Pacifica Trading reduced international payment costs by 74% while adding real-time supplier tracking

Pacifica Trading Co. is a mid-size import/export firm that moves agricultural commodities and manufactured goods between suppliers in Nigeria, Ghana, Vietnam, and Thailand, and buyers in the United States. The company processes $2–3M in cross-border payments monthly.

Their traditional payment workflow relied on correspondent banking — a chain of intermediary banks that route international wires. A single payment from the US to a supplier in Lagos might pass through 3–4 banks, each taking a cut. Total fees per wire averaged $65–$85, and settlement took 3–7 business days. Worse, once a wire entered the correspondent chain, there was no visibility into its status — the finance team called it 'the black hole.'

For time-sensitive commodity purchases — where prices fluctuate daily — a 5-day payment delay could mean the difference between securing a shipment at the agreed price or renegotiating at a higher rate. Pacifica estimated that payment delays cost them $120K–$180K annually in unfavorable price adjustments and missed purchase windows.

Pacifica adopted a hybrid payment strategy through Nano Wallet. Domestic operations — customer invoicing, payroll, and US vendor payments — run through the Nano Checking account using standard ACH and wire transfers. International supplier payments are routed through USDC.

The workflow is straightforward: when a purchase order is confirmed, the finance team converts USD to USDC in the Nano Wallet dashboard and sends it to the supplier's USDC wallet. For suppliers who don't yet accept USDC directly, Pacifica works with local payment partners who receive USDC and distribute local currency — a process that still settles in under 4 hours compared to the previous 3–7 days.

Critically, every USDC transaction is trackable on-chain. The finance team can see exactly when funds were sent, when they arrived, and confirm receipt — eliminating the correspondent banking black hole. They've built this tracking into their ERP system, so purchase orders automatically update when payment is confirmed.

For the $1–2M that sits in the account between payment cycles, Pacifica uses the USDC yield wallet to earn 4.3% APY — turning dead working capital into a revenue source.

After 12 months on Nano Wallet, Pacifica's international payment operations have transformed.

Average per-payment cost dropped from $75 to $19 — a 74% reduction. Monthly payment processing costs fell from approximately $4,500 to $1,200. Settlement time for international payments decreased from an average of 4.8 business days to 3.2 hours.

The real-time payment tracking eliminated an estimated 8 hours per week of status-chasing phone calls and emails between the finance team and suppliers. Suppliers have also responded positively — three key suppliers in Vietnam offered Pacifica improved pricing terms (1.5–2% discount) in exchange for the faster, more reliable payment schedule.

Yield on idle working capital generated $38,200 over the 12-month period. Combined with the fee savings and improved supplier pricing, Pacifica estimates the total financial impact at approximately $210K annually.