Common business money transfer methods in Australia
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Note (as of June 2026): Fees and speed may vary by provider, currency, transfer size, and route. Confirm with your business money transfer service provider before choosing.
Bank SWIFT transfers remain the most familiar option and are sometimes unavoidable, particularly for destination countries or currencies with limited fintech coverage. They're rarely the cheapest choice for routine payments, but an existing banking relationship can simplify reconciliation if you're already managing most of your finances through one institution.
When you do send via SWIFT, you'll typically be asked to select a charge code that determines who absorbs the fees along the way:
- OUR means you, the sender, pay all fees, including any intermediary bank charges, so your supplier receives the exact invoice amount in full.
- SHA (shared) means you pay your own bank's outgoing fee while your recipient absorbs any incoming and intermediary charges, which can mean they receive less than expected.
- BEN means the recipient bears all charges, with intermediary fees deducted progressively as the payment moves through the network. If your contract specifies the supplier receives the full invoice amount, select OUR as it's the only option that guarantees that outcome.
Multi-currency business accounts let you hold balances in foreign currency rather than converting AUD every time you pay an invoice.
Aspire’s online business account allows businesses to hold, pay and receive money in 13 currencies, with local account details for major currencies like USD, EUR, GBP and CAD, making it useful if you're paying multiple suppliers in the same currency over time, since you convert once rather than on every transaction. You can even earn 1% unlimited cashback on all FX card spend.
Other providers address different parts of the workflow. Wise Business supports multi-currency balances and transfers at transparent rates. Airwallex combines accounts, global transfers, and card spend. OFX suits larger transfers with FX tools. Recurring international payments require more than one-off transfers as complexity grows.
Dedicated FX specialists typically don't charge a flat transfer fee, instead building their margin into the exchange rate itself, a markup that varies by currency, transfer size, and timing, with larger transfers generally attracting lower markups.
Providers in this category, like TorFX, WorldFirst, and Send Payments. often offer forward contracts, letting a business lock in an exchange rate for a future payment. This is especially relevant if you're managing currency risk on a large one-off transaction like an equipment purchase or a property-related payment.
Business money transfer: Step-by-step process
Company gross operating profits fell 2.4% in the June 2025 quarter while wages rose nearly 6% year-on-year. Margins are tight across the board, and an inefficient business money transfer process is one of the most avoidable drains.
Business money transfer and international payment shouldn't start with the transfer button. It should start with a structured check of who you're paying, how the money will move, what it will actually cost, and how your team will record it once it's gone.
- Confirm who you're paying
Start with the recipient's full banking details, not just their business name and an account number. Depending on the destination country, you'll need some combination of:
- Legal business name exactly as it appears on their bank account
- Recipient name
- Country
- Bank account number
- SWIFT/BIC code (think of it as the bank's address on the network. It's typically 8 or 11 characters)
- IBAN (where the destination country uses one, like the Eurozone, the UK, and a growing number of countries in the Middle East and Africa, and they range from 15 to 34 characters depending on the country).
- Local routing details (The United States, Australia, and several other markets don't use IBANs at all and rely on local routing numbers or BSB-and-account-number structures)
- A clear payment purpose
Quick tip: Match every field against the supplier invoice, signed contract, or a verified onboarding record, ideally one your finance team confirmed directly with the supplier. This single check is also your primary defence against business email compromise fraud, where a convincing fake invoice with slightly altered bank details is the most common attack vector for redirecting an international payment entirely.
- Choose the transfer method based on the use case
Once the recipient is confirmed, match the payment method to what you're actually trying to do. Ask specific questions:
How urgent is this specific payment?
If you need funds to land today, an urgent supplier payment to release a shipment, for example, a provider using local payment rails will outperform a bank SWIFT transfer on speed almost every time.
If it's a scheduled, recurring payment like monthly contractor payroll, you have more room to optimise for cost over speed.
How often do you send money overseas?
A one-off payment to a new supplier is usually still cheaper through a transparent fintech platform than through your bank, with no ongoing commitment required.
But if you're making recurring payments, monthly supplier invoices, regular contractor payments, ongoing payroll for an overseas team member, a multi-currency account that lets you hold a foreign currency balance avoids repeated conversion costs entirely.
You convert once, then pay multiple invoices from that balance.
Which currencies and countries are you dealing with?
Major corridors, USD, GBP, EUR, NZD, are well served by almost every provider, with competitive margins across the board. Less common currencies or destination countries with limited local banking infrastructure may still require a SWIFT transfer, where an established bank relationship or a specialist with strong correspondent banking ties matters more than the lowest advertised fee.
- Check the total cost beyond the headline transfer fee
A low advertised transfer fee tells you almost nothing about the true cost of a payment until you've checked four other variables:
- The FX margin against the mid-market rate
- Intermediary bank fees (relevant if you've selected SHA or BEN rather than OUR)
- The recipient bank's fee for accepting the incoming transfer
- For card or payment processor-based payments, the processor's own percentage fee
Total cost = Transfer fee + FX margin + Intermediary bank fees + Recipient bank fee
On an AUD $20,000 payment to a US supplier, a bank quoting a "AUD $20 transfer fee" but applying a 4% FX margin above the mid-market rate has actually charged you roughly AUD $820; the AUD $20 fee is almost irrelevant next to the margin hidden in the exchange rate itself.
A fintech platform charging a transparent 1% fee with no markup on the rate costs AUD $200 for the same payment. The headline fee is frequently the smallest number in the equation, and providers know this, which is exactly why it's the number most prominently advertised.
Quick takeaway: Never compare providers on transfer fee alone. Ask for the all-in cost, fee plus FX margin plus any intermediary deductions, quoted against today's mid-market rate, and only then compare that single number across providers.
- Confirm timing and settlement: "Sent" is not "received"
Check explicitly whether the payment will arrive same-day, next business day, or over several business days, and don't assume a "sent" or "processing" status in your platform means the money has reached the recipient.
SWIFT transfers typically take 1–5 business days depending on the destination country, the number of intermediary banks involved, and the currencies being exchanged. That range can stretch further around weekends or public holidays in either country, when currency markets and clearing systems aren't operating.
Many platforms, banks and fintechs alike, show you the moment a payment leaves your account as a confirmation or reference number.
That's a useful tracking point, but it is not the same as final settlement into the recipient's account, and intermediary banks in a SWIFT chain don't always provide real-time visibility into where a payment currently sits.
Step 5: Save records for reconciliation before you close the payment flow
Before you move on to the next task, save the supplier invoice, the internal approval record, the exchange rate actually applied (not just the rate quoted at the start of the transaction, since rates can move between quote and execution), the payment receipt, the confirmation or transaction reference number, and the payment purpose recorded with the provider.
This protects your finance records if a payment is queried, delayed, or needs to be traced, and it's what turns month-end reconciliation from a forensic exercise into a five-minute check.
A finance team chasing down which exchange rate applied to a transfer three weeks after the fact, with no record saved at the time, is solving a problem that Step 5 exists specifically to prevent.
Compliance: What every Australian business must know before transferring money overseas
Here's the breakdown with each compliance element as its own row, including the practical implications, consequences, and deadlines for a founder:
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Bottom line for a founder: None of this is a fine or a legal obligation that lands on you directly but a held payment is still your problem operationally. A delayed transfer can mean a missed contractual deadline, a frustrated supplier, or a late payroll run for an overseas contractor. The entire compliance chain above converts into one practical habit: keep your invoice, contract, or PO ready before you send anything large or to someone new.
Safety tips: How to protect your business when transferring money overseas
Cost and speed get most of the attention in business money transfer decisions, but fraud is the risk that actually puts a business at financial loss rather than just operational friction.
Business email compromise is one of the clearest payment risks for Australian businesses. In FY2023–24, total self-reported BEC losses to ReportCyber were almost AUD $84 million, with more than 1,400 financially damaging BEC reports and an average loss of over AUD $55,000 per confirmed incident. The ATO also treats invoice fraud as a measurable risk in invoice workflows, which is why payment-detail verification matters before any overseas transfer is approved.
- Verify any change in banking details through a second, independent channel: If a supplier emails to say their account details have changed, do not reply to that email to confirm. Call them on a number you've sourced independently, not one provided in the email itself.
- Treat urgency as a warning sign, not a reason to skip verification: Fraudulent payment requests are deliberately timed, end of day, end of week, or when a senior contact is travelling and hard to reach by phone. A legitimate supplier or colleague will not penalise you for taking an extra hour to confirm a large transfer is genuine.
- Check the sender's domain character by character: Scammers commonly register a domain that differs from the real one by a single letter or number, which is invisible at a glance in a busy inbox. If anything about a domain looks even slightly off, verify before proceeding.
- Compare new invoices against the last legitimate one from the same sender: A different bank name, a different account structure, or a payment now requested in a different currency than usual are all signals worth pausing on, even if everything else about the email looks correct.
- Use the OUR charge code and request a transaction reference immediately. Beyond fraud prevention, this gives you a paper trail you can act on quickly if something does go wrong.
- Enable multi-factor authentication and require dual approval for payments above a set threshold: A second person reviewing any payment over, say, AUD $5,000 catches mistakes and fraud attempts that a single rushed approval won't.
- Report immediately if something goes wrong. Contact your bank or provider straight away to request a recall, and report the incident through ReportCyber. Recovery isn't guaranteed, but the window for stopping a fraudulent transfer before it's fully settled is measured in hours, not days.
Business money transfer is an infrastructural decision
Choosing how your business handles business money transfer is an infrastructure that compounds every month you use it. A business sending AUD $15,000 overseas monthly through a bank SWIFT transfer at a 3% markup is losing roughly AUD $5,400 a year compared to a fintech platform charging under 1% — money that could fund a hire, restock inventory, or simply stay in the business.
Before your next international payment: match your method to your actual payment pattern using the framework in Section 3, confirm your provider is ASIC-regulated and AUSTRAC-registered, and run the cost formula.
If a provider can't clearly break down their fee, FX markup, and any intermediary charges, treat that as useful information about how transparent the rest of the relationship will be.
FAQs
What is an overseas business money transfer?
An overseas business money transfer is a cross-border payment your business sends to another person, supplier, contractor, or company. For overseas payments, it usually involves converting AUD into another currency and moving funds through a bank, fintech platform, SWIFT transfer, or local payment rail.
How does a business money transfer differ from a personal overseas transfer?
A business money transfer needs stronger records than a personal payment. You may need an invoice, payment purpose, supplier details, approval trail, exchange rate record, and transfer confirmation so the payment can be reconciled properly and explained later.
What details do I need to send money overseas as an Australian business?
You usually need the recipient’s legal name, country, bank name, account number, SWIFT/BIC, IBAN where relevant, local routing details, payment currency, invoice number, and payment purpose. Always match these details against the invoice or contract before sending funds.
What is the cheapest way to send international business payments?
The cheapest option depends on currency, amount, route, provider, and speed. A low transfer fee does not always mean a low total cost. Compare the FX margin, intermediary bank fees, recipient bank fees, and the final amount the recipient receives.
Is a merchant account the same as an overseas transfer provider?
No. A merchant account helps a business receive card payments from customers. An overseas transfer provider helps a business send money to suppliers, contractors, or partners. One is mainly for collecting payments; the other is for moving funds out.
Can I use pay by link for international customers?
Yes, pay by link can help you collect online payments from international customers without building a full checkout flow. It is useful for invoices, remote services, or one-off client payments, but you should check card fees, FX costs, settlement timing, and refund rules.
How can I reduce the cost of a business money transfer?
To reduce the cost of a business money transfer, compare the full cost before sending. Look at the transfer fee, FX margin, intermediary deductions, recipient charges, and settlement timing. If you pay overseas often, consider multi-currency accounts or providers using local rails.
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