Internation Baccalaureate Organisation’s Singapore payments hub implements global mass payments solution
Published: Feb 2025
Best Foreign Exchange Solution
Overall Winner
International Baccalaureate Organisation
Photo of Eric Tuliao and Kian Hwee Ong, International Baccalaureate Organisation and Mei Lian Geow, J.P. Morgan.
Eric Tuliao
Head of FP&A and Treasury
Founded in 1968, International Baccalaureate Organisation (IB) is a Swiss non-profit organisation that offers a continuum of international education through four challenging, high-quality and educational programmes for a worldwide community of schools.
in partnership with
The challenge
With almost two million students in more than 5,900 schools across 160 countries, the International Baccalaureate Organisation (IB) operates from three global centres located in Washington, DC, The Hague and Singapore, a foundation office in Switzerland and an assessment centre in Cardiff. IB’s Singapore office functions as its global payments’ hub, handling substantial volumes of international transactions.
To meet future growth demands, IB recently completed a major transformation project to deliver better quality services and evolve into a truly international organisation. As IB expands its global network of IB world schools, including affiliated schools and new educational partners, the treasury team is challenged with a growing volume of both high and low value cross-currency transactions, coupled with increasing foreign exchange costs and operational risks.
The rapid evolution of payment technologies and stringent regulatory environments further necessitated a sophisticated solution to streamline and automate the company’s payment workflows. In 2023, IB issued a global request for proposal (RFP) to identify a banking partner capable of delivering innovative treasury solutions to optimise its current payment processes, to save capital due to a reduction in operational costs and enhance the company’s financial controls.
The solution
IB’s core focus was to address their challenges and deliver enhanced experiences to its payees, including educators, consultants, schools and vendors. The new solution establishes an automated end-to-end payment workflow, and has enabled the IB to:
Process low-value cross-border payments across multiple currencies in bulk through low-value clearing systems, effectively to reduce associated banking fees whilst delivering an enhanced overall experience.
Ensure the payees receive principal payments in full in their designated currencies, quickly and efficiently.
Leverage a single account for bulk cross-currency payments, which helps eliminate the need for local disbursement accounts in-country.
Optimise payment processing for non-convertible currencies and benefit from aggregated pricing on FX conversion if required.
Streamline payment operations using one gateway (ie host-to-host (H2H) transmission) for automated transaction processing using industry standard formatting (ISO 20022).
Integrate directly to enable end-to-end automated processing of payment files, transmitted securely and efficiently, minimising errors and processing delays.
Receive intraday multi-acknowledgments to enhance transparency and control.
Create customised, detailed reporting with better controls to reduce counterparty risks.
IBO’s Education Vendor Payments via Global Mass Pay solution
Global Mass Pay helps IBO manage FX requirements by utilising their functional currency to pay their suppliers and education vendors in various currencies, thus creating cost efficiencies as a result of reduced wire flow and eliminating the need for maintaining local accounts.
Best practice and innovation
IB has successfully deployed an innovative cross-currency, cross-border solution that allows it to utilise functional currency to pay educators and suppliers across multiple currencies (including exotic currencies).
This J.P. Morgan solution provides IB direct access to low-value, local clearing systems which creates cost efficiencies because of reduced international wire flows and eliminates the need to maintain several foreign accounts. The end-to-end automation through H2H file transmission helps streamline payment processing, cut down manual processing and minimise human errors.
The level of digitisation offered to IB ensures operational and cost efficiency. The end-to-end solution is one of the first of its kind for a higher education organisation and has empowered IB to reach new international markets.
Key benefits
Cost savings – estimated at US$200,000 per annum.
Headcount savings.
Process efficiencies.
Increased automation.
Risk mitigated.
Improved visibility.
Errors reduced.
Number of banking partners/bank accounts reduced.
Manual intervention reduced.
Increased system connectivity.
Future-proof solution.
Mei Lian Geow
Executive Director, J.P. Morgan
Founded in 1968, International Baccalaureate Organisation (IB) is a Swiss non-profit organisation dedicated to providing a continuum of international education through four challenging, high-quality and educational programmes serving a global network of schools. In a similar vein of innovation, J.P. Morgan has introduced a new approach to managing payments across diverse currencies and complex regulatory landscapes. The success of this initiative is attributed to the implementation of a new payments blueprint, leveraging our Global Mass Pay to great effect. We are excited to identify more ways to enhance value for our clients.
in partnership with
The Adam Smith Awards Asia are the industry benchmark for best practice and innovation in corporate treasury. The 2024 awards attracted 406 nominations. To find out more please visit treasurytoday.com/adam-smith-awards-asia
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