In managing FX flows, the old-fashioned way just doesn’t cut it anymore
Automation can play a valuable role in managing FX flows and liquidity. At the Treasury 360° Nordic 2025 conference, three experts shared their experience of how automation can drive cost efficiencies, reduce operational risk, and enhance accuracy of cash flow management in the session titled “Navigating complexity and unlocking cost efficiencies: the case for automating FX payments/receipts and associated liquidity management”.
Anna Apelgren, Senior Treasury Manager at Spotify shared an instance when FX complexities hindered progress in a market. The firm prefers to to collect subscriptions in local currency so that it has better control over the FX – where not possible, it engages payment service providers (PSPs) to do the conversion on its behalf. This plan didn’t work out in the Philippines, where the firm intended to do onshore conversions from the PSP back to Spotify’s Swedish entity.
“Everything seemed to be working with the exception that we had to comply with a local regulation that requires us to report every conversion done. That was not part of the scoping for setting up the project – we did not have any automated reporting for conversion,” Apelgren shares. As a result, the Philippines remains an unconquered market for Spotify.
Automation is key
Gunilla Hernvall, Manager Front office and Funding at Epiroc, agreed that automation is key to how her team manages everything with a lean headcount of just 10. She mentioned two solutions – one to manage swaps automatically, and the other, for the funds the firms does not want to swap.
“If we do this in an old-fashioned way making these daily swaps, payments, and settling with banks… We wouldn’t be able to do it,” says Hernvall. With automation, it’s a matter of setting thresholds in the account and letting the system do its job. This allows her team to invest more efficiently and strategically.
She adds, “Everybody knows that you have some accounts where there are not always daily movements, so you kind of forget them on a daily basis. But if you have target rules, the system will alert you if your balance gets too low so that you can act on it. In this way, we also save a lot of overdraft costs.”
In the spotlight
At spotify, Apelgren’s team has devised the “Sad List”, a unique system to ensure that FX management is never overlooked – especially for FX conversions managed externally by PSPs. It’s a visualisation board for FX cost, created in collaboration with an internal data science team. “This illustrates quite broadly what the cost of FX is within the organisation. It’s a good tool to spread knowledge,” she says. “Once we had the Sad List, we could start discussions and negotiations with third parties, such as the PSPs.”
Panellists:
Gunilla Hernvall, Manager Front Office and Funding, Epiroc
Anna Apelgren, Senior Treasury Manager, Spotify
Moderator:
Juliette Yim, Head, MNC Cash Solutions Sales APAC, Deutsche Bank
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