Finzly’s FX STAR has helped the bank achieve a compound annual growth rate of 180%

The Challenge:

We have been working with a bank in Pennsylvania since 2014. Considered a leader in innovation, it is one of the 50 largest bank holding companies based in the U.S.

• The bank’s customers were looking for world class and high-touch foreign exchange services with competitive exchange rates.

The Opportunity:

The bank had a vision for international growth and strong leadership to establish an in-house FX operation that would serve customers effectively and efficiently. To transform the international banking experience of its customers, the bank hired a veteran international executive in the year 2013, who had decades of International Banking experience. Immediately upon taking his leadership role, the executive realized the following:

• The bank was losing revenue opportunities to the large partner banks to whom they outsourced FX. Those partner banks were taking too large a share of foreign exchange revenue generated by the bank.
• The bank’s partner banks were operating in the same geographies, and they didn’t want to lose customers to the partner banks.
• The bank’s customers were not receiving competitive exchange rates as the bank had very little control in the outsourced model.
• The technology used by its network of partner banks had become outdated.
• Without a world-class offering, the bank was missing out on new customer acquisition and deposit opportunities.

The executive wanted to achieve the vision of his bank with a solution that focused on modern technology, a better customer experience, improved efficiency, and solved for regulatory compliance.

The Solution:

The bank reached out to several foreign exchange vendors. All of them offered an outdated customer experience, with a long learning curve and complex screens.  Additional manpower was needed to operate these platforms, and the solutions required were too expensive for a startup department.  The executive knew that while the future revenue opportunities were excellent, he had to start small and prove to his leadership team that his decisions were paying off before taking on larger challenges. He wanted to find the right partner who was flexible,  provided a differentiated experience and was open to grow with the bank’s business.

Around this time, Finzly reached out to the bank. There was a good alignment of Finzly’s solution to the needs that the bank envisioned and a partnership was forged.  The concept of operating in the cloud was still new for banking in 2014, but the bank was convinced that Finzly’s FX STAR was the right product to execute the bank’s vision.   Within 3 months of the contract, the bank went live with a world-class, cloud-based foreign exchange offering that auto-hedged market risk without having to employ a trader.

The bank became the first bank in the U.S. to run foreign exchange services in the cloud with auto trading and straight through processing technology.

The Impact:

With the world class international banking product “FX STAR” powered by Finzly, the bank was able to deliver an excellent customer experience and offer competitive exchange rates, while executing its international banking mission.

• Now customers enjoy a great user experience to buy and sell foreign currencies and make payments at their convenience.
• The bank now serves both the domestic and international currency and payment needs of customers from both online channels and branches.  
• The bank has a modern technology partner in Finzly that not only delivers, but also demonstrates flexibility and responsiveness, and provides the right economics for a winning partnership.

• International revenues grew 60-80% year over year and the bank experienced 180% CAGR over 6 years. 
• Prior to implementing Finzly, the bank was outsourcing FX and international payments generating about $23,000 in referral fees. Now, their business running through Finzly FX STAR is driving over $3.5M in annual revenue in international payments and FX hedging.
• Finzly’s FX Star back-office automates many tasks and improves processing efficiency, allowing the bank to continue to grow without processing bottlenecks.
• The bank has had zero incidents of fraud since the implementation of the Finzly FX Star system.
• The bank was able to acquire customers from some of the largest banks because it has a more modern international bank offering.

The bank continues its partnership with Finzly and leverages the following Finzly products and technologies:

• Spot and Forward Transactions
• Multi-currency Accounts
• Corporate Online Customer Portal
• Branch Wire Portal
• Commercial Letters of Credit
• Standby Letters of Credit
• Documentary Collections

“We enjoy a special partnership as we share a common mission to delight bank customers and transform the banking experience. The bank trusts in Finzly and Finzly continues to exceed the bank’s expectations. Finzly is truly blessed to have a such tremendous partner and the results we’ve been able to achieve together have been astounding. We are delighted by the bank’s mission to transform the banking experience, and we look forward to sharing more of our technology.”

Booshan rengachari, founder and ceo, finzly