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How Auto-Convert Works on the TransferMate Platform

TransferMate’s Auto-Convert solution converts currencies at source of payment before arriving at the destination bank account. This means that the destination bank won’t apply high-cost international wire transfer fees and FX exchange fees - they simply treat it as a domestic payment.

Auto-Convert works for any pairings of the 140+ currencies covered by TransferMate.

How payments are different with Auto-Convert switched on

Let’s take a concrete example. You are a US based business, and you’ve been sent an invoice by an EU supplier in USD. While the invoice is in USD, the EU supplier provides a euro bank account for the funds to be paid into.

This results in a payment chain that looks something like this:

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International Payment without Auto-Convert

Table with Column Span

Step 1: EU supplier sends invoice to US business in USD.	Step 2: US business pays the bill in USD into the EU suppliers euro bank account.	Step 3: The bank in the EU converts the USD into euros, treating it as an international payment and charges a wire transfer fee and FX fee.
Result = The EU business is charged a wire transfer and FX fee. What’s more, payer and payee might not know what rate and fees will be applied until the transaction is done.

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International Payment with Auto-Convert activated

With Auto-Convert, we can eliminate those international wire transfer fees at the source.

4 Column Table with Row Span

Step 1: The EU Suppliers send invoice to US business in USD.	Step 2: US business pays the bill in USD.	Step 3: TransferMate exchanges the currency before it leaves the US.	Step 4: The payment arrives in the EU bank account in euros.
Result = TransferMate eliminates the wire transfer fee entirely and applies a competitive FX fee. All parties know in advance what these fees will be.

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Why does it work?

Auto-Convert takes advantage of TransferMate’s global payments infrastructure. We are licensed across the world to transfer payments, which allows us to create local payment rails at an international scale.

This is different to banks who typically work within their own country, and use systems like Swift to transfer money internationally between them.

The above example uses our infrastructure in the US, combined with our technology that recognizes the destination of the payment, to convert the currency before it lands in the local bank, saving our clients on wire transfer and FX fees.

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Are there any restrictions?

At the moment, Auto-Convert is available for any multi-currency payments made on the TransferMate Platform, provided TransferMate can validate the beneficiary’s account.

The only restriction comes from what currency you can fund the payment from i.e. what bank account you use as a source of funds where TransferMate is licensed.

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How can I switch on Auto-Convert?

Auto-Convert can be switched on for payment you wish to use it for and where TransferMate can validate the destination account.

It is particularly useful for international payments you send on a regular basis to the same entity, or big one-off payments (such as inter-company payments) that you make into another currency.

The process of switching on Auto-Convert is simple: contact the team here and we’ll help you identify which beneficiaries are suited for Auto-Convert. We’ll ‘penny test’ these accounts and, once those tests are successful, we’ll switch it on for the selected beneficiaries within the platform.

To learn more about how you can use Auto-Convert on the TransferMate Platform, contact our team today.