Currencies Direct

Currencies Direct

Type	Private
Industry	Financial Services
Founded	1996 (1996)
Headquarters	City of London, UK
Key people	Mayank Patel (Founder)
Products	Foreign Exchange
Employees	300[1]
Parent	Azibo Group
Website	www.currenciesdirect.com

Currencies Direct Ltd is a UK based foreign exchange broker and international payment provider. It provides currency exchange services in a number of different countries to individuals and small businesses.

Company history

• The company was founded in London in 1996.^[2]

• In 1999 it opened its first overseas office in Torrevieja on the Costa Blanca, Spain.

• By 2003 it had 40 employees and expanded to Australia when it opened an office in Sydney.^[3] However this was later shut down and Australian business was operated from London.

• The following year it was granted Australian Financial Services License, opened a third Spanish office in Mojacar on the Costa Almeria and opened an office in Cape Town, South Africa^[4][5]

• In 2005 it opened an outsourcing office opened in Mumbai.

• In 2006 it moved its UK headquarters to new premises in the heart of London and the following year it opened offices in the USA. It also opened a second Australian office in Melbourne although both Australian office were later closed. That same year Currencies Direct acquired a majority stake in Universal VAT Services, a company providing tax reclaim services. Mayank also stepped away from day to day running of the business and used his holding company Azibo Group to look for other business to acquire.

• On 11 November 2008 Currencies Direct launched an online payment system for businesses called I-PAYFX.

• The following year on 13 February 2009 it launched a charity web site, FX4Charity, where for each FX payment done with Currencies Direct it would donate funds to one of the number of charities.^[6]

Operations

Currencies Direct has offices in the UK, Spain, Canada, US, South Africa and Portugal.

It offers foreign exchange services to individuals and small businesses competing against the banks with forward contracts, Telegraphic transfer, Risk Solutions and online payments. It provides these for foreign home buying, emigration, Imports and Exports, Overseas education and regular transfer.

It also provides tax (VAT) refund services through its subsidiary Universal VAT Services.

FX4Charity

Through FX4Charity, Currencies Direct makes a donation to a registered charity of any new customer's choice when they buy or arrange foreign currency from the firm.^[7][8]

I-PAYFX

I-PAYFX, combines the foreign exchange and payment elements of a transaction into one online process.^[9]

Awards

• 2005 Currencies Direct ranked as one of UK's hottest companies in the 2005 Sunday Times Fast Track 100^[10]
• 2006 Currencies Direct short listed for Business of the Year at the National Business Awards^{[11][dead link]}.
• 2007 Currencies Direct short-listed for Service Business of the Year at the Fast Growth Business Awards.^{[citation needed]}
• 2007 Management Today names Currencies Direct Chairman Mayank Patel at number 22 in their ranking of Britain's most successful entrepreneurs^[12]

References

1. ^ "Mayank Patel: Making money from currency". Citywealth. 7 December 2009. http://www.citywealthmag.com/articles/282. Retrieved 3 February 2011. 
2. ^ "GB06 Success Stories, Mayank Patel - Currencies Direct". growingbusiness.co.uk. February 2006. http://www.growingbusiness.co.uk/mayank-patel-currencies-direct.html. Retrieved 3 February 2011. 
3. ^ "Currencies Direct targets Australia". Sydney, Evening Standard (via thisismoney.co.uk). 21 March 2003. http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/news/article.html?in_article_id=338075&in_page_id=2&in_a_source. 
4. ^ "Business Growth and development program - Success story". Cranfield University. 24 April 2006. http://www.som.cranfield.ac.uk/som/p9331/Programmes-and-Executive-Development/OEP-Home/Programmes/Growing-Business/The-Business-Growth-and-Development-Programme/Success-Stories/Currencies-Direct. 
5. ^ MacAlister, Terry (28 December 2002). "Man who beat banks at their own game". London: guardian.co.uk. http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2002/dec/28/raceintheuk.mbas. 
6. ^ "Recent Social Media Releases for Currencies Direct". fx4charity.com. 16 February 2009. http://news.fx4charity.com/?ReleaseID=11364. 
7. ^ "Currencies Direct provide charity donation when arranging foreign currency". financemarkets.co.uk. 17 February 2009. http://www.financemarkets.co.uk/2009/02/17/currencies-direct-provide-charity-donation-when-arranging-foreign-currency/. 
8. ^ "Save money on Foreign Exchange, raise money for charity". Charities Trust. http://www.charitiestrust.org/content/fx4charity/index.html. Retrieved 3 February 2011. 
9. ^ "Online tool cuts costs for SMES trading abroad". FX&MM Magazine. Dec 2008. http://content.yudu.com/Ayolh/FXDEC2008Issue/resources/11.htm. 
10. ^ "2005 Fast Track 100, Rank: 89". The Sunday Times Fast Track. 2006. http://www.fasttrack.co.uk/fasttrack/leagues/dbDetails.asp?siteID=1&compID=1726&yr=2005. Retrieved 3 February 2011. 
11. ^ http://www.nationalbusinessawards.co.uk/about/index.cfm?ccs=711&cs=4147#3
12. ^ "MT Britain's Top 100 Entrepreneurs 2007: Money does the talking.". Management Today. 9 January 2007. http://goliath.ecnext.com/coms2/gi_0198-375557/MT-Britain-s-Top-100.html. Retrieved 3 February 2011. 

External links

• Official website
• i-payfx.com
• fx4charity.com