FX4Cash outbound payment value from Deutsche Bank's mid-size Indian corporate clients fell 18% in a month. What is the root cause?

Introduction

FX4Cash is Deutsche Bank's cross-currency payments service: a client funds payments from its home-currency account, and Deutsche Bank converts and delivers them in more than 130 currencies without the client holding foreign currency accounts. In India, Deutsche Bank's Corporate Bank serves multinational subsidiaries and large Indian corporates, and FX4Cash is a natural fit for companies paying overseas suppliers. In this scenario, the value of FX4Cash outbound payments from Deutsche Bank's mid-size Indian corporate clients fell 18% month over month. I'll clarify the problem, rule out external causes, map the journey, break down the metric, and work through hypotheses to a root cause and fix.

Step 1

Clarifying Questions (3 minutes)

• Is the drop in value, count or both?

• Hypothetical answer: Value is down 18%; payment count is down 9%.
• Impact: Both fewer and smaller payments; we must look at mix.

• Which clients and corridors?

• Hypothetical answer: Mid-size Indian corporates (annual turnover ₹500–5,000 crore) paying suppliers in China, Germany, the US and the UAE.
• Impact: Corridor-level analysis is essential.

• How sudden was it?

• Hypothetical answer: Over three weeks, starting mid-month.

• Did we change pricing, limits or channels?

• Hypothetical answer: A new FX margin grid for mid-size clients took effect at the start of the month; the corporate portal also moved to a new authentication flow.

• Is overall Deutsche Bank India outward remittance volume down too?

• Hypothetical answer: Slightly, by 4%.