Multi-Currency Account for Companies: USD, EUR or GBP

A CFO invoicing a client in the United States, another in the United Kingdom and buying cloud infrastructure priced in euros ends up holding balance in three currencies with no automatic answer for what to do with it. Converting everything into local currency as soon as it arrives feels prudent, but if a supplier invoice in that same currency is due in 30 days, the company ends up buying back what it just sold, twice exposed to the day's rate and paying the conversion cost twice.

In Soulbit Academy we explain how to decide which currency to hold balance in when a Latin American company deals with clients and suppliers across several markets. This is not a product choice or a matter of preference: it depends on what currency the company invoices in, what currency it pays costs in, how long its collection cycle runs and how much conversion risk it is willing to carry. If your company also collects from European clients and wants to understand the specific options around the euro, we cover that separately in collecting from European clients: digital euro and stablecoins.

What determines which currency a company should hold balance in

The currency of a company's balance is determined by its invoicing and its costs, not by the convenience of thinking in a single currency. When a company collects and pays in the same currency, holding the balance in that currency removes conversion risk on that leg of the business. When it collects in one currency and pays costs in another, holding part of the balance in the invoicing currency naturally covers the next payment in that same currency, without having to buy the currency again when the payment date arrives.

Andina DevWorks, a Peruvian software company invoicing a US client in dollars on 45-day terms, pays for cloud infrastructure priced in euros from a European vendor. If it converts the dollars it receives into soles as soon as they arrive and then has to buy euros to pay the vendor, it takes on two conversions and two separate exposures to the day's rate instead of one. If it instead keeps a portion of the balance in dollars until it needs euros, it remains exposed to the dollar-euro rate, but only once.

Should a company convert its dollar balance into local currency as soon as it is received?

It depends on whether a payment in that same currency is coming up. If every remaining cost is in local currency, payroll, rent, taxes, converting immediately reduces exposure time at no opportunity cost. If instead there is a supplier payment, a loan installment or a service contract due in dollars within the cycle, holding the balance until that payment avoids buying the same currency twice.

Why the dollar, the euro and the pound dominate international invoicing

The dollar and the euro together account for more than 80% of global trade invoicing, according to the European Central Bank, based on 2023 data, the latest consolidated figure available. The dollar invoices roughly 40% of global exports and the euro a similar share, concentrated mostly within Europe.

That concentration goes beyond trade invoicing. In official reserves, the International Monetary Fund recorded the dollar's share at 57.13% of the total in the first quarter of 2026, up from 56.42% at the end of 2025, while the euro stood at 20.03%. Sterling holds a minority share and edged down by 0.01 percentage points in the same quarter: it remains relevant, but concentrated mostly in counterparties linked to the United Kingdom rather than in broad global trade.

For a Latin American company, this concentration explains why nearly any international client or supplier ends up invoicing in one of these three currencies, and why deciding which one to hold balance in matters more than deciding whether to hold foreign currency balance at all.

Collection cycle and conversion risk: when not to convert

It does not make sense to convert a foreign currency balance into local currency when the company has a payment scheduled in that same currency within its collection cycle. The risk avoided is not only the exchange rate: it is the risk of paying the conversion cost twice, once when the income arrives and again when the currency has to be bought back for the payment.

Southern Cone Exports, a Chilean company invoicing a UK distributor in pounds and paying a local supplier in pesos, does not face the same problem as Andina DevWorks: since all of its costs are in pesos, converting the pounds it receives as soon as they arrive does not create a double conversion, because there is no upcoming payment in pounds to cover. The conversion risk, in that case, is limited to the time between invoice and collection, not to the balance afterward.

What risk does a company take on when it converts its entire balance into local currency immediately?

If it later needs to buy that same currency again to pay a supplier or an obligation abroad, it takes on the risk of a second conversion at that day's rate, plus the cost of two currency operations instead of one. That risk does not exist if the company has no upcoming payment in that foreign currency.

Deciding when to hold balance without converting is different from hedging formally with financial instruments. If your company needs a more structured hedge, for example to lock in the cost of an import several months ahead, we cover the options available in Latin America in currency hedging for companies.

Functional currency and presentation currency under IAS 21

Functional currency is the currency of the primary economic environment in which a company operates, and it is not freely chosen by the accounting department: it is determined by observable facts, not preference. Under the IFRS Foundation's IAS 21, on the effects of changes in foreign exchange rates, functional currency is determined by indicators such as the currency that mainly influences sales prices, the currency in which labor and input costs are generated, and the currency of the company's main financing sources.

Presentation currency, by contrast, is the currency in which the company publishes its financial statements, and it can differ from the functional currency. A group with an operating subsidiary in Colombia may have a functional currency in pesos for that subsidiary, yet present its consolidated statements in dollars if the parent company decides to, and IAS 21 allows that difference as long as the translation process is documented.

This article does not repeat the accounting treatment of realized and unrealized exchange differences at period close, already covered in multi-currency bank reconciliation. The point here comes before that accounting adjustment: which currency to hold before it happens, and that treasury decision does not change the company's functional currency, which remains the currency of its primary economic environment.

Three currencies, three profiles: USD, EUR and GBP for a Latin American company

The dollar, the euro and the pound play three different roles for a Latin American company: the dollar as the most liquid currency in international trade, the euro as the invoicing currency with the eurozone and the pound as the currency of a British counterparty. The dollar is, in practice, the most liquid currency and the easiest to convert without material additional cost across almost any corridor; the euro is the natural currency when a company invoices or imports from the eurozone; the pound matters mostly when a UK counterparty is involved.

Criterion	USD	EUR	GBP
Role in international trade invoicing (ECB, 2023)	Roughly 40% of global exports	Another ~40%, concentrated mostly within Europe	Minority share, outside the top two
Typical client or supplier profile for a Latin American company	Clients and suppliers in the United States and dollar-invoicing markets	Clients and suppliers in the eurozone	Clients and suppliers in the United Kingdom
When to hold it as operating balance	If there is an upcoming payment to suppliers, payroll or debt in dollars	If the company imports from Europe or invoices European clients in euros	If it maintains a recurring commercial relationship with a UK counterparty
Share of global official reserves (IMF, COFER, Q1 2026)	57.13%	20.03%	Minority share, edged down by 0.01 percentage points in the quarter

None of the three currencies is better in the abstract: the criterion that decides is always the same, whether the company has or will have a commitment in that currency within its collection and payment cycle.

When to convert the balance and when to hold it

It makes sense to convert a foreign currency balance into local currency when there is no upcoming payment scheduled in that same currency; it makes sense to hold it when there is. This rule, simple in principle, gets harder to apply when a company has several simultaneous flows in different currencies and needs a clear policy instead of deciding case by case.

Signal	Convert now	Hold the balance
Upcoming payment in the same currency	No payment is scheduled in that currency within the cycle	A supplier payment, payroll or debt obligation in that currency falls due in the next 30 to 60 days
State of the collection cycle	The cycle already closed and the income only covers local expenses	The cycle is still open and more invoicing in the same currency may arrive
Company treasury policy	The policy sets a low ceiling on foreign currency balance	The policy allows keeping an operating buffer in foreign currency
Main purpose of the balance	Cover payroll, rent and taxes in local currency	Avoid a double conversion ahead of a scheduled international payment

Setting these signals as policy, rather than deciding each conversion in isolation, is what separates an organized multi-currency treasury from one that reacts operation by operation. To build that formal policy, start from a treasury policy template for SMBs and a cash flow forecast in foreign currency that shows, month by month, which currency income arrives in and which currency payments go out in.

What a multi-currency account for companies means on Soulbit: what the V1 delivers and what it does not

A multi-currency account for companies on Soulbit is an operating balance in USD, EUR and GBP fiat, plus USDC and USDT, and it is not a bank account: it is balance held through third-party omnibus accounts, under institutional MPC custody, not an account opened under the company's own name at a bank.

Is Soulbit's multi-currency balance the same as opening a bank account in dollars, euros and pounds?

No. The company does not receive its own bank account number or the deposit insurance coverage that applies to a traditional bank account. The balance is managed through third-party omnibus accounts under institutional custody with MPC technology, and the local banking rail to move that balance into a bank account under the company's own name is available today only in Colombia.

Soulbit's V1 lets a company hold simultaneous balance in USD, EUR, GBP, USDC and USDT, with exportable history, which reduces the number of traditional bank accounts a company needs to open across countries to operate in several currencies. It does not include automatic conversion between currencies, a card with no pre-funding requirement, yield on the balance, or a direct API or SDK connection to the company's ERP: exporting the history is manual, and deciding when to convert each balance remains a treasury decision the company makes, not an automatic rule of the product.

For a Latin American company invoicing clients in the United States and the United Kingdom, the practical approach is usually: hold balance in the invoicing currency while there is an upcoming payment in that same currency, convert into local currency whatever no longer has a pending commitment, and leave the determination of functional currency and the accounting entry for any exchange difference to the company's accountant, using the official rate of each country. A company already collecting in dollars from Colombia can also review USD account options for companies in Colombia.