FX leakage is rarely a pricing problem. It's usually structural.

In fragmented, multi-provider treasury environments, FX architecture can quietly create 20–50 bps of cost and control drag that standard reporting does not isolate. On £50–100m+ cross-border volume, that can equate to six-figure annual impact.

We map and evidence exactly how that cost and governance exposure are structurally created — before you change providers, pricing, or systems. The output is independent, decision-grade documentation you can use with audit, board, and procurement to explain and challenge FX cost and control line by line.

Who this is for

Designed for UK-incorporated organisations that:

  • Operate across multiple banks and/or PSPs
  • Typically process £20m+ annual cross-border volumes
  • Face audit, board, or governance scrutiny
  • Can state total FX cost — but cannot clearly explain how it is structurally created

Not for:

  • Retail or consumer businesses
  • Single-bank treasury setups
  • Organisations whose primary goal is "better FX rates" rather than structural control

The structural insight

Most treasury FX cost does not come from one bad rate. Cost and control are often embedded in execution design rather than rate negotiation.

We typically see this when:

  • FX is split across banks and PSPs with no single view of cost or control
  • Rates are only visible after trades are done, limiting real-time challenge and governance
  • Reconciliation relies on multiple systems and spreadsheets, obscuring end-to-end cost and risk
  • Successive decisions from growth, M&A, or new corridors create complexity that has not been comprehensively documented

Many finance teams can report the number — but cannot trace it to specific architectural decisions when challenged.

What we do

We produce an independent, documented view of your current FX settlement architecture:

  • Map how FX is executed, approved, settled, and reconciled across providers
  • Quantify structural FX cost drivers (with explicit assumptions and limits) so you can see where basis points are being lost — and where control is weakest
  • Identify control and governance gaps, traceable to specific workflows
  • Deliver decision-grade documentation suitable for audit files, board packs, and procurement processes

Independence by design

We do not recommend providers, receive referral fees, execute FX, hold client funds, or manage implementation. Our sole output is documented analysis. All decisions remain with your internal team.

Illustrative example (typical scenario)

A UK-based organisation operates across three banks and two PSPs following several acquisitions. Over time, FX execution split by entity and corridor, rate visibility occurred only after execution, and reconciliation relied on multiple systems and manual workarounds.

Finance leadership could report total FX spend, but board and audit questions still required ad-hoc explanations and provider narratives rather than documented evidence. The diagnostic produced a documented current-state view, making explicit which architectural decisions were driving cost variance and where governance exposure was concentrated — clarifying decision pathways and trade-offs before any changes were made. Any structural changes remained entirely at the client's discretion.

What this enables

After the diagnostic, finance leaders typically have:

  • A clear, defensible explanation of how FX costs and risks are structurally created, traceable back to specific workflows and decisions
  • A neutral baseline against which future provider, system, and process decisions can be evaluated
  • The ability to meet audit, board, or procurement scrutiny with documentation instead of anecdote

Initial diagnostic assessment (15 minutes)

Confidential discussion to assess whether structural FX documentation would address current governance, audit, or procurement requirements.

Contact: inquiries@fabioadvisory.com | fabioadvisory.com

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