UK-based WorldFirst , a digital payment and financial platform for cross-border trade SMEs, has planned to expand digital finance solutions for SMEs in Southeast Asia. WorldFirst is aiming to support online sellers achieve growth with secure, fast, and reliable cross-border payment and financial services as well as easy one-stop connection to multiple global marketplaces.

Building on its success in China, Singapore, and other markets, WorldFirst will introduce the suite of solutions through World Account to Vietnam, Thailand, the Philippines, and Malaysia to facilitate global selling, management, and growth for SMEs. Facilitating trade With WorldFirst, SMEs can open a multi-currency World Account within minutes to be able to trade like a local around the world. World Account supports 42 currencies to over 200 global markets to facilitate global sourcing.

It also enables local collection in 30 currencies from more than 120 e-marketplaces, supported by WorldFirst’s access to 40 local fast payment schemes worldwide. While SMEs are often denied access to global multi-currency pooling by traditional service providers, with World Account, funds paid into sellers’ local collection account will be instantly pooled over as available balance. A unified view of business operations During the crucial scaling-up stage, SMEs are often hampered by the challenge to manage multiple stores across different e-marketplaces under multiple entities.

World Account provides a single user-friendly portal for sellers to manage their growing operations across countries and marketplaces. Sellers can tier stores, e-marketplaces, and entities, while customising account statements accordingly for reconciliation. Promoting growth Through its Global Voyage programme launched in 2022, WorldFirst offers hassle-free one-stop store opening services across global marketplaces, thanks to its strong partnerships with these marketplaces.

With an expedited process across 28 partner ecommerce platforms, set-up time for the seller goes down to within 24 hours. In addition, sellers may find a broad array of value-added professional services through WorldFirst to boost their growth, from online advertising and logistics to website development and management. Company officials said that building on their global fintech capabilities and strong success in China, Singapore, and other markets, they are confident their secure and fast cross-border payment and ecommerce enablement services can help small business in Southeast Asia extend their international footprint.

WorldFirst prioritises the safety and security of client transactions above all else with a fraud prevention track record in the industry. It partners with banks and financial institutions to safeguard client funds, including eight Globally Systemically Important Banks. The adoption of cross-border digital payment systems is considered as a key catalyst to ecommerce growth, making it easier for small businesses to find new customers by accessing new regional and global markets and managing their payments, a report by the EU-ASEAN Business Council finds.

In Singapore, SME clients of WorldFirst experienced a 70% increase in their monthly GMV between October and January 2023. .