BNY Mellon and Fiserv Team to Speed Up FX Rate Quotes

BNY Mellon has teamed with Fiserv to offer financial institutions faster foreign exchange rate quotes.

“One of the main challenges for U.S. financial institutions looking to access real-time FX [foreign exchange] rate quotes for payments is that the costs associated with integrating to a banking partner can be prohibitive,” Isabel Schmidt, global co-head of payments at BNY Mellon, said in a Monday (Jan. 24) news release.

“We are addressing this head-on through new integration which enables institutions to provide clients with streamlined, real-time FX rate quotes to facilitate cross-border payments.”

The release says financial institutions (FIs) that use Fiserv’s foreign exchange services can now access BNY Mellon’s real-time FX rate quotes in more than 120 currencies without the need for additional integration.

The companies say their offering lets U.S. financial institutions execute currency conversions for cross-border payments “with upfront rate visibility,” with rate quotes capabilities that are designed to be configurable.

“Along with transaction tracking and reporting tools, financial institutions can access detailed payment status to enhance the support experience, as well as provide more transparency to their own clients using BNY Mellon’s online tools,” the companies said.

Late last year, PYMNTS looked at the challenges FX volatility presents for cross-border payments, as well as the way digital multi-currency wallets provide a remedy.

Ola Oyetayo, CEO at B2B cross-border FX and payments enabler Verto, told PYMNTS many of his clients worry about how the “macro” will impact them on a 6-month or 12-month basis.

Those macro factors include COVID-related supply chain issues, the Russia/Ukraine war, and major political upheaval in the U.K., Verto’s chief market.

“If you’re a U.K. business that needs to trade overseas, suddenly your pound income isn’t what it used to be six months ago,” Oyetayo said, adding that the threat of a recession and how long it could last has made matters even more complicated.

With customers more cautious, Verto is trying to educate its clients on how to navigate choppy economic waters. It also debuted a multi-currency digital wallet solution last year, which lets customers send and receive payments across 190 countries and in up to 51 currencies.

“Having that inherent product that helps mitigate risk, and also being very proactive about informing customers on what’s happening from the macroeconomic perspective have been the measures that we’ve taken to help them with this [challenge],” Oyetayo explained.