Global account for global business
To capitalise on the global e-commerce market—projected to soar to $7.9 trillion by 2030 — small businesses require a cross-border payment account that enables seamless transactions on a global scale. Since its inception in London in 2004, WorldFirst has forged strategic partnerships with leading banks and top e-commerce platforms worldwide, ensuring businesses have the tools they need for that. Among the banks WorldFirst partners with, eight are global systematically important banks, including Citi, HSBC and JPMorgan.
With a WorldFirst multi-currency account, businesses can pay in over 100 currencies to more than 200 countries and regions, collect payments in over 30 currencies, and manage currency exchange on their terms. Additionally, treasury services help optimise liquidity.
To enable cross-border payment across the globe, WorldFirst leverages over 60 licences worldwide to ensure compliance, set up 30 offices worldwide to provide dedicated local support, and partners with over 130 e-commerce platforms and payment gateways, including Amazon and Walmart Marketplace. WorldFirst also offers green-lane store opening on nearly 30 e-commerce sites.
One-stop business account tailor-made for SMEs
High account setup thresholds, costly fees and unfavourable exchange rates associated with international payments can eat into the profits of small e-commerce businesses. For instance, the McKinsey’s Global Payments Report finds that the average cost of cross-border payments ranges between 5 per cent and 10 per cent. The onboarding process with a new account can take two to four weeks or longer, according to the World Bank’s Doing Business report.
“Customer feedback drives us to continuously improve and expand our product offerings. Over the years, we have developed a one-stop payment and financial services platform that significantly improve efficiencies for SMEs in managing all their essential international financial needs,” says Shi. On review site Trustpilot, WorldFirst’s rating is in the highest category of great based on votes from nearly 3,000 customers.
With WorldFirst, e-commerce merchants can open a cross-border business account online in just minutes. The account allows them to make and collect international payments, convert currencies, manage liquidity, and even apply for loans, all on a single digital platform. What started as a foreign exchange service 20 years ago has transformed into a global business account for SMEs.
Enabling global growth with AI-powered security
Advanced AI technologies, when misused by malicious criminals, pose significant deepfake risks. Fintech platforms are in a constant race to stay ahead of these threats to maintain trust and reliability their clients expect.
WorldFirst’s risk control system backed by AI capabilities of Ant International can quickly pinpoint fraudulent transactions and their financial connections, effectively identifying fraudulent behaviour. Its e-KYC function can combat deepfakes with interception success rate at more than 99 per cent. WorldFirst has a fraud rate below 1bps and zero account theft, positioning it as a highly secure and reliable platform.
AI is also used to improve customer service and communications. AI-assisted customer service agent can resolve nearly half of customer enquiries and is available in dozens of languages.
Ant International to expand partnership in Middle East
In addition to WorldFirst, Singapore-headquartered Ant International also operates unified wallet gateway Alipay+, unified merchant payment solution Antom and embedded finance.
In February 2025, Ant International opened its first Middle East Office in Saudi Arabia to expand regional partnership, while introducing cutting-edge financial and digitisation technology to support digital transformation for the business community in the region and beyond. Recently independent from Ant Group, Ant International works with global banks, e-payment partners and industry platforms to serve over 90 million merchants globally across 200 markets. The Middle East is one of its key strategic markets.
Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and is not intended to provide legal or professional advice. It should not be seen as an offer or recommendation to buy or sell any financial products or services.
