The fee on the receipt is not the cost
Your bank shows a $45 CAD wire fee. That is the smallest of four charges. On a $20,000 CAD payment to a supplier in India we traced last quarter, the total cost was $684 CAD — 3.4% — and only $45 of it appeared on the sender's statement. The rest was taken in the exchange rate, by banks the sender had never heard of, and at the receiving end.
The exchange-rate margin
Banks convert at their own rate, not the interbank mid. The margin on CAD to USD is typically 2–3% for a business account and more for a personal one; on CAD to a less-traded currency it is wider still. On $20,000 CAD, a 2.5% margin is $500 CAD — more than ten times the visible fee — and it never appears as a line item. The only way to see it is to compare the rate you were given against the mid-market rate at that minute.
Correspondent banks
A wire from Canada to India rarely travels directly. It passes through one or more correspondent banks in New York or London, each of which deducts a "lifting fee" of $15–$50 USD from the principal. The sender does not choose these banks and is not told the fee in advance. Two intermediaries on our traced payment took $62 USD between them. The supplier received less than invoiced and asked for a top-up wire — with its own fees.
The receiving side
The beneficiary's bank charges to receive an international wire — $10–$30 USD is normal — and, if the payment arrives in USD, converts to local currency at its own margin. That second conversion cost our supplier roughly 1.2% in INR. Add three to five business days in transit and the working-capital cost of money that is neither here nor there, and a "$45 wire" is a 3–4% payment method that takes most of a week.
What a stablecoin payout costs instead
The same $20,000 CAD sent as USDC through TokenNest: one spread under 1% on a stated mid, a network fee of roughly $1, and arrival in the supplier's wallet the same business day. Total under $200 CAD, every component visible before you approve. The supplier converts USDC to INR locally at a competitive rate, or holds dollars. It requires the supplier to accept stablecoins — most exporters in Asia already do — and it is why we built cross-border payments the way we did.