Cash inflows arrive slowly: a challenge for cross-border online businesses

Cash inflows for cross-border online businesses often arrive slowly, creating a mismatch between when work is completed and when funds are credited to domestic accounts. For freelancers and sellers relying on international clients or platforms, the delay can affect day-to-day operations and the ability to rotate working capital.

Anh Vu Tuan, a marketing freelancer in District 10, Ho Chi Minh City, said most of his income comes from international projects. After clients pay, funds can take several days to complete processing on payment platforms and intermediaries before being credited to Vietnamese bank accounts, depending on processing and transaction verification procedures.

“Money arriving not in step with the completion of work forces me to be more proactive in cash flow management, especially when paying for tools or operating costs,” Tuan said.

Payment delays and their effect on working capital

The issue is not limited to freelancers. Many sellers on international e-commerce platforms face similar timing gaps when cash flow arrives slower than expected. When incoming funds are delayed, the capital cycle used for importing goods, running advertising campaigns, or expanding operations can be disrupted.

According to “Freelancer Challenges 2024” from recruitment platform Elite Brains, late payments are among the biggest problems for freelancers, with about 29% of respondents saying they frequently encounter them. In the Asia-Pacific region, cross-border payment processing can take 10 days to nearly 30 days in some cases.

Demand for faster payments

At the same time, demand for quicker settlement is increasing. Surveys cited in the report show 75% of freelancers want payments on the same day or almost immediately, even if it means trading off some costs for faster processing.

Cake GlobalX aims to speed up cross-border receipts

At the end of March 2026, digital bank Cake by VPBank announced the rollout of Cake GlobalX for receiving money from abroad, with funds credited to a Vietnamese account on the same day.

The solution is built on Cake’s AI-powered digital banking platform combined with Visa’s cross-border payment infrastructure. The bank says this approach shortens cross-border transaction processing time compared with traditional methods, while complying with global standards and supporting the safety of cross-border funds.

Instead of passing through multiple intermediaries, funds are transferred directly from business partners to a Vietnamese digital-bank account, reducing payment delays—an important factor for users who need to rotate working capital quickly.

Fees, exchange rates, and supported currencies

Cost and exchange-rate transparency are also positioned as key benefits. With Cake GlobalX, fees are disclosed upfront, starting from about 1.1 USD per transaction (approximately 29,000 VND, according to VPBank’s transfer rate) for widely used currencies.

Cake GlobalX currently supports multiple currencies including USD, EUR, GBP, CAD, and more. The service can also convert currencies directly to VND within the app.

According to Tuan, clearer costs and exchange rates help users manage cash flow more actively rather than being passive as before.

24/7 platform operations and transaction management

A further feature highlighted is that receiving money, tracking transactions, and managing finances are handled 24/7 on a single platform—the Cake app. This is described as especially useful for users with multiple income sources from different markets.

“Having money flow directly from partners to the digital bank account helps me cut costs on intermediaries. Additionally, when issues arise, I receive 24/7 Vietnamese-language support, which is very convenient,” Tuan said.

Promotions from April 2026

Cake said the international money-receiving service is initially drawing interest from the cross-border business community, particularly freelancers and sellers on international e-commerce platforms. Users cited shorter receipt times and transparent costs as factors that help them manage cash flow proactively when capital rotation is needed quickly.

To support user experience, from April 2026 Cake will launch three promotions for the international money-receiving service. The first 2,000 customers will have the service-management fee refunded, worth 143,000 VND. Users will also receive refunds for the first money-receiving transactions, up to 75,000 VND per transaction.