Convera Warns of Growing 'Volatility Gap' Threatening Global Business Margins

Convera has released a global report identifying a critical "volatility gap" that threatens international business stability. As cross-border payment infrastructure achieves near-instant speeds, the disconnect between rapid settlement and effective currency risk management is widening, leaving corporate margins and cash flow forecasts increasingly vulnerable to sudden and unmanaged foreign exchange movements.

What was announced

The report, titled The Volatility Gap: Why Payments Innovation Doesn't Solve Currency Risk, highlights that while technical efficiency in money movement has improved significantly, the financial risk associated with those movements remains largely unmitigated. According to data from the Bank for International Settlements, global foreign-exchange turnover reached $9.5 trillion per day in April 2025, a 27% increase from 2022. This surge reflects a growing necessity for businesses to navigate FX markets amid heightened global volatility.

The research draws on several industry benchmarks to illustrate the scale of the challenge. Bibby Financial Services' 2026 International Trade Report indicates that 44% of importers and exporters have seen profit margins eroded by currency fluctuations, with global conflict now cited as the primary economic concern for these firms. While the Swift network now facilitates 75% of payments reaching beneficiary banks within 10 minutes, these real-time transactions are still subject to the prevailing market rate at the moment of transmission. This leaves a window of exposure between the payment cycle and the actual settlement.

Furthermore, the report notes that the stablecoin market capitalization exceeded $300 billion in 2026. However, these digital assets primarily accelerate settlement speed without altering the underlying value relationship between currencies. With the B2B cross-border payments market projected by FXC Intelligence to reach $51.2 trillion by 2033, the complexity of managing multiple currency corridors is expected to increase as businesses diversify into new global markets. Convera argues for an integrated approach that aligns hedging strategies with specific payment dates and embeds FX decisions directly into everyday workflows.

"A faster payment is not necessarily a safer commercial outcome. A business can move money in seconds and still lose margin because the currency exposure was unmanaged for weeks or months beforehand. Businesses have made huge progress modernising payment infrastructure, but many are still managing currency exposure as an afterthought. That leaves margins, forecasts and growth plans exposed at exactly the moment finance leaders need more certainty."

Patrick Gauthier, Group CEO at Convera.

The companies involved

Convera is a global leader in commercial payments, providing specialized services designed to help businesses manage international transactions and the associated currency risks. The company operates as a significant player in the B2B payments landscape, focusing on providing visibility over margins and cash flow for a diverse client base. Its primary audience includes CFOs, treasurers, and senior finance leaders at organizations that operate internationally, particularly those managing recurring supplier payments or expanding into unfamiliar geographic markets.

As a fintech specialist, Convera positions itself at the intersection of payment technology and foreign exchange risk management. Patrick Gauthier, who serves as Fintech CEO at Convera, oversees the organization's efforts to modernize payment infrastructure while addressing the financial complexities of global trade. The company’s focus remains on bridging the gap between the technical execution of a payment and the strategic management of the currency value involved. By providing tools for building currency risk frameworks, the firm seeks to provide certainty for businesses navigating a market where the B2B cross-border sector is seeing massive growth and increased corridor complexity.

What FF News has reported before

FF News has followed Convera’s expansion into various sectors and its partnerships aimed at streamlining global financial flows. In late 2025, the publication covered how dLocal Accelerates Global Payments Across Emerging Markets with Convera, a move that expanded the firm's reach into high-growth regions. Earlier, in 2024, the company focused on specialized industry solutions, as seen when Convera Embeds Payments to Deliver a Global Agent Solution With Ascent One. Additionally, the firm has addressed the education sector through a collaboration with Unlimit, as detailed in the report Unlimit and Convera Partner to Simplify Tuition Payments for Students in Developing Countries, which sought to ease the burden of international tuition fees for students in developing nations.

What this means

The "volatility gap" identifies a major blind spot in the fintech industry's obsession with speed. For years, the sector has prioritized "the pipes"—the rails and messaging standards like ISO 20022—while neglecting the volatility of the value flowing through them. This announcement suggests that the competitive advantage in cross-border payments is shifting from those who can move money the fastest to those who can provide the most price certainty. Traditional banks and payment providers are under pressure to move beyond simple transaction fulfillment. The industry now faces a fundamental question: can payment efficiency and risk management remain separate silos, or will the market demand that hedging and settlement become a single, inseparable product?