About

Headquartered in Western Australia, Fortescue’s mission is to accelerate decarbonization at a global scale, rapidly and profitably. Fortescue ships at an annual rate of almost 200 million tons, with more than two billion tons of iron ore shipped since 2008.¹

The challenge

Fortescue’s strategic expansion created treasury complexity as managing cash across borders presented challenges while manual reconciliations across accounts consumed time and resources.

As Fortescue’s global footprint grew, its account network expanded to over 180 bank accounts across multiple countries and currencies—driving the need for scalable infrastructure, better visibility and technology that could adapt quickly.

The company needed a bank to help move capital across borders, improve liquidity management and build a treasury platform designed for global scale.

The solution

J.P. Morgan Payments delivered a fully integrated treasury ecosystem to support Fortescue’s global ambitions.

• A unified treasury ecosystem centered on SAP S/4HANA, SwiftNet Host-to-Host connectivity, and ISO 20022 standardized messaging
• API connectivity with SAP and FIS to provide near real-time account visibility across jurisdictions for better capital allocation decisions
• Strategic cash optimization, including Global Earnings Credit Rate (GECR) offsetting and virtual accounts, reduced reliance on physical account structures and lower banking fees
• Automated liquidity tools—including cross-border and USD sweeps, Just-In-Time funding and notional pooling in Asia Pacific and EMEA
• On-Behalf-Of payment structures streamlined group-wide payments and improved operational consistency
• Integrated FX automation provided multi-currency management across 15 currencies
• Expanded digitization efforts across trade finance operations—backed by our correspondent banking network to support reliable cross-border payments

With solutions that focus on automated liquidity management, digitized trade finance and integrated FX capabilities, we transformed Fortescue’s operations and gave them the tools to operate with near real-time visibility and precision across their global accounts.

The results

Virtual accounts cut the need to open and maintain traditional bank accounts, reducing setup costs and ongoing fees. Fortescue plans to continue to simplify accounts with virtual structures. Automation and near-real-time API connections replaced manual reconciliation work that used to take days. That freed the treasury team to spend more time on growth and strategic decisions, while still supporting day-to-day operations.

Fortescue’s treasury team can now see cash positions instantly across 14 countries, which helps them make faster decisions on time-sensitive investment opportunities. Payments are simpler to process, and finance teams in different countries have less administrative work due to centralized treasury management. Supplier payments to emerging markets are also easier to track, using our correspondent banking network to help ensure partners are paid reliably.

Together, Fortescue and J.P. Morgan Payments created a unified technology ecosystem that supports growth across the business, with scalable infrastructure to ensure treasury operations remain resilient, efficient and future-ready.