Growing accounting needs

The short-term rental industry has expanded rapidly over the past decade, fuelled by platforms like Airbnb, Vrbo, and Booking.com. What was once a niche market for vacation properties has become a mainstream investment strategy for individuals and institutional players. With this growth, financial technology (fintech) has become an integral part of how operators manage their businesses.

Historically, short-term rental owners relied on traditional banking services, manual spreadsheets, and delayed payouts from booking platforms. These processes often created inefficiencies and left operators vulnerable to liquidity challenges. Today, fintech companies are reshaping the landscape by providing tools that allow operators to manage cash flow with greater precision, transparency, and speed.

New technology and services have enabled short-term rental operators to professionalise their financial operations, from embedded payment systems to revenue management platforms and real-time data analytics. For finance professionals, this shift represents more than just operational convenience. It demonstrates how fintech can transform fragmented, consumer-driven markets into scalable business models with sophisticated financial infrastructure.

Common cash flow challenges

While short-term rentals can generate attractive returns, they are inherently volatile businesses. Operators face several recurring cash flow challenges that make financial management more complex than in traditional real estate.

Short-term rental operators face cash flow challenges due to seasonal demand shifts, delayed payouts from booking platforms, and high fixed costs like mortgages and maintenance. Irregular income paired with scheduled expenses creates liquidity issues. Regulatory requirements such as taxes and insurance add unpredictability, while reliance on a single platform heightens risk—any disruption can severely impact revenue. These factors combined make accurate forecasting and financial stability difficult to maintain.

Addressing cash flow issues

Modern fintech solutions are helping short-term rental operators manage unpredictable revenue and recurring expenses more effectively. Faster payout tools offer near-instant access to guest payments, reducing reliance on credit and improving cash flow for payroll and vendor payments. Revenue management platforms use machine learning to optimise pricing and forecast income, enabling better planning for debt and capital expenditures. Expense tracking software integrates with bank and property systems to automate bookkeeping and flag budget deviations, minimising financial blind spots as operators scale.

Additional innovations include embedded lending products that offer flexible repayment tied to projected bookings—ideal for seasonal markets. Automated tax and compliance platforms handle occupancy taxes and reporting, reducing the risk of unexpected liabilities. Holistic dashboards unify financial data across properties, giving operators and finance teams real-time visibility into performance. These tools empower operators to make smarter, faster decisions and maintain financial stability in a volatile industry.

To illustrate, consider a short-term rental operator managing 25 properties across three cities. Without utilising third-party resources, this operator must manually reconcile booking payouts, vendor invoices, and tax obligations—a process prone to delays and errors. With fintech, payments are deposited immediately, revenue projections update in real time, and credit facilities are automatically extended during off-peak months. This transforms financial management from reactive to strategic.

The short-term rental sector demonstrates how third-party financial solutions such as SaaS platforms and outsourced accounting services are becoming essential infrastructure for growth. By helping operators manage the industry’s inherent cash flow volatility, these tools provide the visibility, control, and agility needed to make smarter, faster decisions.

What was once a fragmented and unpredictable asset class is now becoming more financially disciplined and operationally scalable. As the sector matures, those who adopt purpose-built financial tools will be better positioned to mitigate risk, unlock efficiencies, and build sustainable, competitive businesses.

The post Short-term rentals turn to fintech for cash control appeared first on International Finance.

RTP has major commercial applications in payroll, utility bill payment, insurance and even retail payments, to name a few. With instant funds settlement, it has the potential to improve the payment experience and reduce transaction risk.

Knowing RTP up close

RTP was first launched in 2017 and is the newest electronic bank payment method available. The network is managed by “The Clearing House,” a membership organisation owned by all the major American banks. It has also become the first new payment rail to be launched in the United States in the last 40 years. Any federally insured depository institution can join the RTP network. They don’t need to be a member of The Clearing House.

RTP has increased the speed of bank transfers cost-effectively, apart from reducing transaction risk by eliminating payment reversals and returns, and supporting a richer context for payments. Unlike ACH, RTP only supports credit or ‘push’ payments. The user can not ‘pull’ or debit another bank account using RTP.

RTP also allows for more data to be attached to each payment. For example, a marketplace like Airbnb could include details about the reservation, like duration and reservation ID, on payments made to hosts, or an accounts payable solution could include the invoice number on payments sent.

RTP have been a game-changer in terms of enabling businesses to move their money in a much faster manner, apart from offering near-instant transfers that enable greater liquidity management and operational efficiency.

Once primarily the domain of consumers, RTPs are increasingly becoming a critical tool for businesses looking to optimise cash flow, reduce reliance on costly intermediaries, and gain a competitive edge in an era of digital finance.

According to Juniper Research, despite reaching $22 trillion in turnover in 2024, the high cost of digital transfers has kept many businesses on the sidelines. However, that is about to change, with global RTP volumes projected by Juniper to more than double to $58 trillion by 2028, driven by regulatory changes, technological advancements, and evolving business needs.

Also, factors like growing corporate demand for instant liquidity, advancements in payment technology, and government initiatives aimed at promoting cashless economies will make RTPs the new normal in our formal economy.

Matthew Purnell, a senior research analyst at Juniper Research, said, “Businesses are beginning to realise the strategic benefits of real-time payments: not just speed, but enhanced control over working capital, and reduced counterparty risk.”

The Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) Instant Credit Transfer regulations, which took effect in the European Union (EU) in January 2025, are poised to accelerate RTP’s business adoption by mandating that eurozone transactions be priced the same as standard credit transfers. Meanwhile, in the United States, networks such as the “Clearing House RTP” and the Federal Reserve’s “FedNow” are increasing transaction limits to accommodate larger business payments.

“While RTP adoption in developed markets has been gradual due to entrenched reliance on traditional payment systems, emerging markets such as India, China, and Brazil have experienced explosive growth. India’s Unified Payments Interface (UPI) processed an astonishing 172 billion transactions in 2024, valued at nearly $2.9 trillion, a 46% increase in the number of transactions and a 35% increase in value over the previous year. The surge in RTP adoption in developing economies is largely due to the absence of widespread debit and credit card penetration, offering businesses and consumers alike an accessible digital-payment solution. RTP provides an accessible payment solution for a population that is becoming increasingly banked,” Purnell added.

Factors fuelling RTP adoption

As per Purnell, three major factors are driving the adoption of RTP. One of the factors was the COVID-19 pandemic, which accelerated demand for digital transactions as businesses sought alternatives to in-person payments and cash handling.

Then came advances in technology, such as smartphones equipped with digital wallets like Google Pay, and the proliferation of 5G wireless coverage, thereby making RTP more widely available. Also, governments worldwide are implementing policies to encourage the transition to cashless economies.

Meanwhile, in February, the Clearing House’s RTP network processed a $10 million real-time transaction, the largest instant payment in the world’s largest economy to date. With the transaction cap now at $10 million (as of March 2025), up from $1 million, corporations can transfer high-value funds instantly. This will unlock new possibilities for treasury management, supply chain financing and interbank settlements.

Financial institutions are also strengthening their real-time infrastructure. FIS secured full send certification for the “FedNow Service,” supporting the full payments life cycle and enabling partner banks to offer instant payments for loans, rent and utilities. The development marks a critical step toward a financial system where real-time money movement is the norm, not the exception.

“Beyond the US, real-time payments continue to advance. Brazil’s Pix Automatico, launching in June, will introduce automated recurring payments. This will make it easier for businesses and consumers to manage subscriptions, utility bills and other regular expenses. By removing the need for multiple banking agreements, Pix Automatico simplifies cash flow for businesses while improving convenience for consumers. With higher transaction limits, deeper digital wallet integrations and global adoption accelerating, these faster payments are reshaping finance,” PYMNTS reported.

Cost hurdle for businesses

According to Purnell, “Consumers have until recently been the primary beneficiaries of RTP, with apps like Venmo in the US and Alipay in China allowing customers to pay for a Starbucks Frappuccino or split the cost of a meal with a half dozen friends. However, businesses have been relatively slow to utilise the technology for making business-to-business payments due to several hurdles, primarily cost. As a result, less than 10% of RTP transactions in Europe, for example, originate from companies.”

“The one thing that’s holding back business adoption is differential pricing. Real-time payments are anywhere from three to five times more expensive for a business than a traditional payment rail,” said Uzayr Jeenah, a Toronto-based leader in the global payments practice at consulting firm McKinsey, while referring to the term for digital payment infrastructure.

Jeenah says the implementation of the European Union’s “Instant Payments Regulation,” adopted in March 2024 and encompassing SEPA, will be a “big catalyst for change” in RTP pricing in 2025.

“In most of the Eurozone, there is no charge for a standard credit transfer. I think in the near future virtually all business payments in the EU are going to be real-time because the system is going to be free, or virtually free,” says Scott McInnes, a partner in the Brussels office of Bird & Bird who specialises in payment questions. He further added that this probably means RTP for most businesses in Europe will have no cost.

McInnes says the EU was motivated in part by a desire to offer a European alternative to credit and debit card issuers such as Visa and Mastercard, American card services corporations that charge high transaction fees to merchants.

The EU RTP regulation, SEPA Instant, will begin affecting outgoing payments in October 2025 for Eurozone payment providers, including banks and fintech companies. Payment providers outside the region will have until 2027 to comply, allowing time to address settlement challenges related to different currencies.

The EU rules will also affect foreign banks that have branches in the Eurozone, potentially creating opportunities for RTP expansion beyond the euro. For example, a UK bank with a branch in Paris could receive instant payments through the UK Faster Payment system and could conduct euro-denominated RTP transactions via its European branch. Additionally, Australia’s New Payments Platform (NPP) does not impose any upper limit on transaction amounts, a trend aimed at accommodating large businesses that handle significant transactions for settling invoices.

Challenges remain

Existing RTP systems have a common drawback: their domestic focus, with limited capabilities for cross-border transactions (except in the Eurozone, where the euro provides a common currency). This limitation also presents a significant challenge for companies with global supply chains that require rapid payment transfers to overseas vendors.

According to Statista, the total value of cross-border payments was approximately $190 trillion in 2023 and is projected to reach $290 trillion by 2030, highlighting the sector’s rapid expansion and the growing demand for innovation.

Currently, most cross-border transactions rely on the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT) network, which does not transfer funds directly but rather facilitates payment orders between banks using intermediary correspondent banks to settle transactions. However, SWIFT transactions are costly and can take several days, thereby posing a challenge for businesses operating in fast-paced international markets.

Several fintech companies, such as London-based Wise (formerly TransferWise), and Harbour & Hills, based in Hong Kong, have entered the market to provide faster, lower-cost alternatives to SWIFT. By using their internal networks to transfer money locally instead of depending on interbank transfers, these fintechs enable cross-border payments. Although this lowers expenses, these services don’t always result in appreciable speed gains.

The BIS is also working to connect domestic RTP systems globally through “Project Nexus,” a central hub that allows payment networks to link to a single platform rather than integrating individually. Project Nexus involves central banks from Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines, and India, with Indonesia as a special observer, aiming to enable seamless cross-border transactions among these nations by 2026.

In October 2024, JP Morgan introduced Wire365, a 24/7-dollar settlement system that allows businesses to settle transactions globally at any time. On the other hand, distributed ledger technology, such as blockchain, has the potential to become an alternative for real-time cross-border payments.

Ripple Labs, a fintech based in San Francisco, has developed its own cryptocurrency, XRP, to facilitate near-instant global transactions. Before being settled in the recipient’s local currency, funds are first converted to XRP as an intermediate currency. However, some companies have been discouraged from implementing cryptocurrencies due to their volatile nature.

Ripple launched the US dollar-pegged stablecoin RLUSD to combat volatility. This might provide a more alluring cross-border payment option by enabling companies to transfer money without being exposed to currency changes.

The post RTP: The future of instant banking appeared first on International Finance.

CredibleX has so far disbursed AED 100 million in loans to small businesses across the UAE since the pilot launch of its platform eight months ago. With over 35 distribution partners, such as Network International, DMCC, National General Insurance, Agthia, Watermelon, and Mamo, CredibleX has unlocked financing opportunities for more than 100,000 SMEs, enabling them to apply for credit through its platform.

CredibleX’s platform, which integrates directly into the operations of businesses, offers fast, transparent, and accessible financing options tailored to the Emirati SME sector’s unique operational needs. By working with embedded partners, the company aims to reach out to a wide range of small businesses, offering them seamless access to capital without the complexities typically associated with traditional lending. Today’s episode of the “Start-up of the Week” will feature International Finance discussing the venture in detail.

The Art Called ‘Revenue-Based Financing’

SMEs these days find it hard to raise venture capital. However, non-dilutive, revenue-based financing (RBF) has emerged as an alternative. This has become a very popular trend in the UAE and in the wider MENA (Middle East and North Africa) region, resulting in plenty of start-ups rising to meet the challenge of providing working capital financing to SMEs. CredibleX, one of the prominent start-ups, operates under a model where it partners with large aggregators and targets SMEs within their vertical ecosystem.

Revenue-based financing has been fruitful for SMEs in high-income countries like the UAE, as it is harder to obtain financing from so-called Development Finance Institutions, which are primarily set up to invest in projects in less economically developed countries.

CredibleX, which started its operations in March 2024, claims to have issued over AED 100 million (USD 27 million) to SMEs under its revenue-based financing model. The start-up’s goal is simple: all SMEs should be able to easily access and choose from financial options that will help them grow their businesses. Entrepreneurs should not have to stress about things like bank visits, long loan application times, and piles of paperwork.

Financial institutions, on the other hand, by associating themselves with the start-up, will open up new revenue streams in the form of “Embedded Working Capital Finance,” while helping their SME customers unlock one of their biggest challenges: financing. CredibleX’s fully digital application takes minutes, and funds are disbursed in hours, providing SMEs with working capital in the blink of an eye.

Meet Embedded Solutions

CredibleX, licensed and regulated in the Abu Dhabi Global Market, is known for its flagship product called the “Embedded SME Insurance Finance,” which essentially provides SME insurance premiums, offering BNPL (Buy Now Pay Later) options for Group Medical, Fleet, and Trade Credit Insurances.

This product has been particularly designed with small businesses’ cash flow challenges in mind, especially when faced with large upfront costs like insurance premiums. Typically, SMEs end up paying their annual insurance premiums in one lump sum, which can strain their finances and limit their ability to invest in growth.

CredibleX’s “Embedded SME Insurance Finance,” on the other hand, allows SMEs to pay their insurance premiums in a more manageable, staggered way. This approach not only eases the financial burden on SMEs but also ensures that they can maintain essential insurance coverage without compromising their cash flow.

“Our collaboration with top-tier insurance companies is built on a foundation of mutual benefit. By partnering with CredibleX, insurance providers can secure their annual premiums in one go, reducing the risk of non-payment and improving their cash flow predictability. This arrangement offers insurance companies a reliable revenue stream while allowing them to extend their reach within the SME sector,” the start-up stated.

SMEs gain access to essential insurance coverage without the stress of large upfront payments. They can budget for their premiums as they would for other operational expenses, paying in instalments that align with their cash flow cycles. This financial flexibility empowers SMEs to better manage their resources, invest in growth opportunities, and ultimately thrive in a competitive market.

Next is “Embedded B2B Channel Finance,” which the start-up explained as follows: “In the rapidly evolving B2B landscape, platforms, aggregators, and large corporates are at the heart of a thriving ecosystem of SMEs. Whether these SMEs are suppliers delivering goods to you or buyers purchasing from your platform, their success is closely tied to their ability to access timely and flexible finance. By partnering with us, you can offer embedded financing solutions that empower your SME ecosystem, driving growth and ensuring smooth operations across the board.”

For B2B platforms, aggregators, or large corporates, their suppliers occupy critical roles in their supply chain. By integrating CredibleX’s embedded finance solutions, these large conglomerates can provide their SME suppliers with the working capital they need to fulfil orders without delay.

With the start-up’s embedded finance solutions, SME buyers can access the liquidity they need to purchase essential goods from a big corporation’s platform or wholesale operations. This not only helps them optimise their supply chain but also strengthens their relationship with the parent business, leading to increased sales and long-term growth.

Options Galore

CredibleX’s “Embedded Point of Sale (POS) Financing” has emerged as a leading POS provider in the MENA region. By integrating this solution, POS providers can offer their SME clients seamless access to working capital, enabling them to manage cash flow, invest in inventory, and expand their businesses—all through their existing platform. This partnership not only enhances the value of the start-up’s clients’ POS offerings but also strengthens their relationships with merchants.

CredibleX’s POS financing offers benefits such as effortlessly embedding into POS systems, ensuring a smooth and user-friendly experience for the merchants. The start-up also provides customised financing solutions that cater to the unique needs of different SMEs within the POS provider’s ecosystem.

Let’s conclude the article by discussing CredibleX’s “Invoice Finance,” which empowers SMEs to have early access to cash flow. As SMEs rely on receivables from top-tier clients, these payments serve as the lifeblood that keeps their operations running smoothly. Partnering with large corporate clients can significantly enhance SMEs’ businesses by securing receivables and negotiating better terms with suppliers.

However, working with these large clients often brings challenges such as tight delivery schedules, stringent quality demands, and extended payment timelines. This is where CredibleX comes in with its Invoice Finance or Receivables Finance solutions, as they are designed to provide businesses with the liquidity they need to meet these challenges head-on.

CredibleX offers a receivables financing solution that allows SMEs to get paid early on invoices issued to large customers. Instead of waiting for the typical 30, 60, or 90-day payment terms, businesses can access the funds tied up in their receivables almost immediately. This early access to cash flow enables them to cover operational costs, invest in growth opportunities, and manage their businesses more efficiently.

The post Start-up of the Week: Through revenue-based financing, CredibleX is boosting MENA’s SME sector appeared first on International Finance.

To manage and expand your business as an entrepreneur, you must be familiar with important business jargon. These terms will help you make well-informed decisions that could affect the success of your company in addition to facilitating effective communication with accountants, investors, and other stakeholders. These twelve business terms are essential for any entrepreneur to understand.

Cash Flow

Money coming into and going out of your business is referred to as cash flow. More money coming in than going out is known as positive cash flow, and this is essential for paying staff, funding expansion plans, and covering operating costs. If outflows exceed inflows, then it becomes negative.

While public companies must report their cash flows on their financial statements, in order to let the investors know the business’ financial health, businesses in medium and small (including start-ups) can also perform the same function, to give their financial backers a transparent indication about the overall operational health of the ventures.

Profit and Loss Statement (P&L)

Basically, here we are talking about a financial statement that summarises the revenues, costs, expenses, and profits/losses of a company during a specified period (usually over one fiscal year). These records provide information about a company’s ability to generate revenues, manage costs, and make profits.

A profit and loss (P&L) statement is one of the financial statements prepared by companies, along with the balance sheet and the cash flow statement. Investors and analysts then use this information to assess the profitability of the company, often combining this information with insights from the three financial statements. An investor, for example, can calculate a company’s return on equity (ROE) by comparing its net income (as shown on the P&L) to its level of shareholder equity (as shown on the balance sheet).

Gross Profit Vs Net Profit

Just like “Cash Flow” and “P&L Statement,” an entrepreneur must also know “Gross Profit” and “Net Income,” which are critical profitability metrics for any company.

Gross profit is the amount of money that remains after production costs have been subtracted from revenue. It helps investors understand how much profit a company generates from producing and selling its goods and services. On the other hand, net income is what is left after all expenses and costs, including taxes, have been deducted from revenue. Investors can use net income to assess a company’s overall profitability. By understanding the differences between gross profit and net income, investors can determine whether a company is making a profit and identify areas where it may be losing money.

Balance Sheet

This term refers to a financial statement that reports a company’s assets, liabilities, and shareholder equity at a specific point in time. Balance sheets provide the basis for computing rates of return for investors and evaluating a company’s capital structure.

We are talking about a document that provides a snapshot of what a business owns and owes, as well as the amount invested by shareholders. Balance sheets can be used with other important financial statements to conduct fundamental analysis or calculate financial ratios.

Accounts Receivable And Accounts Payable

Small business owners and first-time entrepreneurs must know the difference between accounts payable and accounts receivable, to gain a better understanding of their accounting process. Accounts payable or AP is an account on a company’s general ledger that represents an obligation to pay off a debt to creditors/suppliers. In short, it’s the money owed by the entrepreneur’s business to third parties.

Accounts Receivable or AR, on the other hand, refers to outstanding invoices that are owed to a business by its customers. It represents a line of credit that has been extended from the client to the customer.

Both AP and AR are crucial basics for small businesses across the world, as late payments are often a significant issue for them, with the latter causing severe cash flow problems, leading to working capital getting tied up on the balance sheet.

Cost Of Goods Sold (COGS)

The term refers to the direct costs of producing the goods sold by a company. This amount includes the cost of the materials and labour directly used to create the good, while excluding indirect expenses like distribution costs and sales force costs.

COGS is an important financial metric as it is subtracted from a company’s revenues to determine its gross profit. Gross profit is a profitability measure that evaluates how efficiently a company is managing its labour and supplies during the production process.

Cost of Goods Sold (COGS) is considered a business expense and is recorded on income statements. Understanding COGS helps analysts, investors, and managers estimate a company’s net income. An increase in COGS leads to a decrease in net income. Although this situation may be advantageous for tax purposes, it results in lower profits for shareholders. Therefore, businesses strive to keep their COGS low to maximise net profits.

Return On Investment

Return on investment (ROI) is a performance measure that evaluates the efficiency or profitability of an investment or compares the efficiency of several different investments.

ROI tries to directly measure the amount of return on a particular investment, relative to the investment’s cost. Key factors that influence ROI include the initial investment amount, ongoing maintenance costs, and the cash flow generated by the investment.

Break-Even Point

The sales level at which your total revenue and total costs are equal—that is, when your business is neither profitable nor losing money—is known as the break-even point. When establishing pricing plans and sales goals, entrepreneurs must comprehend this crucial milestone.

Gross Margin

The percentage of revenue that remains after deducting COGS is known as the gross margin. It aids in assessing how effectively a company manufactures and markets its goods. A higher gross margin indicates that a greater portion of revenue is being retained by the company as profit.

Working Capital

The difference between your current assets (such as cash and inventory) and current liabilities (such as accounts payable) is known as working capital. It shows how liquid your company is and how well-equipped it is to handle upcoming costs and commitments.

Equity

The ownership interest in your company is represented by equity. It is the company’s worth following the deduction of liabilities from assets. Profits, outside investors, or personal investments can all provide equity.

Debt Financing

When a business borrows money to finance operations or expansion, this is known as debt financing. Loans, bonds, or credit lines are some examples of this kind of funding that needs to be paid back over time with interest.

The post Starting a business? Check out the crucial terms every entrepreneur should know appeared first on International Finance.

Matthew Seymour, CEO of RiskFirst, said: “The set of indices we have developed in partnership with STOXX are a major leap forward, providing improved governance and increased accuracy in a cost-efficient solution. PFaroe is rapidly becoming an industry standard for the modelling of pension plans and therefore offers us unique insight into the behaviour of pension plan cashflow profiles at a very granular level. When combined with STOXX’s extensive experience in designing innovative and objective investment benchmarks, the result is a set of indices that deliver great value to UK pension plans.”

“With our new LDI index offering we are addressing the challenges of a £1 trillion market by providing independent benchmarks for liability-driven investments. Our LDI indices will support pension scheme trustees and consultants in their efforts to select, monitor and challenge LDI managers. This is further proof of our innovative approach to tackle market inefficiencies with transparent investment tools,” said Matteo Andreetto, CEO of STOXX.

The iSTOXX-RiskFirst LDI indices track the performance of corporate and government bonds denominated in GBP. They function as flexible, investable building blocks for LDI portfolios. Four different sets of indices are provided: nominal bond indices, inflation-linked bond indices, blended indices and non-gilt indices.

The indices are constructed using a proprietary cashflow matching model that incorporates best-in-class LDI techniques.Certain key features of LDI portfolio construction, such as rebalancing between real and nominal exposure, are embedded in the index family. The indices are rebalanced quarterly.

The post STOXX and RiskFirst announce launch of LDI indices appeared first on International Finance.