Currencycloud Debuts Tool for off-Hour FX

Visa-owned cross-border payments platform Currencycloud has launched a tool called Weekend FX, designed to give clients the ability to offer competitive foreign exchange (FX) rates after markets close on Friday evenings, according to a Thursday (March 24) press release.

“With an increasingly global business culture, companies and retailers often work outside of traditional operating hours and days of the week,” the company said in the release. “But arranging cross-border payments after the markets have closed on a Friday exposes businesses to increased costs and associated risks while they wait for trading desks and banks to open again on Monday morning.”

In the past, overcoming this option meant businesses either losing to competitors or building their after-hours trading solution, which comes with a great deal of risk and cost.

“Currencycloud, in partnership with Visa, has now extracted away all the risk, complexity and cost to support businesses with cross-border payments outside of the normal Monday to Friday, with ‘Weekend FX,’” the company said in the release.

Currencycloud and Visa had an existing partnership when the credit card giant acquired the British company for $925 million last year.

Read more: Visa Completes Acquisition of Cross-Border Payments Platform Currencycloud

The company said in the release that Weekend FX was tested in pilot programs with clients that include Swinto, ANNA Money and Tuvoli. It is now available to the majority of Currencycloud clients.

Last year, ANNA teamed up with Currencycloud to enhance its international banking offering with a multicurrency account that allows customers to pay and receive in dollars, British pounds and euros through Currencycloud’s Spark integration.

See also: ANNA, Currencycloud Team on SMB Banking

Alexander Kokovin, product owner at ANNA Money, said at the time that the collaboration addresses the wishes of ANNA customers who want to receive and send international currencies and have an IBAN (International Bank Account Number).