international online accounts payable/receivable question
 

Having no experience at all on the subject for this new venture, I wonder if there is much difference between using services like OFX (online foreign exchange and payments) and using bank accounts in foreign countries.
It seems such services started as foreign exchange transfer of infrequent large amounts but have expanded to take more frequent and modest operations like international small businesses. Payment processors like Paypal are not suitable because we need to check details they do not make available.
The objective is to keep in their currency the money paid in foreing currencies in order to pay accounts payable of the same currency. The only special requirement we have is that at the end of a period (monthly?), these expenses have to be shared between all the accounts creating currency conversions and balance adjustments like the banks do (ACH?).
As I understand, these services allow customers to keep one local account for a number of currencies including local and foreign.
The concern is about not being hit (us or our customer) by unexpected large fees when making a payment in financial operations we're not familiar with.

Can someone with experience in the field explain or point to suitable info?

Thank you for your help.

You can contact the federal bank of your country.
In Germany/EU we have a IBAN and BIC. With this you can make internal transfers. Takes some days (3 days).

Thank you for the answer.

I am aware that international payments only require prepending the IBAN bank's ID to the receiving bank number/account number but I am not sure what assistance I could get from a federal bank since in theory, they only serve their clients which are other banks etc. Or are you suggesting that international money transfers can be made directly from a federal bank (I'd like the idea)? How long it takes is not really a problem.

When one without experience can find with a reasonable level of uncertainty what fees the local banks charge for any transaction, the level of uncertainty rises dramatically when it is about fees of international transfers for both the sender and the receiver. For example, if I want to ensure what fees both the sender and the receiver could be subjected to when money is transferred between Australia and Brazil, beside knowing the T&C of the Australian bank I need to find (and understand) the T&C of the Brazilian bank, the same need arises if the destination is in Indonesia or India etc.

My question could be summarised like this: Has anyone faced unexpected fees in such situation? Has anyone any tip to give?