Neo Launches FX Management For EU Corporates

Corporate cash management FinTech Neo is rolling out a new solution to help business customers manage their foreign exchange exposure.

In an announcement Friday (March 8), Neo said its Neo FX Hub solution enables corporate customers to manage their foreign exchange risk exposures while supporting hedging activity, and provides forwards, swaps and options. Companies can manage up to 90 foreign currencies with the solution, Neo said, claiming that its fees are lower than what brokers and banks offer.

Research released in 2016 from cross-border payments firm Covercy found small businesses in the U.K. are particularly susceptible to high FX management and conversion fees from their banks. According to its report, a small to medium-size business (SMB) with 20 $13,000 cross-border transactions a month will pay more than $2,700 every month in fees.

Neo debuted its Neo FX Hub at the Finovate Europe 2019 event in London, as well as the World Mobile Congress event held in Barcelona. Companies can access the FX management platform directly, while Neo has also opened the solution up to third parties that can integrate the solution via API.

“Launching the Neo FX Hub is a major achievement for the group,” said Neo CEO and Co-Founder Laurent Descout in a statement. “Foreign exchange management is too often described as complicated, expensive and not transparent. With our FX Hub, we have built from scratch a trading floor and coupled it with a treasury management platform. This is all available without having to install anything. We have taken the first step toward re-engineering a full corporate banking platform.”

Other corporate foreign exchange solutions have landed on the market in recent months, too.

Last month Tipalti announced its Multi-FX management solution that allows businesses to fund global accounts payable in a single currency, with transactions converted to a recipient’s local currency automatically.

In January, HSBC said it would open up its proprietary blockchain-powered FX Everywhere solution to its own corporate customers to streamline the foreign exchange process.