Currencycloud Spark liberates Wallex’s Asia-Pacific clients to behave like a local across multiple markets.
Background
Singapore-based business-to-business FX and payments solutions provider Wallex was established in 2016 to address the pain points of high exchange rates and transfer fees that its customers incurred when making international payments. Partnering with Currencycloud from the onset has allowed Wallex to provide better exchange rates and better transfer fees through its online platform, so their customers can take their money further.
The Challenge
Wallex’s Singapore-based customers were having to use regional banks to collect funds in USD, GBP, and Euros, or were requiring international payments to be made into their local accounts. This was a cumbersome, expensive and slow process; incurring high foreign exchange charges, as well as conversion and payment fees for every transaction.
This friction contrasted with Wallex’s ethos: that of offering bespoke, low-cost payment solutions to its customers.
Solution
Already a long-term partner of Currencycloud, in Q4 2020, Wallex integrated Currencycloud Spark into its existing platform so they could give their customers the ability to take their cross-border payments to the next level.
Using Currencycloud Spark, Wallex’s Singapore and Hong Kong-based customers can operate more efficiently, while enjoying significantly reduced international transfer fees. Wallex can now offer its customers the flexibility that Currencycloud Spark delivers; they can choose their preferred payment transfer type: SWIFT and local channels. They can collect and hold 34 currencies inclusive of USD, EUR and GBP via their SWIFT channel, allowing their customers to behave like a local in multiple territories. This boosts Wallex’s customers’ offering, enabling them to expand and be more competitive in overseas markets.
For example, a Singapore-based business working with a UK, European or US-based supplier can now move currencies seamlessly between these countries as easily as if it were a local transaction So, if a customer pays in GBP, rather than transfer that money back into Singapore Dollars, they can hold on to it and pay a UK-based supplier in GBP when they need to. They can convert back to Singapore Dollars when it suits them.
The Currencycloud Spark payment platform allows Wallex’s customers to perform cross-border payments and receive payments into named accounts, which offers their customers unparalleled convenience and an overall excellent user experience. Having named accounts, with paying and receiving capabilities in local currencies is a huge benefit for these customers. Not only that, but before Wallex adopted Currencycloud Spark, the FX and transaction fees would have been taken out of this sum too, making for a dissatisfying and expensive experience.
Upon integrating Currencycloud Spark, Wallex is more competitive in the market. Offering its customers the ability to act like a local in multiple territories has proved game-changing for both Wallex and its customers: the number of Wallex transactions has increased ten-fold since the Currencycloud Spark integration.
Because the Currencycloud Spark API works in the background, Wallex is able to own its client relationship, building the customer experience that it wants, and also controlling the pricing strategy.
Says Hiro Kiga, COO and Co-founder, Wallex, “We’d already worked with Currencycloud and knew how professional they are. With Currencycloud Spark they offered the complete platform with its mature API and rich features that are ideal support for a start-up like Wallex. Their dedicated team made it easy to build the seamless and reliable API integration with Currencycloud’s payment platform.”
