Meet CurrencyTransfer.com: The marketplace democratizing capital markets technology

Here Daniel Abrahams, CEO and co-founder of CurrencyTransfer.com, discusses why his marketplace has the big banks worried and what’s next for the money transfer market.    

How does CurrencyTransfer.com work?

The free to use CurrencyTransfer.com marketplace helps businesses and individuals alike find and book the best international money transfer deal, saving up to 85% versus hidden bank and broker fees.

Every day, we solve the deep problem of hidden exchange rate mark-ups, lofty transfer charges and those unexpected receiving fees when moving money around the world.

Company owners, finance directors and private clients can set up a transfer; compare up to six live quotes from FCA-regulated suppliers and book in less than 60 seconds. You settle by bank transfer and money is delivered often same day to your chosen recipient. Expect to save up to £500 on every £10,000 transferred, when factoring all fees and charges.

Think Expedia for currency!

What makes the platform unique?

What we’ve built previously only existed at the investment banking level. We have successfully managed to democratise capital markets technology, and brought this down to ‘Main Street.’ Why shouldn’t small businesses and individuals have the same access to great rates and multi-broker pricing that Coca Cola or Adidas do?

Quite simply, we’re not a bank or a currency broker. We’ve built the world’s first and fastest growing online marketplace for international money transfers. In any industry where there is inefficiency, we are seeing marketplace dynamics disrupted. Whether it’s travel — Expedia, Kayak, Booking — or transportation — Uber, Get Taxi — or now foreign exchange transfers with CurrencyTransfer.com, new challengers are shaking up the old way of doing things.

With an average transfer size of over £25,000, we appreciate every transfer has its own story and trust is key. As such, we allocate every client a Personal Currency Concierge, to ensure the best platform and user experience.  Our levels of transparency, independence and support are unique in the industry, putting us firmly on the side of the customer.

Who are CurrencyTransfer.com’s customers? What do they need from the service? How much can they save?

We help clients making their first order overseas, all the way up to established businesses with over £20min foreign exchange turnover a year. Corporate clients include, amongst others: importers, exporters, international charities, online marketplace sellers, travel operators and hedge funds. Private clients typically are overseas property buyers, expats and high net worth individuals.

The minimum transfer amount on our platform is £5,000 equivalent. We don’t play in the remittance space. We know our customer very well and are obsessed by solving their particular set of cross-border payment problems.

What platform is CurrencyTransfer.com available on?

Desktop and Tablet. An awesome mobile experience is coming soon!

How do you ensure the service is safe?

We’re a curated currency marketplace, and proudly not whole-of-market. We only aggregate rates from FCA-authorized currency specialists in the UK and Europe. This means no ‘agents’ or ‘small payment institutions’.

All client funds are safeguarded in segregated client accounts, and we have a strict vetting criteria and application process for new non-bank currency suppliers wishing to contribute rates on our live foreign exchange marketplace.

Our team have over 20 combined years experience in the money transfer space, and deploy a strict vetting process before

What countries does CurrencyTransfer.com serve, and what currencies are available?

Launch for us has been the UK and European market. We have clients in over 18 countries and we offer well over 400 currency routes, growing monthly. Recently, we opened up a local Israeli presence with shekel available for local settlement.

What’s in the pipeline for CurrencyTransfer.com? How are you thinking about developing the business?

You can expect to see us work hard to bring more currency routes, brand and customer development. I’d like to think we’ll be live and growing our business in the US and Asia within 12-24 months.

As a marketplace, we have the unique ability to scale fast.

In a similar way to Uber not employing a single driver or Booking.com not owning a single property, CurrencyTransfer.com aims to build the world’s largest commercial currency exchange business without performing a single transfer ourselves.

What does the future hold for money transfer? How is the market evolving?

The new wave of non-bank foreign exchange firms must be unsettling to banks, despite the fact in the space CurrencyTransfer.com operates they still own 85 to 90% of the market. New entrants seem to understand customer needs, user experience and what constitutes fair pricing and transparency better.

I predict legacy payment infrastructure systems and the corresponding banking network will continue to be challenged by FinTech companies to drive more certainty in processing cross border transfers, lightening quick speed of transfer and significantly lower costs.

At CurrencyTransfer.com, we believe every customer worldwide deserves not only a cheap, but fair deal on currency. We’re part of an evolving money transfer market that moves towards 100% price transparency and gives customers in 2015 independent choice of execution partner.

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