RBC Cross Border Banking vs. Loop: A Modern Alternative for Cross-Border SMBs

For a long time, RBC has been the default for Canadian businesses that need to operate in both Canada and the U.S. Their cross-border business account with RBC Bank (U.S.) gives you a real U.S. checking account, and for many years that was as good as it got.

But modern SMBs don’t just operate across one border. They sell in multiple markets, collect payouts in different currencies, pay suppliers around the world, and care a lot about FX costs, speed of payment, and automation. That’s where the traditional RBC model starts to feel heavy, and where Loop steps in.

Loop is built as a global financial operating system rather than another business bank account: multi-currency accounts, institutional FX, no-FX cards, and integrated AP/AR in one place.
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How RBC’s Cross-Border Banking Works

RBC’s cross-border setup lives in two worlds. You have a Canadian business account with RBC Canada and a U.S. business checking account through RBC Bank (U.S.). Each has its own login, statements, and support queues.

The U.S. account comes with a US$150 monthly fee and a US$1,000 minimum opening deposit.

For traditional businesses with predictable Canada/U.S. activity, this can be manageable. For a global, high-velocity SMB, it’s a lot of overhead just to keep money moving.

Loop takes a different approach. You open one account and get local details in USD, CAD, GBP, and EUR, with no monthly fees and no minimum balances. Everything lives in a single, global dashboard. You don’t need to think in terms of “Canadian vs U.S. bank” , just one platform that holds and moves money wherever you do business.
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FX: Where Most of the Real Cost Hides

With RBC, FX costs are baked directly into the rate. You don’t see a separate “FX fee” line item; instead you see a rate that is typically much higher than Loop's for mid-market. Over a year of paying suppliers, repatriating revenue, and funding a U.S. account, that’s often the biggest line item nobody budgeted for.

RBC is also primarily focused on CAD and USD. If you’re dealing in GBP or EUR, you’re usually looking at extra conversions and more spread.

Loop flips that dynamic. It gives SMBs access to FX pricing typically reserved for large corporates:

• FX fees that are up to 80% lower than traditional banks
• Instant conversion in 37 currencies
• The ability to hold balances and convert only when it makes sense for your business

As your volumes grow, your rates improve, instead of staying stuck on retail pricing. That’s a structural advantage over a big bank FX desk.
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Moving Money: Wires vs Local Rails

RBC’s cross-border flows are still largely built on wires. That means multi-day settlement times, per-transfer fees that can be costly overtime. For many businesses, that translates directly into tighter cash flow.

Loop is built around local rails instead of wires wherever possible. You can:

• Collect and hold funds in USD, CAD, GBP, and EUR with no FX fees
• Access payment rails like ACH, SEPA and Faster Payment, since your accounts are real, local accounts with real banking account numbers
• Get paid faster and cut out many cross-border payment processing fees
• Avoid double conversion by paying suppliers in the same currency you collected in

Rather than treating every payment as an “international wire,” Loop routes payments through the cheapest and fastest available path and hides that complexity from you.
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Paying Suppliers: AP That Matches How You Actually Operate

Under RBC, global payables usually means “send a wire.” Each payment is a separate event: enter details, approve, pay a fee, wait for settlement, reconcile later. There’s no central view of global AP, no approval workflows, and no automated logic around currencies or timing.

Loop treats payables as a system:

• Send payments to 180+ countries in 37 currencies
• Convert between currency balances instantly at bank-beating rates
• Pay suppliers in their own currency to access better pricing
• Track everything in a single AP dashboard with real-time status
• Set approval rules and two-factor authentication around large or sensitive payments

You can even pay from your Loop balance or directly from an external bank account, so you don’t have to fully re-architect your treasury just to start using it.
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Corporate Cards: Spend Where Your Revenue Is

RBC does offer a U.S. Dollar business credit card, but it comes with limits. The card can only be used for USD spend, repayments must come from your USD account, and you still don’t get multi-currency controls, unified statements, or any way to manage global spend in one place. Limits are tied to traditional underwriting, personal credit often plays a role, and teams end up juggling separate CAD and USD cards depending on where they operate.

Loop takes a different approach by giving businesses a single, truly global card instead of splitting spend across separate CAD and USD programs. The result is a simpler, more flexible, and more cost-efficient way to manage international spending.

• Loop issues true multi-currency corporate cards with no FX fees, eliminating the need for separate card products.
• One card works across USD, CAD, GBP, and EUR, with unified statements and no foreign transaction markups.
• Balances can be repaid in any supported currency, giving full flexibility for global cash flow management.
• Credit limits scale with business performance, not personal credit scores or guarantees.
• Teams earn rewards on every dollar spent globally, without the friction or extra fees of traditional cross-border cards.

For companies with meaningful non-CAD spend, or teams spread across borders, the difference is more than convenience. It removes friction, eliminates FX waste, and puts spend management in one place instead of split across multiple card programs.
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Putting It Together

RBC gives Canadian businesses a stable, familiar relationship and a way to hold a U.S. account. For domestically focused companies with simple U.S. needs, that can still be enough.

But for SMBs that are global from day one—selling across regions, drawing payouts from marketplaces, paying overseas suppliers, and managing multi-currency cash flow—the constraints of a traditional cross-border account start to add up: layered fees, opaque FX, slow wires, and manual workflows.

Loop is designed for that newer profile of business. It combines multi-currency accounts, institutional-grade FX, global payments, A/P and A/R automation, and no-FX corporate cards into one system.

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