Cases
Paying for marketing in China in dollars — cheaper than via VTB
Services & marketingChina
A Russian company paid for marketing services in China through VTB, but the Chinese supplier couldn't open an account there — and its bank could only accept US dollars.
The problem
- Payments used to go through VTB, but the supplier couldn't open an account there
- The supplier's bank only accepted payments in US dollars
- A direct dollar payment from Russia wasn't available
What we did
- Offered a dollar rate that, by unit economics, came out even cheaper than paying via VTB
- Accepted the rubles from the client the same day
- Issued the payment to the supplier that same day
- Formalised the operation under an agency agreement
The result
- Funds reached the supplier the very next day
- The final rate beat the bank's
- Payment and crediting went through with no delays
- The client is happy and won't be going back to VTB
Takeaway
Sometimes a supplier's 'inconvenient' currency is a chance to cut the cost of a payment: we found a dollar route cheaper than the bank and ran it same-day.