Earlier this year, J.P. Morgan Payments introduced its accelerated cross currency sweep (ACCS) solution in Asia Pacific to help multinational corporations manage their financial operations across different currencies.
ACCS is supported across ten regional markets including key locations such as Australia, Hong Kong and Singapore and has the ability to convert up to 14 currencies domestically or across borders.
It automates the conversion of funds, allowing businesses to invoice and collect in one currency while settling payment obligations in another. Once payment cut-offs have been reached, ACCS calculates how much money is needed to top up the local currency account and then automatically exchanges the necessary amount at the best available rates.
Once the local currency needs are covered, any excess in the client’s functional currency can be redeployed or invested in international markets.
Global Blue has been using the solution since 2023, initially as a pilot client. Established more than 40 years ago, the company connects thousands of retailers, acquirers and hotels with nearly 80 million consumers across 53 countries in three industries – tax free shopping, payments and post-purchase solutions.
With over 2,000 employees, Global Blue generated €33bn sales in store and €508m revenue in financial year 2024/25.
Given the nature and complexity of its business, the company has a daily need to collect and pay in different currencies explains Head of Group Treasury, Francesco Di Tucci.
“Before we implemented accelerated cross currency sweep, part of treasury’s job was the execution of FX transactions to support the dynamic currency conversion business, the system that enables the traveller to choose to pay in their local currency or their own card currency when they travel abroad,” he says.
Di Tucci explains Global Blue faced a variety of issues when conducting business across borders.
“From the treasury perspective, you need to take care of different things such as respecting cut-offs and ensuring bank accounts are not negative by the end of the day,” he adds. “We all know at what time the markets are most liquid, but we cannot predict at what level a currency pair will be – an intraday market volatility component is always present.”
Prior to using accelerated cross currency sweep, the company did all trades at spot with overnight spots to cover negative balances if the money didn’t arrive for any reason. Now all trades are sold net the same day the cash arrives, removing the need for overnight spots.
“We do not trade the currencies any more but rather set the rules of the game,” says Di Tucci. “If we do not need a currency, the system can be set up to sell it at a specific time of the day – no mistakes, no manual input, less time spent on operations, just thinking about how the flow should work.”
Examples of the kind of questions the company asks now include ‘if there is a currency always long or short, what are the specific needs?’ and ‘is a small buffer necessary?’.
“Eventually I am net long AUD but I often still need to make some payments tomorrow early morning CET,” adds Di Tucci. “Should the need change, the rules can be amended accordingly. In addition, it is very flexible, we just need to exchange bank account details with our counterparties and onboarding a new customer is very easy.”
