FX cost savings isn’t a slogan—it’s a scoreboard. This case study shows how a regional beverage leader trimmed 20% from currency costs across Asia–Africa corridors using FMCG Pay. The names are anonymized; the method is repeatable. You’ll see baselines, interventions, and verified results you can adapt now.
The Starting Line: Why Costs Were Leaking
The brand shipped concentrates and finished goods into six priority markets. Volumes were healthy, but margins kept wobbling. Pricing teams blamed “currency noise.” Treasury saw spreads widen at odd hours.
The pattern was clear. Hedging was done ticket by ticket. Beneficiary details were incomplete, triggering repairs. Friday cut-offs were regularly missed. None of this was malicious; it was just the cost of a manual, multi-rail reality.
What Changed: Method, Tools, and Governance
The company reframed FX as an operating process, not a series of trades. Three pillars anchored the shift: data structure, execution discipline, and rail selection. FMCG Pay provided the control tower that connected them.
Governance moved to a simple rhythm. Weekly reviews tracked all-in cost per $1,000, on-time settlement, repair rate, and realized slippage versus budget. Monthly reviews approved corridor tweaks. Quarterly reviews re-set hedge coverage.
Phase 1: Baseline and Truth in the Data
The first four weeks were data work. The team mapped ERP exports to ISO 20022 fields—legal names, structured addresses, and purpose codes—so messages carried facts banks actually screen. Repairs began to fall within days.
Beneficiaries were pre-validated before release. Formatting errors surfaced at draft, not after submission. With better messages, sanctions checks passed faster and cut-off misses dropped.
(Background on the global push for better cross-border data and outcomes: G20/BIS CPMI programme on cost, speed, transparency, access — (https://www.bis.org/cpmi/cross_border.htm). ISO 20022 overview — (https://www.swift.com/standards/iso-20022).)
Phase 2: Execution Discipline, Not Guesswork
Hedging moved from one-off tickets to a layered, portfolio view. A base layer of forwards covered 60–70% of rolling 13-week exposure; the remainder was timed windows to participate if markets moved favorably.
Large payments triggered a multi-dealer RFQ. Quotes were time-stamped against a mid-market reference and stored. Realized slippage was tracked weekly. Spreads tightened quickly because performance was visible.
(FX market structure context: BIS Triennial Survey — (https://www.bis.org/statistics/rpfx22.htm). Hedge accounting basics: IFRS 9 — (https://www.ifrs.org/).)
Phase 3: Faster Rails, Cleaner Messages
Rails changed where it mattered. In two Asian corridors, the team adopted near-real-time routes for distributor payouts. In Africa, local-currency settlement was enabled through participants connected to regional systems, while keeping a secondary bank path for resiliency.
Payment messages carried human-readable references. Reconciliation stopped being a hunt and started being a check. Finance could now promise a budget rate and a delivery window without asterisks.
(Regional rail context: India–Singapore UPI–PayNow linkage — (https://www.rbi.org.in/). Pan-African Payment & Settlement System — (https://papss.com/).)
FX Cost Savings Results: The Verified 20%
The 20% headline came from three measurable deltas. Each was verified by before/after data.
First, spread compression contributed roughly half the savings. RFQ discipline and windowed execution cut average spreads by low-double-digit basis points on large tickets. The effect compounded across seasonal buys.
Second, fewer repairs and rejects shaved fees and time. ISO-clean messages dropped the repair rate to well under 1%. Each avoided repair removed a fee and a delay. The finance team stopped losing weekends to avoidable back-and-forth.
Third, rail optimization trimmed correspondent hops. Near-real-time options reduced exposure time between hedge and settlement. Local-currency settlement further reduced distributor disputes, protecting planned price points.
All-in, the average cost per $1,000 fell by one-fifth over two quarters. Variance by corridor remained, but the direction was consistent.
Working Capital, Speed, and Trust: The Side Benefits
Cost wasn’t the only win. Instruction-to-credit time fell sharply in lanes with upgraded rails. Distributors received funds in hours, not days. That reduced “Friday risk” and enabled Saturday deployments for Monday launches.
Reconciliation time was cut in half. With references enforced at source, auto-matching handled the bulk. Close week went from a scramble to a schedule. The team reallocated hours to analysis and forecasting.
Distributor trust improved. Partners saw funds when promised and in the currency they operate daily. Claims, deductions, and emergency credits receded. Sales could plan promotions without contingency pricing.
Risks, Controls, and Audit Readiness
The program hardened controls rather than loosening them. KYC completeness and purpose-code discipline reduced false positives in screening. Sanctions hits, when they occurred, resolved faster because data was structured.
Hedge documentation became easier. With invoices, purpose codes, and bank confirmations aligned, testing effectiveness under IFRS 9 took less time. The audit trail lived inside the platform rather than in scattered folders.
(Why this matters beyond one company: the same four outcomes—cost, speed, transparency, access—are the public targets set by the global roadmap. Progress here is not a fad; it’s the new baseline — (https://www.bis.org/cpmi/cross_border/programme.htm).)
Replicate the Playbook: Your Next 90 Days
Start with a 30-day baseline. Pull 90 days of transactions in your top corridors. Calculate all-in cost per $1,000 (spreads + fees + repair charges), instruction-to-credit time, cut-off adherence, repair rate, and realized slippage. Don’t debate anecdotes; measure outcomes.
In days 31–60, implement the enablers. Map ISO 20022 fields end-to-end. Turn on beneficiary pre-validation. Enforce RFQ for large tickets. Align hedge maturities with shipment windows. Pilot a near-real-time route in one corridor with a cooperative distributor.
By day 90, re-run the numbers. Convert each delta into dollars: spread savings, fee avoidance, fewer day-slips, hours returned, and lower buffer inventory. If the beverage playbook is a guide, your FX cost savings will be visible—and defensible.
Why FMCG Pay Made the Difference
This wasn’t a tools salad. The control tower inside FMCG Pay tied data, execution, and rails into one operating motion. Drafts arrived clean. Approvals routed by policy, not inbox. Screening ran automatically with guided resolution. Release windows lined up with liquidity and cut-offs. Status flowed back to planning. Reconciliation closed the loop.
The brand didn’t hire more people. It gave its people a system that handled the pushing. The result was fewer leaks, faster cash, and FX cost savings you can see on a P&L.
Explore how we work on About FMCG Pay. If you’re ready to test a live corridor, talk to our team. For more context and insights, visit FMCG Pay.