The language of treasury in emerging markets
Clear, plain-language definitions of the terms behind USD liquidity, FX access, and cross-border settlement across Africa and Latin America.
USD Repatriation
USD repatriation is the process of converting locally-held earnings into U.S. dollars and transferring them out of a country — for example, a multinational moving profits or dividends from an African or Latin American subsidiary back to its parent.
FX Allocation Backlog
An FX allocation backlog is the queue that forms when demand for foreign currency — usually U.S. dollars — exceeds the amount a central bank or commercial bank can supply.
Correspondent Banking
Correspondent banking is the network of intermediary banks that route cross-border payments between institutions that don't hold accounts with each other.
Cross-Border B2B Payments
Cross-border B2B payments are transfers of funds between businesses in different countries — for example, an importer paying an overseas supplier.
Authorized Dealer
An Authorized Dealer is a commercial bank licensed by a central bank to buy and sell foreign currency and execute cross-border payments on behalf of importers and exporters.
Trapped Cash
Trapped cash is money a business holds in a country but cannot convert to hard currency or move abroad, usually because of foreign-exchange controls or shortages.
Import Cover
Import cover is the number of months a country could keep paying for imports using only its foreign-exchange reserves — a standard gauge of external-buffer adequacy, with three months treated as the rough minimum.
Parallel Rate
The parallel rate is the unofficial, market-driven exchange rate at which currency trades outside official channels, typically weaker than the central-bank rate; the gap between them is the parallel premium.
Compliance-First Stablecoin Settlement
Compliance-first stablecoin settlement is the use of regulated, fully-backed digital dollars — moved through licensed channels with full KYC/AML and an auditable trail — to settle the dollar leg of a cross-border payment without joining a central-bank FX allocation queue.