Enterprise payments still rely on manual reconciliation, Mangopay survey finds

By AI, Created 11:17 AM UTC, May 20, 2026, /AGP/ – Enterprise platforms are automating pieces of multi-party payments, but many still depend on manual reconciliation and lack clear visibility into fund flows, according to new Mangopay research. The findings suggest compliance, FX oversight and cross-border complexity remain major bottlenecks as platforms scale globally.

Why it matters: - Enterprise payment operations are still not fully automated, leaving platforms exposed to slower reconciliation, more manual work and higher operational risk. - The gaps matter most in multi-party flows, where compliance, FX handling and cross-border payouts can directly affect cost, speed and visibility.

What happened: - Mangopay released new research on how enterprise platforms handle multi-party payments across markets and verticals. - The survey found that 50% of platforms still do most reconciliation manually. - Another 36% rely on fully manual reconciliation with no automation. - 54% fully automate cross-border or multi-currency payouts through third-party providers. - Mid-sized enterprise platforms were more likely to report full automation in cross-border or multi-currency payouts than platforms processing more than 500 million transactions a year.

The details: - Compliance was the most frequently cited challenge at 26% and the one with the biggest operational and financial impact. - Country-specific payout restrictions affected 37% of respondents. - Safeguarding was a challenge for 36%. - Managing compliance across multiple markets affected 35%. - FX remained one of the least supervised parts of the payment flow. - 40% of platforms said they had limited visibility over FX rates and costs, and only learned the final converted amount after the transaction was completed. - 30% said better visibility over money flows would have the greatest impact on improving operations. - The survey covered 600 senior decision-makers in the US, UK, France and Germany. - Respondents included C-suite executives and heads of operations, finance, treasury and payments. - All surveyed platforms process at least 50 million transactions a year. - The sample included companies in ecommerce, travel, fintech, SaaS, on-demand services and crypto. - Censuswide conducted the fieldwork from 4 March to 13 March 2026.

Between the lines: - The findings suggest many enterprises have automated selected payment steps, but not the full operating chain. - Compliance and fund-flow visibility remain the biggest friction points because they cut across multiple providers, currencies and internal systems. - Andy Wiggan, Mangopay’s chief product officer, said operational complexity is now a core part of multi-party payments and that the biggest gaps are manual reconciliation and limited visibility over fund flows. - Wiggan said those problems can be improved with infrastructure built specifically for multi-party flows.

What’s next: - Mangopay is positioning its wallet-first infrastructure, programmable wallets, IBANs, FX, acquirer-agnostic processing and fast cross-border payouts as tools to reduce those gaps. - The company is also pointing to AI-driven fraud and compliance tools as part of its platform strategy. - Mangopay says its technology is aimed at helping platforms hold, split and move funds across buyers, sellers and partners while opening up new monetization streams.

The bottom line: - Enterprise payments are getting more digital, but the hardest parts of multi-party money movement are still partly manual.