Methodology & Sources

What this tool does

It calculates the total estimated economic cost of a route from explicit, editable assumptions — it never quotes an executable price and never claims a rail's SLA, cutoff, or fee without a labeled source.

Cost formula

total_cost_send_ccy =
  fixed_fees + variable_fees + intermediary_fees
  + fx_spread_cost + liquidity_cost + network_fee
  + on_ramp_fee + off_ramp_fee + slippage_cost
  + operational_cost + expected_delay_cost

variable_fees      = amount × variable_fee_rate
fx_spread_cost     = amount × fx_spread_rate
liquidity_cost     = prefunded_amount × annual_funding_rate × prefunding_hours / 8760
operational_cost   = manual_hours × internal_hourly_cost
expected_delay_cost= amount × annual_funding_rate × expected_delay_hours / 8760

Fee convention (fees added on top of the transfer vs. deducted from the principal) is set explicitly per route and applied exactly once — never both, to avoid double counting.

Security & data handling

This is a calculator, not a payment rail — so its real risk surface is data handling, not transaction security. What that means concretely:

  • Every calculation runs in your browser. There is no backend in this prototype, so there is no server-side store of your negotiated rates to breach.
  • Scenario export/import is a local file (JSON) you download and reopen yourself — it never touches a network request.
  • Evidence you attach to an assumption (e.g., a rate sheet) is referenced through a browser Object URL and is never uploaded anywhere. It does not survive a page reload, and it is stripped automatically if you export the scenario.
  • Do not attach or type in real account numbers, beneficiary names, or other personal data — the tool does not need them and is not built to protect them.
  • If this evolves into a version with saved accounts or shared workspaces, that is a materially different security tier — encryption at rest, access control, audit logging — and should go through legal/security review before shipping, not be treated as an incremental UI feature.

Limitations

  • No real fee, spread, cutoff, or rail availability is embedded — every figure is a demo or user assumption, badged as such.
  • Holiday and non-business-day calendars are not hardcoded; you supply them, because we do not assert an official calendar without a verified source.
  • This is not financial, legal, tax, FX, or regulatory advice, and not a quote you can execute against.
  • Negotiated institutional pricing is not public by definition — the tool asks you to supply it rather than guessing.

Primary sources consulted for this prototype