Type of site Currency exchange | Commercial Yes | |
Launched April 2009; 7 years ago (2009-04) | ||
CurrencyFair is an online peer-to-peer currency exchange market place. CurrencyFair is headquartered in Ireland also with employees in UK, Australia and Poland.
Contents
History
CurrencyFair was established in April 2009 by co-founders Brett Meyers, Jonathan Potter, Sean Barrett and David Christian. The website went live in May 2010. As of November 2015, the company has processed over €2.5 billion,.
Operation
CurrencyFair describe themselves as "an online dating bureau for people who want to swap money but avoid hefty fees". Currently, 18 currencies are available to exchange (send or receive) - Euro, Pound Sterling, US Dollar, Australian Dollar, Canadian Dollar, Swiss Franc, Czech Koruna, Danish Krone, Hong Kong Dollar, Hungarian Forint, Norwegian Krone, New Zealand dollar, Polish Zloty, Swedish Krona, Singapore Dollar, South African Rand and UAE Dirham. Users can send Japanese Yen, Israeli Shekel and Thai Baht. The company charges 0.15% for peer-to-peer matches and 0.5% for matches against CurrencyFair. A transfer of currency of a CurrencyFair account costs £3, €3, $4 or equivalent. These fees are much lower than that charged by conventional market players including banks and online foreign exchange brokers. The CurrencyFair Mobile App was launched in September 2015 and is available in the App Store and Google Play.
Awards
In November 2012, CurrencyFair was one of four companies to be named Best of Show at the inaugural FinovateAsia conference in Singapore. In 2013, CurrencyFair won the IIA Dot IE Net Visionary Awards for Most Insightful and Intriguing Internet Innovation.
Media attention
In December 2013, Irish Taoiseach Enda Kenny officially launched CurrencyFair's new website and announced the creation of 30 new jobs in 2014.
Sébastien Chabal featured in CurrencyFair's first TV campaign in January 2014, as the "CurrencyFairy".
Regulation
CurrencyFair Limited, incorporated in Ireland (No. 469391) is fully regulated as an Authorised Payment Institution by the Central Bank of Ireland (No.C57373) under the European Communities (Payment Services) Regulations 2009. CurrencyFair Australia Pty Ltd (ABN 94 147 506 410) is regulated by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission, AFSL No. 402709.