Small and medium-sized businesses can hope to reduce the fee on every foreign transaction by up to 96% thanks to a new service by WhichFX. Dubbed the world’s first live forex broker comparison site, WhichFX is eliminating the dependency on comparing currency rates and instead is focusing on lowering the spread provided by foreign exchange providers.
It has been well documented that the majority of banks, which service SMEs, are simply unable to offer the most competitive exchange rates and have historically imposed high charges on international transfers.
The banks only allow large corporations access to the best rates for international transfers. To date, the best option for SMEs has been to negotiate the complicated broker market to avoid these bank charges, but lack of understanding and confusion mean most SMEs still use banks at a cost of up to 80% more per transaction.
An initial trial transaction for £20,000 to US dollars had a resulting cost of £523.50 from a high street bank, but using the new WhichFX live broker comparison, it showed a reduction of over 88%, which could mean a saving of over £460 for one transaction.
International trade is worth over £700bn to SMEs in the UK according to McKinsey&Co, and recent figures from Oxford Economics show that the number of SMEs trading in more than six countries will increase 129% over the next three years. Half (50%) of all of these SMEs are trading internationally.
The new live services from WhichFX aim to hand over power and clarity to internationally trading SMEs. WhichFX bypasses the banks and goes straight to the brokers, giving SMEs the same access to rates previously only available to big businesses.
Market disrupters who took an outwards view of the FX industry created the concept to shake up the very traditional, confusing and antiquated market and ultimately help SMEs save a huge amount on every transaction.
The pound has been very turbulent since the Brexit result, making it even more essential for directors to be extra vigilant when trading internationally and to ensure they take advantage of currency peaks and troughs.
WhichFX founder and CEO Steve Plant says, “We are changing the market by making things simpler, more transparent and providing the best choice through the best brokers in the market. The result is that smaller businesses can receive the same service and rates that the very biggest businesses in the world receive.”