Arca Continental goes to MARS to enhance hedge accounting workflows
Published: Sep 2025
Best in Class Treasury Solution in Latin America
Highly Commended Winner
Arca Continental
Daniel Gerado Garcia Villarreal
Finance & Risk Department Lead
Mexico Arca Continental is a multinational beverage manufacturing company that is the second-largest Coca‑Cola bottler in Latin America and one of the largest in the world. Today, Arca Continental operates in several countries, including Mexico, the United States, Peru, Ecuador and Argentina.
The challenge
Arca Continental faced increasing challenges in managing hedge accounting after acquiring Coca-Cola Southwest Beverages in the US. The company was struggling to manage foreign exchange and interest rate risks across multiple markets, particularly linked to its expansion of its operations into the southwestern United States.
With a fivefold increase in hedging transactions, the company’s manual Excel-based process became inefficient, time-consuming and prone to errors. Additionally, the company lacked real-time valuation data, which made it difficult to ensure the accuracy of its financial reports and hedge accounting compliance.
In an example of the challenge, the company’s hedge accounting workload surged from 50 to 300 live hedging designations. Managing this increased volume with outdated methods became unsustainable, leading Arca Continental to explore solutions. After a thorough market analysis and recommendations from their Peru-based operations (Lindley), they selected Bloomberg MARS Hedge Accounting in 2024.
The solution
MARS Hedge Accounting provides hedge designation templates, effectiveness testing and automated accounting measurements. The tool also delivers real-time transaction valuation, ensuring accuracy in financial reporting and hedging strategies.
The implementation was led by Daniel García, Financing & Risk Department Lead, alongside the company’s finance and risk management teams. Bloomberg’s experts worked closely with Arca Continental to tailor the MARS Hedge Accounting solution to their specific needs, ensuring seamless integration into their workflow.
Before Bloomberg MARS, Arca Continental’s hedge accounting process took up to 160 hours per quarter, with valuation reports taking two to three days to complete. The lack of real-time data led to last-minute financial reporting and discrepancies in derivative valuations from banks. By implementing Bloomberg MARS Hedge Accounting, Arca Continental achieved:
A reduction in reporting time from 160 hours to 30 hours per quarter.
Accurate and real-time portfolio valuation in five minutes, compared to days before.
Improved risk management, with daily monitoring of exposures and transactions.
Increased transparency, enabling them to challenge inaccurate bank valuations.
The impact was immediate: hedge accounting became more efficient, reliable and scalable. Previously a bottleneck, hedge accounting is now seamlessly integrated into the company’s financial processes, allowing Arca Continental’s finance team to focus on strategic decision-making rather than manual data entry.
With the new solution, Arca Continental now confidently manages its hedging transactions across multiple markets, ensuring compliance, accuracy and efficiency.
Best practice and innovation
Arca Continental demonstrated best practices and innovation by leveraging Bloomberg MARS Hedge Accounting to transform its hedge accounting process. The adoption of MARS Hedge Accounting introduced automation, real-time data access and scalability, eliminating manual inefficiencies and ensuring compliance with accounting standards. A key innovation is the automation of hedge effectiveness testing and accounting measurements.
The company gains the ability to challenge inaccurate market data, ensuring financial integrity and better decision‑making. Best practices are also demonstrated through seamless integration and scalability. As the company expanded its hedging transactions from 50 to 300 live designations, the solution enables them to manage higher volumes without increasing workload or errors.
“By adopting a data-driven, automated approach, we have set a benchmark in hedge accounting, showcasing how financial technology can enhance efficiency, accuracy, and governance in a complex multinational environment,” comments Daniel Gerado Garcia Villarreal, Financing & Risk Department Lead.
Key benefits
Cost savings.
Process efficiencies.
Return on investment.
Increased automation.
Risk mitigated.
Improved visibility.
Errors reduced.
Manual intervention reduced.
Increased system connectivity.
Future-proof solution.
Exceptional implementation (budget/time).
Quality accreditation achieved.
Improved key performance indicator (KPI) metrics.
The Adam Smith Awards are the industry benchmark for best practice and innovation in corporate treasury. The 2025 awards attracted 454 nominations. To find out more please visit treasurytoday.com/adam-smith-awards
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