Managing Supplier Payments to China, Vietnam and India From a Thai SME Account

Thai SMEs sourcing from China, Vietnam, and India face a similar underlying challenge across all three corridors: getting money there quickly, in the right currency, without excessive fees stacking up along the way, but the practical details differ meaningfully by destination.

Paying suppliers in China

CNY payments into mainland China often move through specific clearing arrangements rather than standard SWIFT wires, and using the correct rail can materially affect both speed and cost. Confirm whether your provider settles directly in CNY or forces a USD intermediary step, which adds an extra conversion your supplier ultimately absorbs into their pricing.

Paying suppliers in Vietnam

Vietnam's domestic payment infrastructure, built around NAPAS, has been increasingly interoperable with regional systems in recent years. A provider with direct access to local Vietnamese rails can typically settle faster and more predictably than one routing every VND payment through a generic international wire.

Paying suppliers in India

India's domestic rails, including NPCI-operated systems, are highly developed for fast local settlement, but accessing them from outside India generally requires a provider with a specific local banking or network relationship there, since not every cross-border payment provider has equivalent reach into Indian rails.

A general principle across all three

Ask your provider, corridor by corridor, whether they're using a local settlement rail or defaulting to a generic international wire. The answer changes meaningfully by destination country, and a provider strong in one corridor isn't automatically strong in all three.