FAQ
Contact us to learn more about becoming our customer, partner or employee
Frequently asked questions
Company
We are a Nordic fintech company that helps European companies cut foreign exchange costs. Our customers cut foreign currency payments and hedging related hidden FX costs typically by tens or hundreds of thousands of euros annually, because our FX rates are often significantly better compared to banks. Our customers’ legal counterparty for our EU regulated secure services is Currencycloud that was acquired by Visa. Our proven services are widely used by exporters and importers across Europe. We serve companies that are domiciled in the European Economic Area (all EU countries, Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein) and have annual FX volumes of at least 5 million euros.
It is in our DNA to provide all our customers with competitive FX rates, while ensuring first class customer service. Therefore, our operating model includes a combination of efficient production of services for global use and local focus on European companies specifically. This is possible, because our partner Currencycloud (Electronic Money Institution) that was acquired by Visa develops our FX and payment services efficiently for global use and we focus on all customer facing activities. Banks and other fintech companies, on the other hand, often operate in small regions while developing their services in-house, which results in inefficient operations and ultimately high service costs to their customers. In addition, many fintech companies are tiny startups with small customer bases and they are also themselves their customers’ legal counterparties. This could result in significant counterparty risk to their customers. We are different from these fintech startups, because our customers’ legal counterparty for our EU regulated secure services is Currencycloud that was acquired by Visa and our proven services are widely used by exporters and importers across Europe.
Customers
Our proven services are widely used by exporters and importers across Europe. Our customers are domiciled in the European Economic Area (all EU countries, Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein) and have annual FX volumes of at least 5 million euros.
You can simply contact us. You can call us, send us e-mail or submit the contact form. Then we will together determine the optimal service offering for you specifically. After deciding on the optimal service offering, we will provide you with information on how to become our customer. After becoming our customer, you will start cutting hidden FX costs immediately, because no IT work is required on the customer side and our FX rates are often significantly better compared to banks. All our customers get a dedicated contact person, who is responsible for assisting them in all matters including onboarding, training and support in English, Danish or Finnish. Later we will serve our customers also in other European languages.
We have legal, compliance and financial criteria, when approving companies to become our customers. Due to legal reasons we do not serve companies domiciled outside of the European Economic Area (all EU countries, Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein), because the Electronic Money Institution licence of Currencycloud that was acquired by Visa and is the legal counterparty to our customers, covers the European Economic Area. Due to compliance reasons we do not serve companies in adult entertainment, cannabidiol, carbon credit, child labour, crypto assets, drug paraphernalia, financial services, gambling, human trafficking, illegal goods, mining, multi-level marketing, pawnbroker, political, Ponzi scheme, precious metals, prostitution, speculative trading or weapons sectors. Due to financial reasons we do not serve consumers or companies with annual FX volumes below 5 million euros, because we want to provide all our customers with competitive FX rates.
Services
We offer FX conversion and hedging as well as foreign currency payments services in the online NEOFX Direct service. In addition, we offer automated FX conversion services in the online NEOFX Robo service. Most of our customers use only our FX conversion and hedging services, while continuing to use the automated payment initiation and collection services provided by their existing banks. They can also use our accounts to collect and initiate foreign currency payments, thus eliminating the need for foreign currency bank accounts. However, that is rarer due to manual payment initiation and reconciliation processes. You can find more information on for example products, currencies and cut-off times here. You can contact us for additional information about our services.
Our customers cut foreign currency payments and hedging related hidden FX costs typically by tens or hundreds of thousands of euros annually, because our competitive FX rates are often significantly better compared to banks. Unlike banks we do not charge any initial, monthly, account, payment or other fees, but rather we generate revenue only by including a small margin in our FX rates. Unlike with many other fintech companies our customers may continue to use their existing banks’ accounts and payments services to initiate and reconcile foreign currency payments automatically in their financial systems. They can also start cutting costs immediately, because no IT work is required to start using our services. Our customers have a dedicated contact person, who has in-depth understanding of their needs and provides them with first class customer service in English, Danish or Finnish. Later we will provide customer service also in other European languages. In order to minimise our customers’ counterparty risk our customers’ legal counterparty for our EU regulated secure services is Currencycloud that was acquired by Visa.
Security is a top priority for us and you can use our EU regulated services securely like other exporters and importers across Europe. The legal counterparty to NEOFX AB’s (Finnish Company ID 3216020-1) customers is Currencycloud B.V. (Dutch Company ID 72186178). Currencycloud B.V. was acquired by Visa Inc. (US Company ID 26-0267673), which is world’s leader in digital payments. Currencycloud B.V. is licensed by De Nederlandsche Bank as an Electronic Money Institution (Financial Services Register Number R142701). Compliance with strict governance and operational processes is regularly audited. The UK Financial Conduct Authority and De Nederlandsche Bank review capital adequacy. You can find more information on technical security here.
Pricing
Typically, our customers cut hidden FX costs by tens or hundreds of thousands of euros annually. A good rule of thumb is that, if you do not know how much you are paying for FX conversions, then you may be paying too much in the form of poor FX rates. In fact, for most of our customers it has come as a surprise how much they were paying to their banks for FX conversions in the form of poor FX rates. If you do not have foreign currency bank accounts, but rather collect or initiate foreign currency payments using your home currency bank account and let your bank make the FX conversions automatically, then you could be paying way too much in the form of poor FX rates. Even if you use foreign currency bank accounts for collecting or initiating foreign currency payments, you may be paying way too much to your bank. The same applies to hedging FX risks. You can contact us to investigate together how much hidden FX costs you are currently paying to your bank and how much you cut those costs by starting to use our FX services.
It can be challenging for companies to know how much they are paying hidden FX costs to their banks in the form of poor FX rates, because banks do not send invoices to their customers for providing FX services. Rather, banks often simply apply poor FX rates, which results in significant hidden FX costs. Therefore, companies are often not aware of the magnitude or even the existence of these hidden FX costs. In addition, banks may not have consistent logic for applying margins to their FX rates, thus resulting in potentially very different FX pricing for practically identical companies. Banks’ FX margins can also depend greatly on the currency and the tenor of an FX forward. You can contact us to investigate together how much hidden FX costs you are currently paying to your bank and how much you cut those costs by starting to use our FX services.
It really boils down to our ultra-efficient operational model involving Currencycloud (Electronic Money Institution) that was acquired by Visa, is our customers’ legal counterparty as well as develops our FX and payment services efficiently in a centralised manner for global use.. Even though our FX rates are competitive there is enough margin for us to be profitable due to our ultra-low costs. Banks, on the other hand, often have massive amounts of bureaucracy and highly inefficient processes, which results in high costs. These costs are ultimately passed on to their customers for example in the form of poor FX rates. Other fintech companies often develop their services in-house and focus on consumers or small companies, which also results in high costs that are passed on to their customers.
Partners
We have sales and marketing partners to maximise visibility for our low cost FX services cost effectively. Being extremely cost effective enables us to provide all our customers with competitive FX rates.
We are continuously looking for new sales partners to refer European exporters and importers to us. Our sales partners are typically individuals, who personally know owners, board members, CEOs, CFOs or financial administrators of European exporters or importers. We pay our sales partners industry leading sales commissions for referring companies to us. After getting referrals from our sales partners, we handle the rest including onboarding, training, support and relationship management. Therefore, it is simple for our sales partners to come up with significant new income with minimal effort. You can contact us to discuss the sales partner opportunity in more detail.
We are continuously looking for new marketing partners to inform their European customers or members about the opportunity to cut hidden FX costs by using our services. Our marketing partners can be for example companies such as accounting, auditing, consulting, law or IT firms that have European exporters or importers as customers. Our marketing partners can also be associations of various kinds and chambers of commerce that have European exporters or importers as members. Our marketing partners provide their customers or members with valuable information on how to cut hidden FX costs, their customers or members cut hidden FX costs typically by tens or hundreds of thousands of euros annually and we acquire new customers effectively. We pay our marketing partners marketing fees for promoting our services to their customers or members for example via newsletters or in events. You can contact us to discuss the marketing partner opportunity in more detail.