CYS INSIGHTS

A Report by CYS Global Remit Digital Media Marketing Team Saturday mornings at CYS usually start a little later. But on 29 August, the team was already up and about by 9am, ready for a different kind of weekend activity. As part of CYS’ bi-quarterly CSR initiative, the team headed down to NTUC Health Nursing Home (Geylang East) for a carnival-style day filled with games, karaoke, colouring, bingo, ice cream and plenty of laughter. The mission was simple: spend the day with th

Behind Every International Payment Is a Reason — and Someone Waiting on the Other Side A Report by CYS Global Remit Digital Media Marketing Team Somewhere today, a parent will receive money from a son or daughter working thousands of kilometers away. A student's education will be paid for from another country. A family will use money sent from overseas to cover groceries, rent or household expenses. A supplier will release an order because an international payment has arri

A Report by CYS Global Remit Digital Media Marketing Team For many people, sending money overseas is simply part of the monthly routine. A transfer is made. The money arrives. Life goes on. But on the other side of that transaction, someone may be waiting for it. That monthly remittance could become a family’s grocery budget. It could pay a child’s school fees, cover the rent, support ageing parents or simply help meet the everyday expenses that keep a household going. For th

A Report by CYS Global Remit Digital Media Marketing Team For Singapore businesses sourcing products, materials or services from the Philippines, paying suppliers is an essential part of keeping operations moving. Yet as trade between the two markets grows, businesses need to look beyond simply sending funds from one account to another. A smooth supplier payment can affect everything from delivery schedules and inventory planning to supplier relationships and cash flow. More

A Report by CYS Global Remit Digital Media Marketing Team This past week, we headed down to the Suntec Singapore Convention & Exhibition Centre on a bright morning, where the venue had traded its usual quiet for something a lot more festive. Rows of branded merchandise, artisan hampers, tech gadgets, and eco-friendly keepsakes filled the hall, all under a canopy of black and yellow balloons welcoming visitors to Singapore's biggest corporate gifting showcase. The Corporate Gi

A Report by CYS Global Remit Digital Media Marketing Team Not long ago, managing international business meant juggling multiple financial partners. One bank handled overseas payments. Another institution managed foreign exchange. Collections came through a separate platform, while treasury and cash management were often managed independently. Each provider served a specific purpose, and businesses accepted the complexity as part of operating globally. Today, that expectation

A Report by CYS Global Remit Digital Media Marketing Team For decades, business success has often been measured by one number: Revenue. Higher sales meant growth. Growth meant success. And success meant the business was heading in the right direction. While that thinking still holds true, today's business environment is telling a different story. Increasingly, some of the strongest companies are not necessarily those growing the fastest—they are the ones managing their cash

A Report by CYS Global Remit Digital Media Marketing Team Why Smart Businesses Are Rethinking Cross-Border Payments When businesses look at cross-border payments, they usually focus on three things. Exchange rates. Transfer fees. How quickly the money arrives. That's understandable. After all, every international payment appears as another business expense. But what if we've been looking at cross-border payments from the wrong perspective? What if the real question isn't,

Why the Next Frontier in Cross-Border Payments Isn't Speed – It's Certainty A Report by CYS Global Remit Digital Media Marketing Team For years, the cross-border payments industry has competed on one promise: faster transfers. From real-time payment rails to instant settlement networks, innovation has largely been measured by how many seconds or minutes can be shaved off the payment journey. Speed has become the benchmark by which many providers define success. And rightly so

A Report by CYS Global Remit Digital Media Marketing Team Choosing a payment provider used to be simple: compare exchange rates and transaction fees. Today, that approach is no longer enough. As global trade becomes more interconnected and regulations more complex, businesses are discovering that the right payment partner can influence far more than just the cost of moving money. How fast are the transfers? What are the fees? Can they offer a better exchange rate? These are a

A Report by CYS Global Remit Digital Media Marketing Team For decades, global trade was built around a simple model: manufacture in one part of the world, ship across continents, and sell wherever demand existed. Businesses optimised for cost, often relying on long, highly interconnected supply chains that stretched across multiple countries. Today, that model is evolving. Around the world, businesses are increasingly shifting towards regional trade networks. Rather than conc

A Report by CYS Global Remit Digital Media Marketing Team Ask an importer how they manage costs, and you'll likely hear a familiar list. Freight charges. Warehousing expenses. Supplier pricing. Packaging costs. Tariffs. Most businesses spend considerable time negotiating these expenses because they directly affect margins. A few percentage points saved on shipping costs can translate into meaningful savings over the course of a year. Yet there is one cost that often receives

A Report by CYS Global Remit Digital Media Marketing Team For many years, business success was measured by one thing: growth. Higher sales, larger market share, and rapid expansion were seen as the clearest indicators of a thriving company. But today's business environment is forcing organisations to rethink that assumption. Increasingly, the companies gaining a competitive edge are not necessarily the fastest-growing ones. They are the organisations that manage their cash fl

A Report by CYS Global Remit Digital Media Marketing Team Ask most SME owners what business they are in, and the answers are usually straightforward. A distributor sells products. A manufacturer produces goods. An importer sources inventory. A property firm closes deals. An investment company manages assets. Very few would describe themselves as being in the treasury business. Yet increasingly, that is exactly what many businesses are becoming. Not because they intend to, but

A Report by CYS Global Remit Digital Media Marketing Team Over the past decade, the cross-border payments industry has undergone rapid transformation. Faster settlement systems, digital wallets, APIs, blockchain infrastructure, and real-time payment technologies have all reshaped how money moves globally. On paper, the industry has never looked more advanced. Yet despite all the technological progress, one factor continues to sit at the centre of every transaction: trust. Bec

A Report by CYS Global Remit Digital Media Marketing Team When businesses think about global expansion, Asia is often viewed as the region of greatest opportunity. Home to some of the world’s fastest-growing economies, major manufacturing hubs, financial centres, and rapidly expanding consumer markets, Asia continues to drive global trade and cross-border commerce. As trade activity grows, so too does the movement of money across borders. Yet despite its enormous commer

A Report by CYS Global Remit Digital Media Marketing Team For years, the conversation around cross-border payments has focused on speed. The industry pushed towards faster settlement times, real-time payment capabilities, and smoother user experiences. Fintech innovation accelerated expectations, and businesses increasingly began to expect international payments to move as quickly as domestic ones. But beneath the surface, another issue has quietly become more important — li

A Report by CYS Global Remit Digital Media Marketing Team For decades, international payments followed a fairly predictable path. Businesses relied mainly on traditional banking networks to move money across borders, and while the process was not always fast or cheap, it was familiar and widely trusted. But global business has changed — and so have the expectations surrounding payments Today, companies are beginning to realize that there is no single payment method that w

A Report by CYS Global Remit Digital Media Marketing Team “Faster” has become one of the most frequently used words in the cross-border payments industry. New technologies promise near-instant transfers, real-time confirmations, and seamless global movement of funds. On the surface, this representsmeaningful progress. But in practice, speed does not always translate into better outcomes. As many businesses and financial institutions have experienced, a payment that moves qui

A Report by CYS Global Remit Digital Media Marketing Team Last week, the CYS team spent time at Food & Hotel Asia 2026 (FHA 2026), one of Asia's largest and most established trade events for the food, beverage, and hospitality industries. We attended as visitors — moving from booth to booth rather than exhibiting — and the experience offered a valuable window into a sector that is both highly dynamic and deeply international. A Truly Global Marketplace FHA brings together a