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Blending People and Tech to Reduce FX Risk with Bob Dowd, Former CEO of Moneycorp
Episode 177th June 2022 • Fintech Confidential • DD3, Media
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Bob Dowd is the Americas CEO for the Global payments and currency risk management company Moneycorp. He shares how the original FX tech was a calculator and how the foreign exchange business has evolved.

Three things in this episode that we dive into. 

  1. Russian sanctions impacting Foreign Exchange Risk
  2. How the AI is helping Moneycorp customers make better decisions
  3. The importance of providing a high touch experience in Fintech leads to success

Learn More about Moneycorp at http://www.moneycorp.com/

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Transcripts

Bob Dowd:

the challenge is that most people are looking at is, how

Bob Dowd:

do I make my business bigger in the global space and how do I then

Bob Dowd:

facilitate payments around the world?

Tedd Huff:

welcome to the show.

Tedd Huff:

I'm excited to have you on to discuss global payments and

Tedd Huff:

currency risk management.

Tedd Huff:

But before we dive into the deep end, why don't you share with us how your

Tedd Huff:

decades long career in FinTech started and how you came to be appointed the

Tedd Huff:

CEO of Moneycorp Americas back in 2018.

Bob Dowd:

Thank you, Tedd pleasure to be here.

Bob Dowd:

Yeah.

Bob Dowd:

So I'm 39 years in the cross border international payment

Bob Dowd:

foreign exchange space.

Bob Dowd:

I actually started my career at Kennedy airport in New York, selling

Bob Dowd:

currency to people traveling overseas.

Bob Dowd:

I worked two to 10.

Bob Dowd:

Would roll in about one 30, we pick up our money and we be dispersed

Bob Dowd:

through the international arrivals building that, had air France.

Bob Dowd:

And back then you still had the German mark and the French Frank and the

Bob Dowd:

Greek drama and the Italian Lira.

Bob Dowd:

So you name it, we sold it.

Bob Dowd:

And that was a great kind of learning ground for me to

Bob Dowd:

learn about this business.

Bob Dowd:

And then from there I worked 25 years for the combination of Deak-Perera, Thomas

Bob Dowd:

Cook and Travelex, where you name it.

Bob Dowd:

I did it from retail to our wholesale group, which was

Bob Dowd:

our travelers check business.

Bob Dowd:

And then we started delving into this corporate foreign exchange,

Bob Dowd:

the back of retail branches.

Bob Dowd:

We would go out to local businesses who were dealing with their banks.

Bob Dowd:

And we realized that they were being underserved, overpriced,

Bob Dowd:

not in a very proactive approach.

Bob Dowd:

And we created this corporate payments business, which is

Bob Dowd:

now flourished to numerous.

Bob Dowd:

Non-banks providing these services to small, to medium sized businesses.

Bob Dowd:

That's grown into the enterprise space where we help them with integration.

Bob Dowd:

So you can start at the bottom in this.

Bob Dowd:

And find yourself at the top, if you work hard and learn the trade.

Bob Dowd:

So it's been a nice ride.

Tedd Huff:

Oh, wow.

Tedd Huff:

Yeah, that's crazy.

Tedd Huff:

Cause like with myself, I started out, feet on the street.

Tedd Huff:

I was the guy that, was helping the merchants fixing their credit

Tedd Huff:

card terminals, I totally get it.

Tedd Huff:

And that is exciting to see that Fintech, it really has that leveling

Tedd Huff:

the playing field type scenario.

Tedd Huff:

And you and I both started before it was called FinTech.

Tedd Huff:

I'm just glad we actually have, a name for it now

Bob Dowd:

,there was no FinTech in 1984.

Bob Dowd:

We were handwriting tickets with a calculator, figuring out exchange

Bob Dowd:

rates and how much buddy, you need to pay me in us dollars.

Tedd Huff:

The calculator was the tech.

Tedd Huff:

I got it

Bob Dowd:

exactly

Tedd Huff:

with Moneycorp, being a global company.

Tedd Huff:

What is the focus on the Americas group and what is the success look like?

Bob Dowd:

We've had some tremendous success over the last three years,

Bob Dowd:

basically taking, a business doubling it both from a top line perspective

Bob Dowd:

and from a bottom line perspective.

Bob Dowd:

And quite honestly, That comes with it people.

Bob Dowd:

To me, this is a people business.

Bob Dowd:

It's all about having the right people in the right roles who understand

Bob Dowd:

the business, who can articulate value to our customers and it's

Bob Dowd:

moving from what was traditionally an FX brokerage business, which.

Bob Dowd:

In my mind, a price play, Hey, I can beat the bank on their exchange rates.

Bob Dowd:

I can waive your service fees and really a price play.

Bob Dowd:

And we move that really into a consultative sell.

Bob Dowd:

So how can I help you streamline your payments?

Bob Dowd:

How can I integrate into your ERP system?

Bob Dowd:

How can I integrate into your accounting package?

Bob Dowd:

How can we do this through APIs or through SFTP?

Bob Dowd:

And things that you're doing manually today.

Bob Dowd:

And then you look at risk management.

Bob Dowd:

How do I go in and help you create an effects policy statement to take

Bob Dowd:

a look at foreign exchange risk when it comes to your balance sheet or.

Bob Dowd:

The amount of euros that you might have exposure on an annual basis, and

Bob Dowd:

what's the best way to protect yourself against your budget and what your

Bob Dowd:

expectations are in order to pay that.

Bob Dowd:

So those require individuals to go in and sit down.

Bob Dowd:

Whiteboard have conversations that is just not about dollar up dollar down.

Bob Dowd:

Let me give you a better rate, but what is your process and

Bob Dowd:

how, what does good look like?

Bob Dowd:

And really sharing industry best practice with our customer.

Tedd Huff:

That's great.

Tedd Huff:

Especially with that consultative approach.

Tedd Huff:

I bet that with the current sanctions on Russia, , you are really helping

Tedd Huff:

them manage this elevated risk.

Tedd Huff:

What does it mean for the volatility of the broader market in

Tedd Huff:

international payments with these things we've got going on right now?

Bob Dowd:

It depends on what side of the market you're on Tedd, obviously,

Bob Dowd:

but as always, you'd all have a huge exposure to Russian rubles.

Bob Dowd:

You should be okay.

Bob Dowd:

Because the dollar has actually increased since the conflict has occurred.

Bob Dowd:

And many of our customers are taking advantage of certainly several months,

Bob Dowd:

lows or highs within the dollar.

Bob Dowd:

The Euro's now in an attractive rate where, we actually have a lot of

Bob Dowd:

activity with our customers who are taking advantage of the dollar being so

Bob Dowd:

strong against the Euro and the pound.

Bob Dowd:

Most of our customers are doing buying versus selling.

Bob Dowd:

So they're buying that foreign currency.

Bob Dowd:

So as the dollar is strong and they like to take advantage

Bob Dowd:

of that and start hedging.

Bob Dowd:

So our hedging activity has gone up quite a bit.

Bob Dowd:

The amount of conversations that we've had with our customers, engaged in looking at

Bob Dowd:

their exposure has gone up quite a bit.

Bob Dowd:

Our integrated business really hasn't changed.

Bob Dowd:

They make those payments.

Bob Dowd:

Every single month.

Bob Dowd:

So they might have a thousand payments.

Bob Dowd:

They're going to make them regardless, but it's really our hedging business

Bob Dowd:

that I would say we've had about a 30% uplift since the conflict, in terms of

Bob Dowd:

the amount of activity that we're doing.

Bob Dowd:

And certainly companies are becoming much more.

Bob Dowd:

Aware when they see the Russian ruble dropping by 30%.

Bob Dowd:

Well, what other currencies do I have that might have that volatility

Bob Dowd:

that I need to make sure that I'm protecting myself against.

Tedd Huff:

Yeah, I, for me as we discussed prior to hopping on and hitting the

Tedd Huff:

record button I, I remember working in cross border and FX and Argentina always

Tedd Huff:

seemed to be the one that, had to spend.

Tedd Huff:

Yeah.

Tedd Huff:

Brazil was a little interesting because of just the.

Tedd Huff:

I did cross border and moving the money across the borders.

Tedd Huff:

And with Brazil, it's a little bit more complicated than just moving it

Tedd Huff:

like, like you can with most countries.

Tedd Huff:

That is true.

Tedd Huff:

With that going on, that sounds fantastic that you guys are able to help them.

Tedd Huff:

Hedge better be positioned to, to make the right moves.

Tedd Huff:

What other challenges do you see in the global FinTech markets

Tedd Huff:

and how is Moneycorp position to really solve for those problems?

Bob Dowd:

The challenge is that most people are looking at is

Bob Dowd:

things that we talked about earlier.

Bob Dowd:

How do I take my infrastructure and create.

Bob Dowd:

Economies of scale, meaning how do I make my business bigger in

Bob Dowd:

the global space and how do I then facilitate payments around the world?

Bob Dowd:

And most of that is really driven and the type of payment rails.

Bob Dowd:

So in, since the conflict there's been a lot.

Bob Dowd:

Info on swift.

Bob Dowd:

So people who had no idea what swift was historically right, are

Bob Dowd:

now going, oh, what's this swift, what does this banking system about

Bob Dowd:

moving money around the world?

Bob Dowd:

So swift has probably gotten more press in the last three weeks and

Bob Dowd:

they've gotten in the last 30 years.

Bob Dowd:

But swift is just one payment rail, and swift is traditionally a very high.

Bob Dowd:

From a cost perspective, very high cost payment rail.

Bob Dowd:

And one of the things that we are doing as a business and certainly

Bob Dowd:

in the FinTech space is there's other ways to make payments.

Bob Dowd:

So there's alternative payment channels like Venmo, PayPal pay to a card Pedro

Bob Dowd:

a bank account, which is traditionally kind of a swift payment, but there's

Bob Dowd:

also a low value payment rails.

Bob Dowd:

So in the United States we use ACH, and those are cost

Bob Dowd:

companies, 10 cents to send an ACA.

Bob Dowd:

Where, if you send a wire through your bank, it could cost you $30.

Bob Dowd:

The same applies to cross-border payments.

Bob Dowd:

You go through swift and there's an intermediary bank.

Bob Dowd:

They could do a lifting fee on that payment.

Bob Dowd:

The beneficiary bank gets that payment.

Bob Dowd:

They do a lifting fee on that payment.

Bob Dowd:

So you send a thousand dollars and it goes through an intermediary

Bob Dowd:

bank and then goes through the correspondent bank and the beneficiary

Bob Dowd:

bank, $30 could be lifted from that.

Bob Dowd:

If I send that same payment through say SEPA, which is the low value payment

Bob Dowd:

rails in Europe, that'll cost me 15 cents and they'll get full value.

Bob Dowd:

So instead of 970 euros whining up in someone's bank account, because

Bob Dowd:

it went through swift, we can send it through SEPA and they'll get back.

Bob Dowd:

And they've actually speeded it up.

Bob Dowd:

Now you can actually get those done many times, same day and next day.

Bob Dowd:

And that's just one example of hundreds, regardless of where you are

Bob Dowd:

around the world in the Philippines.

Bob Dowd:

For example, when we are paying crew members of a cruise ships, right?

Bob Dowd:

So seafarers who are getting payroll and, many are from the Philippines.

Bob Dowd:

We actually can get payments to the Philippines and in.

Bob Dowd:

And hitting their bank account in an hour and it costs us 26.

Bob Dowd:

As opposed to a swift payment that gets there and Philippine pesos two days

Bob Dowd:

later and could be charged one, I'm charging the Seafarer $30 to initiate it.

Bob Dowd:

Plus there's $30 being deducted out of it.

Bob Dowd:

So the whole landscape in terms of alternative payments and the way

Bob Dowd:

you make payments today has changed.

Bob Dowd:

And that is making sure that we are sitting down with our customers that are

Bob Dowd:

making payments throughout the world, educating them on the best way to do that.

Bob Dowd:

And the most cost-effective way to do that.

Tedd Huff:

So you hit on a number of different things and hopefully

Tedd Huff:

I read this right, but Moneycorp supports over 120 different currents.

Tedd Huff:

How do you see defy cryptocurrencies and numerous proposed it?

Tedd Huff:

Central digital central bank, digital currencies impacting real-time payments

Tedd Huff:

and the global payments ecosystem.

Tedd Huff:

You just talked about how the Philippines, you can do this.

Tedd Huff:

Near real time, you can do it.

Tedd Huff:

In Europe really quickly in the us, or also getting to the ACH same day,

Tedd Huff:

ACH, next day, ACH, all kicking in and everybody's talking about the real-time

Tedd Huff:

payments ecosystem that's going on.

Tedd Huff:

So help us understand how has the defy side of the house really impacting

Tedd Huff:

the overall real-time payments?

Tedd Huff:

ECOS.

Bob Dowd:

So digital currencies is definitely that's future.

Bob Dowd:

And that future is coming a lot sooner down the track than I think most

Bob Dowd:

people recognize or even understand.

Bob Dowd:

They using blockchain technology, which is real time ledger movement.

Bob Dowd:

So literally I could press a button right now.

Bob Dowd:

And Tedd, you now have that money in your account.

Bob Dowd:

That's powerful.

Bob Dowd:

That was unheard of five years.

Bob Dowd:

There was talk about it, but now it's becoming a reality.

Bob Dowd:

It's becoming more mainstream.

Bob Dowd:

It's not, oh, this is sort of underworld and things we don't want to touch.

Bob Dowd:

Banks are figuring out how do I get into the digital currency space?

Bob Dowd:

How do we support it?

Bob Dowd:

And how do we support our customers in order to facilitate it?

Bob Dowd:

Because if we're not on it, we're going to make.

Bob Dowd:

And we have a number of examples of companies in the FinTech space

Bob Dowd:

that's all they're focused on and they're doing quite well with it.

Bob Dowd:

So we actually deal with a number of digital currency companies

Bob Dowd:

where we're doing their liquidity or we're making vendor payments.

Bob Dowd:

So we haven't quite touched the consumer side yet.

Bob Dowd:

We're dipping our toe in we're looking at it.

Bob Dowd:

We're managing it.

Bob Dowd:

We're looking at it from a risk perspective.

Bob Dowd:

We're looking at it from a compliance perspective, but in today's day and

Bob Dowd:

age, they are checking off all the boxes and it's becoming a much more

Bob Dowd:

mainstream product and something that we want to make sure that we

Bob Dowd:

are participating in moving from.

Tedd Huff:

So it's really interesting as we talk about the digital currencies.

Tedd Huff:

And just a few weeks ago, there was a huge announcement that

Tedd Huff:

the fed the feds had busted.

Tedd Huff:

Some launders of, I think it was Bitcoin, maybe a few other cryptocurrencies

Tedd Huff:

and trying to remember off the top of my head, but one of the things that.

Tedd Huff:

Most major banks when we go to the back to the FX side.

Tedd Huff:

And I'm really with you starting to dabble in the liquidation of these

Tedd Huff:

currencies, most major banks when you're talking international transfers and FX

Tedd Huff:

desks and teams of fraud professionals.

Tedd Huff:

They've got these big groups that really handle all of these different things.

Tedd Huff:

What is Moneycorp doing to stand up?

Tedd Huff:

To really help these businesses manage and mitigate the risk.

Tedd Huff:

And in these new waters that they're charting into.

Bob Dowd:

Yeah.

Bob Dowd:

We're not unsimilar to a bank in that regard.

Bob Dowd:

So we have dedicated compliance for our teams.

Bob Dowd:

In fact, Moneycorp operates in two jurisdictions as a financial institution

Bob Dowd:

or a financial institution in Brazil with Moneycorp bank under Cambium, and also.

Bob Dowd:

As many core bank.

Bob Dowd:

So very much when we look at our compliance and our fraud regimes were.

Bob Dowd:

Pretty much across the group doing the same that our

Bob Dowd:

banking counterparts will do.

Bob Dowd:

And what we're doing again very much like sharing best practice with

Bob Dowd:

our customers on the best way to initiate a low value payment or how

Bob Dowd:

to integrate into your ERP system.

Bob Dowd:

We're doing the same thing as it comes to starting to work with digital currency.

Bob Dowd:

And what we're comfortable with.

Bob Dowd:

And in many cases, we're looking at their compliance regimes and

Bob Dowd:

therefore for our controls to make sure that we're comfortable with them.

Bob Dowd:

And if we are, we're willing to do.

Bob Dowd:

Business to a certain extent.

Bob Dowd:

And if we're not, we won't.

Bob Dowd:

So we do enhance due diligence on these type of customers.

Bob Dowd:

We then share that with our customers because again, our customers, aren't

Bob Dowd:

dealing with digital assets through money.

Bob Dowd:

They might be doing it through someone else.

Bob Dowd:

The only thing we're really doing is we're working with digital currency

Bob Dowd:

companies when they're flushing euros and they got 10 million euros and

Bob Dowd:

they need to move them into dollars.

Bob Dowd:

In terms of helping our customers understand what they can and

Bob Dowd:

can't do in digital currencies.

Bob Dowd:

We're not quite there yet.

Bob Dowd:

And so we actually refer them to partners that we have, that we're

Bob Dowd:

actually working on the liquidity and we actually point them to them because

Bob Dowd:

they have the expertise in that regard.

Bob Dowd:

So

Tedd Huff:

when we started and I totally get that with the digital currencies

Tedd Huff:

because that landscape is changing.

Tedd Huff:

I about said daily, but it's really.

Tedd Huff:

An hourly rate, right?

Tedd Huff:

At this point, what types of things, excuse me, what types

Tedd Huff:

of things does Moneycorp do to help these companies who are.

Tedd Huff:

Really just new to the cross-border FX.

Tedd Huff:

Maybe it's a us company that just decided to go to Europe or just

Tedd Huff:

decided to go to Latin America.

Tedd Huff:

They've heard about, they heard about all these great opportunities all over the

Tedd Huff:

world and they say, I'm ready to expand.

Tedd Huff:

There are a lot of rules and regulations and all these fun compliance things

Tedd Huff:

that, that everybody gets excited about.

Tedd Huff:

And I say that extremely fishy facetiously how has funny Corp helping

Tedd Huff:

them through that process of maintaining compliance and minimizing their

Tedd Huff:

overall risk and the movement of the.

Bob Dowd:

Yeah.

Bob Dowd:

So just like what we do with FX policy statements, to look at how our

Bob Dowd:

customers manage foreign exchange risk.

Bob Dowd:

We are also sharing best practice when it comes to facilitating a payment.

Bob Dowd:

We mentioned Brazil before and since.

Bob Dowd:

You're familiar with this space.

Bob Dowd:

You know that there are many requirements.

Bob Dowd:

When you facilitate a payment to Brazil, you need tax ID numbers, you need phone

Bob Dowd:

numbers, you need all these other aspects.

Bob Dowd:

And we actually have guides that we provide to our customers on all the

Bob Dowd:

requirements on a per country basis.

Bob Dowd:

So whether you're sending in dollars or the local currency, there are still

Bob Dowd:

very specific requirements on a per country basis that people are not aware.

Bob Dowd:

And that's important for them because you don't want to facilitate a payment.

Bob Dowd:

Thank you.

Bob Dowd:

Have everything.

Bob Dowd:

It goes out the door.

Bob Dowd:

It's unable to be applied.

Bob Dowd:

It gets returned, it delays the payment.

Bob Dowd:

And so we're very much in that proactive approach within that consultative sale.

Bob Dowd:

So whether, again, how to facilitate a best case.

Bob Dowd:

Or what you need to do to be compliant around that payment as well.

Bob Dowd:

And certainly within our systems, we have beneficiary bank validation

Bob Dowd:

tools that help them with that, so that if there are missing information

Bob Dowd:

we will then provide that information in real time to them through an API.

Tedd Huff:

As we're looking through these different things, I was noticing

Tedd Huff:

on your website that you guys cover.

Tedd Huff:

Different discussions around machine learning and really using the data and

Tedd Huff:

data has become a really big thing and leveraging that the right way in FinTech.

Tedd Huff:

How has Moneycorp using that technology to help the company, but also

Tedd Huff:

help their customers move forward?

Bob Dowd:

from a compliance and fraud perspective.

Bob Dowd:

we're using machine learning to take a look at transactions that

Bob Dowd:

are occurring throughout the world.

Bob Dowd:

we have something called HRJ, high-risk jurisdictions that we make payments into

Bob Dowd:

and we take that machine learning and we're doing enhanced due diligence on

Bob Dowd:

those types of payments to ensure that, everything that is required is, on there.

Bob Dowd:

And that we're actually having a second set of eyes.

Bob Dowd:

We also take that information, transactional information and slice it

Bob Dowd:

and dice it in a number of different ways to provide it back to our customers,

Bob Dowd:

whether that's in report carding, quarterly reviews, annual business

Bob Dowd:

reviews, and we share with them that data so that they can go through and

Bob Dowd:

make proper business decisions on.

Bob Dowd:

Their payments or their risk management.

Bob Dowd:

And we provide that in a very detailed document that we then share

Bob Dowd:

with them on a consistent basis.

Bob Dowd:

So machine learning and AI has definitely helped our business go to

Bob Dowd:

the next level and has made us again, taking that consultative approach.

Bob Dowd:

We're being very proactive with our customers and sharing that

Bob Dowd:

data with them to help them make proper business decision.

Tedd Huff:

That is great.

Tedd Huff:

We talk about data a lot in how we're leveraging that to help everybody.

Tedd Huff:

And it's really interesting, especially when you talk about those

Tedd Huff:

high risk jurisdictions and really understanding how do we mitigate a lot

Tedd Huff:

of those risks that come into play?

Tedd Huff:

I do want to ask a question and this is something that, that happens a lot in

Tedd Huff:

my consulting business when I'm helping.

Tedd Huff:

Companies that are, US-based that hear about all of these we talked about

Tedd Huff:

earlier here about all these opportunities outside the U S how does Moneycorp or does

Tedd Huff:

Moneycorp help companies determine where they should be taking localized currency?

Tedd Huff:

Where should they localize?

Tedd Huff:

When they started looking at the expansion of their business?

Bob Dowd:

I would say Moneycorp probably doesn't help point them

Bob Dowd:

into, Hey, here's jurisdictions where you need to be doing business.

Bob Dowd:

And, but in many cases certainly in the United States, we have this, the

Bob Dowd:

almighty dollar concept where if I just pay them in dollars, I'm fine.

Bob Dowd:

And many companies around the world are more than happy to tell

Bob Dowd:

companies, pay me in dollars.

Bob Dowd:

Because they will actually throw in additional margin to

Bob Dowd:

give them the benefit of that.

Bob Dowd:

So we actually sit down with companies and go, if you're paying in dollars,

Bob Dowd:

there's two things that we can do for you.

Bob Dowd:

One, you can ask your vendor.

Bob Dowd:

Or your supplier to be in local currency.

Bob Dowd:

And then we can look at it and determine which is the best way to do it.

Bob Dowd:

The other is we mentioned swift earlier.

Bob Dowd:

Swift now has a product in any time you send a U S dollar wire,

Bob Dowd:

you have to send it via swift.

Bob Dowd:

There is no other mechanism to send us dollars around the world.

Bob Dowd:

Swift now has this great product called GPS.

Bob Dowd:

And GPI is literally the FedEx tracker for swift.

Bob Dowd:

I can see every bank who's touched it.

Bob Dowd:

I can see how much money they've taken out of that payment.

Bob Dowd:

And I can also see the end bank who's received dollar.

Bob Dowd:

And what they've converted that into local currency.

Bob Dowd:

So Tedd you and I don't hold a pound account, a Euro account or any other

Bob Dowd:

currency account here in the United States on most people in Europe,

Bob Dowd:

don't hold the us dollar accounts.

Bob Dowd:

That's not their currency.

Bob Dowd:

However vendors will charge you or bill you in dollars because they

Bob Dowd:

think it makes it convenient for a us company to pay in dollars.

Bob Dowd:

But what they don't realize is that they're paying exponentially

Bob Dowd:

more money than they should.

Bob Dowd:

For that payment.

Bob Dowd:

So again, we can ask them to provide you a bill in euros, as well as dollars.

Bob Dowd:

Take a look at the exchange rate and what makes sense, or we can

Bob Dowd:

facilitate that dollar payment.

Bob Dowd:

And I can tell you exactly how many euros, because they are

Bob Dowd:

converting that on the other.

Bob Dowd:

And tell you exactly what's it gained converted at, and then you can determine

Bob Dowd:

what is the best way for you to facilitate a payment to your supplier overseas.

Bob Dowd:

And in many cases, they're going to find out that, oh, if I actually pay

Bob Dowd:

in local currency versus us dollars, I'm actually providing a benefit

Bob Dowd:

and a financial savings to my.

Tedd Huff:

Oh, yeah, it's interesting.

Tedd Huff:

A lot of the time, I guess I get in, on the front side of it where they're

Tedd Huff:

like, I'm doing a bunch of business in the U S how do I expand beyond that?

Tedd Huff:

And I hadn't thought about it from the perspective that you just mentioned,

Tedd Huff:

but that makes a lot of really good sense that other countries and companies

Tedd Huff:

and other countries look at paying it, us dollar, one of two things.

Tedd Huff:

If the dollar is stronger gay, they get a little bump in their revenues.

Tedd Huff:

And two, if they're increasing the margin in order to cover the

Tedd Huff:

conversion, there's a little bit extra extra cash in there for them too.

Tedd Huff:

So that is interesting.

Tedd Huff:

I hadn't thought about it that way and I really appreciate you sharing that.

Tedd Huff:

There's one last question I want to ask today because this is super

Tedd Huff:

important to me, especially with the number of the folks that I work with.

Tedd Huff:

A lot of the fintechs that I work with are building their own in-house technology.

Tedd Huff:

So they're building those in-house and realistically, a lot of them are

Tedd Huff:

really trying to ensure that they have that seamless experience from the

Tedd Huff:

consumer all the way through all of the process and procedures so that it feels

Tedd Huff:

that the payment is really invested.

Tedd Huff:

And I'm curious too, to how Moneycorp is enabling those fintechs.

Tedd Huff:

You've mentioned APIs.

Tedd Huff:

You mentioned the consultation.

Tedd Huff:

How are you bringing those two together to make sure that they have that, that really

Tedd Huff:

secure line of cross border payments?

Bob Dowd:

It's actually a combination of all those put together, that

Bob Dowd:

you want to get to because you want the fin, you want the tech,

Bob Dowd:

but you also want the high touch.

Bob Dowd:

Many fintechs go, with the FinTech with a low touch, because they don't

Bob Dowd:

want to have, whether that's boots on the ground, additional resources,

Bob Dowd:

what have you, and Moneycorp is actually a combination of those two.

Bob Dowd:

And in my mind, you can have a proper FinTech without having a proper high

Bob Dowd:

touch from a customer perspective.

Bob Dowd:

Number of different reasons.

Bob Dowd:

So when I say combining all those that is automated onboarding through API

Bob Dowd:

APIs and making the onboarding process and doing business with us seamless,

Bob Dowd:

and that's being able to facilitate a payment and trust that we will route that

Bob Dowd:

the most cost-effective way for your.

Bob Dowd:

That will be, Hey, here's the best way to deal in high-risk jurisdictions or

Bob Dowd:

these are the business requirements in order to facilitate a payment to Brazil

Bob Dowd:

or other places that require additional information and building all those into

Bob Dowd:

an API with beneficiary validation.

Bob Dowd:

so from the onboarding to the transaction, to the execution of the transaction,

Bob Dowd:

you've done everything in a very seamless manner, from a customer perspective.

Bob Dowd:

And then from there, it's what does Moneycorp do from there?

Bob Dowd:

And we want everything to be straight through processing, but we don't want

Bob Dowd:

to be straight through processing at the cost of unable to apply

Bob Dowd:

things, getting returned rejected.

Bob Dowd:

We want to make sure those payments go out accurately the first time.

Bob Dowd:

So we actually look at beneficiaries.

Bob Dowd:

We do beneficiary validation on our end as well to make sure

Bob Dowd:

that they go out correctly.

Bob Dowd:

The first.

Bob Dowd:

And then from there it's post transactional based activity.

Bob Dowd:

This is where we truly differentiate ourselves in my

Bob Dowd:

mind because payments do go wrong.

Bob Dowd:

Payments do go awry payments are unable to apply beneficiaries, do

Bob Dowd:

claim non receipt, and there could be a number of various reasons behind it.

Bob Dowd:

And it's how you perform from a post transactional base perspective.

Bob Dowd:

Can I pick up a phone and talk to.

Bob Dowd:

Does that person know what they're doing?

Bob Dowd:

Do they understand what my need is?

Bob Dowd:

Do they understand my business?

Bob Dowd:

Do they understand that inherently the service level I'm providing them

Bob Dowd:

is a service level they're providing to their vendor, supplier subsidiary,

Bob Dowd:

whatever, in order to find out what's happened to that payment.

Bob Dowd:

So it's con.

Bob Dowd:

Combining the FinTech with the high touch approach.

Bob Dowd:

That to me, we've put the bounds together to figure it out.

Tedd Huff:

Fantastic.

Tedd Huff:

Bob you've answered all of my deep dark questions about Moneycorp.

Tedd Huff:

Is there anything that I should have asked that I didn't ask?

Tedd Huff:

And then that the listeners and viewers would want to know about Moneycorp, how

Tedd Huff:

to get started with Moneycorp, whether it makes sense to get started with money.

Bob Dowd:

Thank you, Tedd.

Bob Dowd:

Reach out to moneycorp.Com.

Bob Dowd:

we are a global organization that has entities all around the world.

Bob Dowd:

If you go to moneycorp.com you'll find the appropriate offices that can help

Bob Dowd:

you with your cross border and your foreign exchange risk management needs.

Tedd Huff:

everybody You'll be able to find that in the show notes as

Tedd Huff:

well as down in the description.

Tedd Huff:

So go ahead and click through and have a great time working with Moneycorp

Tedd Huff:

and getting that high touch experience.

Tedd Huff:

Bob, thank you for hopping on this early in the morning, and really glad

Tedd Huff:

we were able to get together on this.

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