business's screen.
The payment-link route works for new or infrequent supplier relationships, or for any situation where the business wants to send a specific invoice amount without requiring the supplier to initiate from their side. The business generates a link from their wallet, sets the amount, and attaches it to the invoice or the order confirmation email. The supplier clicks, pays from their Spondula wallet, and the balance lands instantly. No wire transfer form. No bank visit. No three-day wait before the goods ship.
Both methods settle at a flat 0.2% exchange spread — shown before confirmation, with no hidden adjustment when funds arrive. A USD-S payment sent to a supplier in Ghana, India, Turkey, or Mexico carries the same spread as one sent to a supplier in the UK. The corridor does not change the cost.
The supplier side of the equation
A payment method only works if the supplier can receive it. The Spondula network is built so that the receiving side is as simple as the sending side: claim a Shandle, hold the balance in a multi-currency wallet, and access it through a Spondula Partner Location if cash conversion is needed.
A supplier in Lagos, Accra, Nairobi, or Manila who previously received wire transfers — with the uncertainty of timing and the gap between what was sent and what arrived — receives on Spondula in seconds, sees the balance immediately, and can plan their own operations around a confirmed incoming payment rather than an estimated one. For suppliers in markets where the distance to a bank branch is significant, the Spondula Partner Location network provides on-the-ground cash access that makes the digital balance usable in the physical economy.
The business in London, Berlin, or Singapore that pays through Spondula is not just improving its own payment flow. It is giving every supplier it pays a faster, clearer financial relationship — one where the goods ship when the payment confirms, because the confirmation is instant.
A payment that arrives five days late and costs 9.5% has already started costing the business before the goods have moved. That is the gap Spondula is built to close — for the business sending, and for the supplier receiving.
Getting started for a business
A Spondula business account works the same way as a personal one: one wallet, one Shandle, multiple currencies held simultaneously. The business tops up in GBP-S, USD-S, EUR-S, or any other supported token, and pays suppliers from the same wallet — across any corridor the network supports, at the same flat 0.2% spread regardless of the destination.
For businesses that invoice clients as well as pay suppliers — a design agency, a consulting firm, a fulfilment operation — the wallet handles both directions. A client in New York pays a payment link on the invoice. The balance arrives in the wallet. The business uses the same balance to pay its suppliers. No conversion out and back in through a correspondent chain. No float tied up in transit.
Spondula is pre-launch. If your business pays international suppliers and the wire-transfer settlement window is a variable your operations plan around, the waitlist is where that changes. One Shandle. One spread. Every supplier, every corridor, settled the same afternoon.
Frequently asked questions
How does a business send money to an international supplier on Spondula?
Two ways. If the supplier has a Spondula wallet, send directly to their Shandle — type the handle, confirm the amount and the exchange rate, and the balance arrives in their wallet in seconds. If the supplier is new to the network, generate a payment link from your wallet, set the invoice amount, and send it in the same email as the order confirmation. The supplier clicks, pays from their wallet, and the balance lands instantly.
Does my supplier need to already be on Spondula to receive payment?
To receive a direct Shandle payment, yes — both parties need a Spondula wallet. The onboarding flow is built into the network: sharing a payment link with a supplier who is not yet on Spondula prompts them to set up a wallet before the payment resolves. Onboarding takes minutes, and the first payment can follow immediately after.
What currencies can I pay suppliers in?
Spondula supports a wide range of stable-asset tokens, including GBP-S, USD-S, EUR-S, AED-S, SAR-S, NGN-S, KES-S, INR-S, MXN-S, IDR-S, TRY-S, and more. The business holds a multi-currency wallet and pays suppliers in whichever token matches the invoice currency. The conversion spread is a flat 0.2%, applied once and shown before confirmation.
How long does a business payment take to settle on Spondula?
Seconds. There are no correspondent-bank clearing windows, no cut-off times, and no business-day settlement delays. A payment sent on a Friday afternoon arrives in the supplier's wallet on Friday afternoon. It does not wait for Monday's clearing run.
What is the cost compared to a SWIFT wire transfer?
A standard wire through a traditional bank averaged 9.50% on a USD 200 send in Q1 2025 (World Bank, Remittance Prices Worldwide Issue 53, Q1 2025). Spondula's exchange spread is a flat 0.2%, with no additional service fees or exchange-rate adjustments. On a USD 5,000 supplier payment, the difference is approximately USD 465 per send.
Can a supplier without a bank account receive payment through Spondula?
Yes. A Spondula wallet does not require a bank account. The supplier receives value into their wallet and can convert to local currency at a Spondula Partner Location — a Local Operator in their area who handles cash-in and cash-out. For suppliers in markets where formal banking access is limited, the Partner Location network is how the digital balance becomes usable in the local economy.
Spondula is a global payments network. It is not a bank, exchange, investment platform, or broker. Availability, pricing, and Operator coverage vary by country. Bitcoin rewards depend on real network activity and are not guaranteed. See our terms and conditions for full details.
