The United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS)
Expanding global payment capabilities
Managing payments across multiple countries can involve a complex web of local bank accounts, banking relationships and processes.
UN agencies, funds and programmes can simplify this by leveraging UNOPS existing global banking infrastructure as a shared primary payment hub.
As a self-financing service provider, UNOPS offers a range of financial management solutions to the UN system and Member States, driving efficiency and impact where it’s needed the most.
UNOPS Payments on behalf of solution
UNOPS offers a ‘payments on behalf of’ (POBO) solution to help UN agencies, funds and programmes efficiently manage their global payments processes.
Partners maintain complete control over approval workflows within their own Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), while UNOPS handles the complex financial work behind the scenes – managing bank relationships, foreign currency exchange, payment execution and processing errors.
Partners also have the option to automate the entire end-to-end process, potentially saving time and money.
By building on UNOPS existing financial management capabilities, this solution offers a standardized and reliable way to manage global payments for partner agencies, funds and programmes.
Global reach
What are the benefits?
- Operational simplicity: UNOPS POBO provides a streamlined solution when local bank accounts are difficult or inefficient to set up or maintain – whether due to strict local requirements or low payment volumes. It eliminates the burden of establishing and managing fragmented banking arrangements across multiple countries.
- Potential fee savings: UNOPS POBO leverages economies of scale and transparent upfront pricing to help lower bank account maintenance fees, third-party transaction charges, bank connectivity costs and processing overhead.
- Focus on own delivery: Agencies, funds and programmes can focus their resources on core delivery by eliminating technical payment complexities. UNOPS provides a dedicated service team that can assist with payment inquiries.
- Optimized liquidity management: By enabling just-in-time funding (optionally managed through a single currency), UNOPS helps partners avoid locking up surplus balances in domestic Nostro accounts or with third-party service providers.
How does it work?
Our end-to-end process is designed for full automation, so that payment runs can be completed without human intervention by the agency, fund or programme (AFP):
- File intake: Partner AFPs’ systems (ERP or Treasury Management System) send structured payment instruction files in industry standard formats to a UNOPS server using encryption and secure channels (Secure File Transfer Protocol).
- Data validation: UNOPS systems perform automated checks for data completeness and compliance. This allows more than 99 per cent payment success rate.
- Funding & conversion: Flexible options for funding in many supported currencies, and foreign exchange translation performed by UNOPS. No fixed funding cycles are needed and funding can be sent to UNOPS just-in-time before execution.
- Execution: Payments are processed through SWIFT, Host-to-Host or API to the final beneficiary.
- Status & reporting: Machine-readable payment status reports and interactive real-time dashboards provide transaction status. Intercompany account statements in standard electronic formats can be shared for ease of accounting, automated reconciliation, and continuous oversight.
Who can benefit?
The POBO service is purpose-built for UN agencies, funds and programmes that:
- Need to pay to countries where they may not have existing accounts and established operations yet, and that face challenges in accessing reliable payment infrastructure.
- Use banks or other financial institutions for expensive or time-intensive third currency payment solutions.
- Manage multiple or fragmented banking arrangements and seek streamlined, centralized treasury processes.
