Foreign exchange inefficiencies can significantly affect business profitability, impacting bottom-line results.
Hidden FX charges, such as spread differences and dynamic currency conversion at point-of-sale, can inflate costs for businesses.
Relying on default FX services from platforms like Amazon and PayPal can cost businesses up to 5% of revenue, emphasizing the need to take control of currency conversions.
Businesses with global operations should seek low-cost, efficient FX providers to minimize losses, considering both spread and additional fees.
For example, a 2.5% FX margin loss on €5 million in annual US sales can lead to a €125,000 direct hit to profit, affecting budget forecasting and business sustainability.
Proactive currency management involves benchmarking providers, using specialists according to their strengths, and taking control of currency exchanges to save costs and gain control over transactions.
Accepting money in a customer's currency into a virtual account can help accumulate larger volumes for better rates, while hedging products can mitigate future risk and improve forecasting accuracy.
Businesses need to be more proactive in overseeing currency exchange processes to reduce currency risk and leverage economies of scale for competitive advantage.