Why this matters: No calculator here - just the mechanics of where time and cost come out on legacy rails.
When two institutions settle on legacy infrastructure, cost and risk show up in predictable places:
- Trapped liquidity - capital sits in transit for T+2 while both sides carry exposure.
- Reconciliation - five books of record must agree; breaks take hours to clear.
- Compliance labour - manual review tails after auto-screening; sanctions disposition volume.
- Correspondent fees - cross-bank hops on flows that never needed a middle party.
- KYC reuse - re-onboarding the same institution at every counterparty.
Illustrative example (labeled illustrative): A mid-size regional moving C$250M/month in cross-institution flows might free meaningful liquidity and cut reconciliation and compliance tail work if settlement finality and a shared ledger applied - exact figures depend on your flow profile and are modeled on 4orm Finance, not here.
EDC teaches the mechanism first. Dollar models belong in a finished institutional briefing under NDA.
