GLOBAL NEOBANK FOR REMOTE WORKERS
Established in 2020, Grey is a cross-border payment fintech that aims to make it easier for digital nomads and remote workers to send, receive, exchange, and manage multiple currencies. However, to best support its growing customer base, Grey needed a partner to provide a faster and more reliable cross-border payment service.
The challenges in the way of fast, cheap, and secure cross-border payments
With its growing user base in the UK, Europe, and the US, Grey needed access to fast, secure, and low-cost payments through local payment schemes and local currencies in each region. However, its banking partners couldn’t provide the geographical coverage and operational efficiency needed to process tens of thousands of payments globally.
Cross-border payments are traditionally considered one of the most complex areas in fintech. They require harmonisation of interaction across multiple networks and assume increased exposure to regulatory risks, currency rate fluctuation, and fraud. Such payments often result in delayed transactions and additional charges, causing significant frustration for consumers.
Challenges:
- Operational inefficiency of traditional banks
- Need for expanded geographical coverage
- Slow transaction processing times for international transfers
- Difficulty obtaining competitive FX rates from the same partner facilitating the payments
Transformative partnership and enhanced payment solutions
Clear Junction’s mission is to empower banks, financial institutions, and remittance companies with the correspondent banking and payment solutions that traditional global banks fail to provide. Licensed by the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), we offer collection accounts enabling remittance companies to hold balances and maintain virtual accounts addressable for bank transfers via domestic clearing networks, benefiting from tailored treasury services.
By partnering with Clear Junction, Grey has a correspondent account capable of receiving bank transfers in EUR, GBP, and USD into individual virtual accounts allocated for its customers. Clear Junction facilitates these bank transfers via local payment schemes such as SEPA, FPS, and ACH, significantly reducing settlement times and allowing customers quicker access to remittances.
Here’s how the service works for Grey’s customers
- Account setup: Grey opens a correspondent account with Clear Junction in EUR, GBP, and USD, which supports a per-request individual virtual account allocation for Grey’s customers.
- Virtual account allocation: Grey allocates a unique virtual account to each customer. Customers can then share their account details with the people and businesses they want to receive money from. For payments in the EU, such accounts are provided as IBANs; for the UK, they come as a sort code and account number; and in the US, they are an ABA code and account number.
- Domestic transfers: Customers can then receive domestic bank transfers in EUR, GBP, or USD from their counterparties’ (relatives, clients) local bank accounts.
- Credit balance: Once the funds arrive in Grey’s account with Clear Junction, the account balance is credited promptly, and Grey is automatically notified.
On the Clear Junction side, Grey is supported by a team of operational support specialists, tech experts, and relationship managers.
Key benefits for Grey
- Ease of receiving payments via the domestic European, British, and American clearing schemes
- Predictable transaction timeframes and settlement times
- Transparent pricing
- Improved reconciliation through dedicated virtual accounts
- Seamless API integration with no platform downtime
- Increased revenue potential through in-built FX conversion capabilities
Clear Junction’s team is well-versed in regulatory compliance, including AML & KYC regulations. At Grey, we ultimately want to provide our users with a secure and reliable global banking experience, and a huge part of this is ensuring that our international transactions comply with the necessary regulations. Additionally, the team is customer-centric, and its proven track record and commitment to good service were what we needed to enhance our operations as a global company. Femi Joseph Aghedo, COO and Co-founder, Grey.
Looking to the future
In August 2024, Grey celebrated the milestone of 1,000,000 users, solidifying its reputation as a trustworthy cross-border payment company thanks to their operational efficiency, innovative products, creative marketing, and Clear Junction’s support. Our payment platform also offers scalability and robust security, ensuring that Grey continuously receives the best solutions tailored to its evolving needs as it expands.
In partnering with Grey, Clear Junction has added more African countries to the list of geographies it indirectly serves, following similar relationships with payment intermediaries in the UK, Poland, Ukraine, Canada, and Turkey.
By working with Clear Junction and opening faster access to the global financial system, Grey is creating more opportunities for the location independent and making a real difference in people’s lives, one payment at a time.
Get in touch
Our solution has proven to be a game-changer for Grey, enabling it to extend its reach beyond its domestic geography. By facilitating connection to efficient payment systems in countries where its customers’ counterparties reside, we have helped Grey offer a competitive alternative to traditional remittance services.
To find out more about how Clear Junction can help banks and other financial institutions through our provision of specialised payment services and end-to-end solutions, please get in touch with our team.