Hidden FX markups and opaque marketplace currency conversion fees eroding margin

$1,000,000–$7,500,000 per year in margin leakage on high‑value B2B cross‑border flows where 20–300 bps of GMV in FX and cross‑border fees are not priced into negotiated contracts or take‑rates. • $200,000–$2,000,000 per year in a mix of overpaid tax due to overstated taxable bases, underpaid tax risking penalties and interest, and unrecognized FX margin leakage that never gets allocated or priced into fees. • $250,000–$2,500,000 per year in absorbed FX spreads and cross‑border fees on logistics and returns for enterprise brands, weakening negotiated economics and forcing the marketplace to concede discounts or credits to preserve relationships.

Analysts export transaction logs and PSP FX data, then manually compare effective FX rates against public benchmarks to check if inflated converted amounts or repeated corridor issues could be misinterpreted as fraud or abuse. • Coordinators and ops analysts download shipping invoices and PSP payout reports, manually convert logistics costs into the marketplace base currency using public FX sites or static rate tables, and then compare against what was charged to buyers and paid to sellers. • Coordinators perform post‑campaign margin reviews in spreadsheets, manually translating multi‑currency logistics and return costs into a common currency and comparing them to what enterprise brands were charged or rebated, often discovering FX‑related shortfalls only after settlements.