For years, payment companies competed on the same three things: speed, cost and reach. And even though that race is not over, it is becoming harder to differentiate on execution alone.
McKinsey estimates that $190 trillion crossed borders in 2025, generating more than $290 billion in payments revenue. It shows that security, speed and cost are steadily becoming table stakes, while payments are moving into accounting and treasury workflows.
That changes what businesses expect from payment infrastructure. It no longer suffices to get money moving fast. It is how little operational work is required before and after it moves what matters most.
A B2B payment is not a single transaction
For a finance team, paying or getting paid starts well before settlement. An invoice has to be created, approved and sent. Once funds arrive, the transaction must be identified, matched to the right invoice, recorded and reflected in the company’s cash position.
Payment execution and settlement are only one stage in a broader process that includes purchase orders, invoicing, approvals, reconciliation, reporting and recordkeeping.
That is why a payment that settles in seconds can still sit inside a workflow that takes days.
This gap is becoming more visible as the rails improve. Real-time bank payments are expanding, APIs have made payment infrastructure easier to integrate, and stablecoins have created another fast, global settlement option. Yet faster settlement does not remove manual invoicing, disconnected systems or reconciliation work.
Stablecoins make the contrast especially clear
Stablecoins are already being used for business payments. Artemis, in its 2025 study of stablecoin payment companies, attributed $136 billion in payments between January 2023 and August 2025. Within its sample, B2B was the largest category, running at an annualized $76 billion by August 2025.
For businesses paying suppliers or collecting internationally, the appeal is clear: value can move across borders without relying exclusively on traditional correspondent banking chains.
But moving funds from one wallet to another is still only the transaction layer. A company also needs to generate the invoice, tell the customer where to pay, track whether payment arrived, reconcile it and understand what happened to its treasury afterwards.
The payment rail can be modern while the surrounding workflow remains fragmented.
Where B2B payments go next
McKinsey argues that cross-border payments are increasingly becoming embedded within broader financial services rather than operating as standalone products. For businesses, this means bringing the functions required for day-to-day financial operations into one workflow, from invoicing and payment collection to reconciliation, treasury management and payouts.
Another important part of this shift is autonomy. Businesses expect to be able to access financial infrastructure quickly, connect the tools and wallets they already use, and start operating without a lengthy implementation process.
This is the approach behind Performa Finance’s self-service model. Businesses can complete an initial onboarding flow, connect their own wallets and start creating invoices within hours while retaining control of their funds. Instead of requiring companies to transfer their treasury into a new environment before they can use the platform, the infrastructure is built around the assets they already control.
As payment execution becomes faster and more standardized, the value of B2B payment infrastructure will depend on how much of the wider financial workflow it can bring together and how easily businesses can access it.
