Case Study December 5, 2022

ArcaPay and Currencycloud: making FX risk management more accessible

Background

Established in 2011 in the UK ArcaPay provides foreign exchange, international payment and currency risk management solutions to small to medium enterprises (SMEs).

After launching in 2011, ArcaPay gradually became an important part of the UK-based SMEs’ international payments and FX processes.

Growing their customer base, ArcaPay started facing three main blockers. Firstly, a lack of automation and speed in international payments processing. APIs weren’t widely available in the 2010s, so ArcaPay had to manually manage the cross-border movement of all their clients’ funds. Secondly, it was difficult to expand into global coverage. Each new payment destination made available to ArcaPay’s customers required building new relationships with local financial institutions. Thirdly, there was difficulty in finding an efficient deliverable FX provider.

In 2017 ArcaPay added Currencycloud to their service providers list, aiming to consolidate cross-border payments and solve their existing challenges.

Solution

After conducting in-depth research and receiving positive feedback from other companies, ArcaPay chose Currencycloud because we enabled them to process local payouts in a number of countries which sped up processing cross-border payments. Currencycloud enabled ArcaPay to build a flexible, easy-to-manage FX forward contracts solution.

Reflecting recently on the partnership Marius Bausys, ArcaPay Founder notes: “There are a lot of FX brokers out there, but not many offer third-party payment capability. Currencycloud’s ability to offer such a service is a core reason why we chose to work with them.”

ArcaPay initially used Currencycloud Direct, handling operations manually – and started trading from that first day. ArcaPay next started using various features of Currencycloud’s API, integrating them into their existing platform. This integration gave ArcaPay access to a much wider network of local payment rails in many countries worldwide, enabling the company to focus on growing their business and delighting their clients rather than establishing and managing a host of banking relationships.

The partnership meant ArcaPay was able to offer additional local payouts in many more countries, and offer more services to attract more clients. For example, enabling payout to Hungary or the Czech Republic in a local currency enables ArcaPay to approach Hungary or the Czech Republic immigrant-owned UK-based SMEs who need to pay their suppliers in their home countries. Without Currencycloud’s solution, ArcaPay wouldn’t be able to offer such a service to its clients.

Today, Currencycloud is a key partner of ArcaPay, enjoying a close relationship at multiple levels – from operations to compliance to account management.

“We really like your FX forwards capability; it enables us to do what we do today. We are trying to democratize risk management and make FX risk management available to all businesses. Smaller businesses face the same challenges around managing risk as large businesses, but they don’t have the solutions set up to address them. This is something ArcaPay is trying to change. We are also bringing some of the lessons learned in the UK to Central Eastern European countries, encouraging businesses to look at and manage their FX risk. We do this primarily through Currencycloud solutions which we have built our product around. This has been a game changer for us.”

Marius Bausys Founder, ArcaPay

RESULTS

Since establishing their relationship with Currencycloud back in 2017, ArcaPay’s business has grown tenfold. While this growth hasn’t occurred purely as a result of the partnership, Currencycloud has played a key part in the company’s success as it evolved and grew.

BETTER FX OFFER

ArcaPay benefits from Currencycloud’s FX offering and third party payment capability – it’s something not many FX brokers offer.

FAST FX FORWARDS

With Currencycloud’s API, ArcaPay enables its clients to book FX forwards quickly and securely. One ArcaPay client regularly books 100+ FX forward contracts in multiple currencies and multiple dates once a month on ArcaPay’s platform. In under ten minutes.

MORE ACCESS & SPEED

ArcaPay is able to access local payment rails in many countries without the need to go through them all individually – a huge gain in efficiency and cost savings.

GROWTH

The business has grown tenfold since ArcaPay established their relationship with Currencycloud.

MORE LOCAL PAYOUTS

ArcaPay is able to offer local payouts in many more countries than before, offering their clients more options.

MORE CLIENTS

The Currencycloud partnership has allowed ArcaPay to widen its capabilities and approach a wider range of clients.

IN SUMMARY

For its core market, ArcaPay needed UK and EU bank accounts. Yet for any other country, it was a major project to find a local bank partner: involving a lot of time and money without any guarantee of success. So ArcaPay partnered with Currencycloud to enable them to access local payment rails in many countries without the need to go through them individually and maintain relationships. This has meant ArcaPay has been able to focus on its clients. In addition, ArcaPay liked that Currencycloud offered FX and a third party payment capability. What’s more, Currencycloud, like ArcaPay, realize the potential of technology – Currencycloud’s focus on leveraging its API was very appealing to Arcapay.

“Currencycloud has a great API that is intuitive, easy to use and functional. We use only a fraction of the platform’s capabilities and it’s great to know that there are always more products and functions available that we can build business cases around.”

Marius Bausys Founder, ArcaPay

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