Is there a global payment system that creates files for batch processing within the local clearing sytems of various countries?

Dear Anonymous:
It may be hard to find a single system/tool. We are working currently with a global client that needs to make high volume payments. Our experience is that the bank(s) to which you send your file (in each country) have their own file formats, some can be generated within the ERP system, others may need a tool/add-on to reformat the file. End result: you need to understand each bank's file specs, what native capability your ERP system has, and then evaluate if you need a tool to augment this.
A word of caution: look for (and dig deep on this!) constraints that may affect your decision (e.g. file size limits, file processing time).
Does this help?
Len

Thanks for the tips Len.

We don't have an ERP system. We have a very troublesome, industry specific, project accounting based accounting software. It does nothing well, but project accounting. We also have a TMS but it can only process wire type payments or US ACH payments. I think we are going to go for option two, work with a commerical bank.

A quick add-on to Len's point about commercial banks. There are as well specialists on the payment market which could allow you to process batch file in local clearing formats: they usually go under the name of consolidators.
These companies can be spin-off of major global banks (allowing the bank agreements with their own correspondents to be used as a corporate service) or SWIFT service bureaus with corporate-tailored services.
A Swiss-based company landing in the first category is Fides (http://www.fides.ch), a company from the Credit Suisse group (CSFB) having their own access to the SWIFT network and bank-to-bank connections. Fides allows the internal connection to ERP and TMS in order to retrieve files in whichever format and transmit them to a local clearer across the whole of CSFB network of banks. Your company will not require to have its own SWIFT identifier as CSFB's one could be used.
A company in the second category of provider would be Bottomline (US-based) and their SWIFT Service Access, which would allow you to use "batch files" (called FileAct in the SWIFT world) to your recipient banks. This will require your company to have its own SWIFT identifier, which can be worthwhile depending on the volume of payments you process.

At a prior company, we used Travelex Global Business Payment services to disburse all expense report reimbursements coming out of Concur. We integrated Travelex with Concur so that our HQ A/P personnel could, with the click of a button, reimburse all employees worldwide.

Travelex offers a variety of payment methods. On the web site, they cite:

International Wire Transfers
Foreign Currency Drafts
International ACH Payments

They frequently offer multiple methods in each country - fast vs. economical - and their rates were very reasonable. Employee satisfaction skyrocketed. We planned on integrating A/P disbursements as well, but never got around to it.