Why Your Payment Provider Supports 100 Countries and 3 Currencies
The short answer
A provider that "supports 100 countries" usually means 100 places where a customer can sign up. It rarely means 100 currencies you can hold a balance in or settle out of. The first number is distribution. The second is capability. They are not the same, and the gap is where your cost hides.
Two different numbers
Country coverage answers: "Can someone in this market open an account?" Currency depth answers: "Can I actually move money in this currency, natively, at a rate I saw first?" Most providers score high on the first and three on the second — USD, EUR, GBP — because those are the only currencies their banking relationships and nostro accounts cover.
| Claim | What it measures | What it doesn't |
|---|---|---|
| Countries supported | Who can onboard | What you can settle in |
| Currencies held | What you can balance in | How many corridors route through USD |
| Direct pairs | Conversions with no USD leg | — |
Why the industry leads with the big number
Opening an account is cheap and scales. Adding a currency is a banking relationship (three to nine months), a local entity in most markets, pre-funded capital, and a compliance review. So the sales deck leads with the number that's easy to grow and stays quiet about the one that's expensive to grow. Understandable. Just not the number you underwrite your margin on.
How to work out which one you need
- List the currencies your customers actually invoice and pay in.
- Ask each provider: how many of those can I hold a balance in, not just convert through?
- For each non-dollar pair, ask: is it direct, or routed via USD with a second spread?
- Count the currencies that survive that test. That's your real coverage.
100 countries is a sales number. Three currencies is an infrastructure number. Know which one you're quoting.
The bottom line
If your money moves in more than three currencies, country count is the wrong filter. Look for currencies held, direct pairs, and a quoted rate — the things that decide what you actually pay.
We'll tell you honestly whether we can move it — including when the answer is no.
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