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Irish businesses losing over €200m to banks on their foreign exchange payments

Written by Robert McHugh, on 5th Aug 2016. Posted in Financial

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Currency exchange experts, TransferMate have today claimed that the prices banks are charging Irish SMEs on currency exchange are “over the top” and that is having the knock-on effect of hundreds of millions being taken out of the Irish economy each year.

Experts at the Irish FinTech say over €75 billion in foreign currency is exchanged every year by corporate SMEs in Ireland - whether it is collecting payments or sending payments.

TransferMate say banks are charging "exorbitant fees" to change this into foreign currency and they estimate that in excess of €200million is lost to the economy every year in bank fees and charges.

Transfermate have warned that banks are still using legacy systems to manage foreign exchange and are simply not in a position to provide SMEs with a competitive proposition.

They claim many of the traditional banks charge fees of up to €30 for same day payments and apply a foreign exchange margin of up to 3%. 

Co-Founder of TransferMate, Barry Dowling says, "Basically the banks have long since been the traditional foreign exchange provider – but the truth is they have been overcharging many of their customers for years now."

He added, "Even though technological advancements have led to increased competition in this market, the majority of Irish businesses still use their bank when it comes to sending and receiving foreign currency payments – and in many cases doing so costs businesses thousands of euro in needless fees and charges."

Source: www.businessworld.ie

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