Global payments for a global institution
About Dublin City University
Dublin City University is a young, dynamic, globally-engaged, research-intensive university with a focus on translating science and knowledge into economic benefit.
Since admitting its first students in 1989, DCU has grown in both student numbers and size and is now a multi-campus university.
The challenge
In the past, DCU had faced challenges when transferring funds internationally. The university’s payments needed to be delivered in a local currency at a competitive rate.
The DCU Finance Office also had to take into account traceability and time-sensitive payments like student refunds needed to be delivered error-free.
The finance team were looking to adopt a more streamlined approach to the international payments process to reduce manual touchpoints but also to save time and money.
The solution
DCU’s Finance Operations Controller, Brendan Gillen met with Fexco’s International payments team to map out a solution to meet the university’s payment needs.
It was quickly established that existing bank fees and fx rates incurred for overseas payments were not competitive. In fact, Fexco informed the finance department that savings of €10,000 per year could be made on fees alone.
Since availing of Fexco’s bank-beating FX rates, low fees and expert currency risk management solution, the results are clear for DCU. Speaking about the change, Brendan Gillan commented:
“when transferring funds overseas we tend to worry about potential delays, exchange rates and interbank charges arising on our side or on the receiving end. We need to be certain that all of those issues are within our control. Fexco gives us that certainty.”
DCU now uses Fexco for all of its international payments. Payment runs are processed from Agresso (the DCU Financial System) using Fexco FileDirect integration, providing straight-through processing with no manual data entry.
This has had a positive impact in terms of the level of resources required by using a high degree of automation and integration.
The benefits
- Reduced overseas payment fees by €11,000
- Straight through processing rates of >99% (eliminating delays)
- Integrated solution allows staff to focus on more value add tasks
- Automation eliminates risk of payment fraud and error caused by manual touchpoints.
Since we have started working with Fexco our transaction costs are lower and we have reduced our exposure to exchange rate fluctuation. That has made a huge difference for us with savings of more than €11,000 on fees alone.”
