Jan Lorenc, Divisional CEOMeeting that standard required rethinking how cross-border money movement works in practice.
For decades, bank-led FX models treated international transfers as opaque, multi-step journeys. Fees are hidden inside exchange rates. Funds moved through chains of intermediaries. Delivery times depended on processes outside the sender’s visibility or control. For individuals moving savings abroad and for businesses paying suppliers or relocating capital, that uncertainty became unacceptable.
CurrencyFair removes it by redesigning the transfer path.
Instead of routing money through SWIFT and intermediary banks, funds are received into a local CurrencyFair account, where identity, compliance and ownership checks are completed upfront. Settlement then occurs from domestic accounts in the destination country using local rails such as SEPA or Faster Payments. Money does not cross borders; it is paid out locally.
This local-in, local-out model shortens settlement paths, removes intermediaries and improves completion rates, often enabling same-day delivery for major corridors.
Transfer fees are separated from FX margin, so customers see exactly what they are paying. A flat €3 fee sits alongside a clearly quoted exchange rate, with options for instant execution or rate-targeted transfers. Transparency is foundational to how CurrencyFair operates.
“Our platform was born from expats moving their life savings across borders, so we built it from day one for high-trust, high-value transactions,” says Jan Lorenc, Divisional CEO. “Today, that same design supports individuals and SMEs across more than 150 countries with predictable, transparent money movement.”
How Certainty Works in Practice
CurrencyFair’s process ensures the most intensive checks occur before a transfer starts. Funds clear into a CurrencyFair account first, allowing KYC, AML, sanctions screening and account-name verification to complete upfront. Ownership mismatches or third-party funding issues are resolved early.
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Our platform was born from expats moving their life savings across borders, so we built it from day one for high-trust, high-value transactions. Today, that same design supports individuals and SMEs across more than 150 countries with predictable, transparent money movement.
The platform runs on AWS with multi-region redundancy and 99.99 percent uptime, allowing performance to scale as volumes grow. Verification and documentation are handled proactively, with supporting materials requested early rather than at the point of release. Routine enquiries are automated, allowing specialist teams to focus on high-value or time-critical transfers.
Designed for High-Value Movement
CurrencyFair was built for meaningful sums. Typical consumer transfers average around €5,000 and often relate to property purchases, tuition payments, investments or pension movements. For SMEs, volumes and frequency increase, along with expectations around reporting, reconciliation and delivery precision.
This led CurrencyFair to evolve from its early peer-to-peer marketplace roots into a proprietary liquidity model designed to ensure consistent execution without reliance on marketplace matching. Transfers complete even when peer matching is unavailable. APIs allow SMEs to integrate CurrencyFair directly into treasury or cash-management systems, embedding FX execution into existing workflows.
CurrencyFair’s operating model depends on regulatory integrity. The company is directly authorised across multiple jurisdictions, including oversight from the Central Bank of Ireland and other regulators. Where direct licensing is not in place, CurrencyFair operates under recognised regulatory frameworks with top-tier banking partners to ensure compliant access to local rails.
Customer funds are held in segregated safeguarding accounts at leading international banks, with operating and safeguarding structures kept separate to ensure protection. Compliance is part of the transfer design.
Proving the Model at Scale
CurrencyFair has facilitated more than €18 billion in transfers for over 200,000 customers across consumer and SME use cases, demonstrating that a transparent, domestic-style approach to international payments works consistently across regions.
This is reflected in customers like Sombol Safety, a UK-based distributor trading with suppliers across the US, China and Europe. As international activity increased, traditional bank transfers became slow and unpredictable, with poor exchange rates and hidden fees complicating payments. After moving to CurrencyFair, the client gained reliability, visibility and confidence in settlement timing while reducing exposure to opaque bank charges and FX costs.
CurrencyFair’s approach is substance over style. Rather than promise certainty after the fact, discipline is built directly into execution. International money flows behave predictably in real conditions.
