INTL FCStone Inc. (NASDAQ: INTL) today announced that its London-based subsidiary, INTL FCStone Ltd’s Global Payments Division (GPD) unveiled its proprietary cross-border payments intelligence portal – the Global Payments Network (GPN).
The comprehensive intelligence portal leverages GPD’s relationships with global correspondent banks, regulators and other market participants in the developing world, to provide clients with access to market news and analysis that is critical to understanding those factors impacting cross-border payments and foreign exchange in markets across the globe.
INTL FCStone Ltd’s Global Payments Division maintains trusted relationships with approximately 300 local correspondent banks as well as government and regulatory bodies, and other participants across international markets.
The Company’s team members regularly liaise with these decision makers and gain “on-the-ground” intelligence to provide clients with unique insight into local market conditions, and thereby ensure efficient cross-border payments.
The Global Payments Network provides this knowledge to clients via regional insights, global macroeconomic analysis, commodities and currencies commentary, and more, which is easily accessible in one location through the online portal on a real-time basis.
Additionally, each country in the developing world has its own regulatory requirements that must be met, as well as economic and sociopolitical factors that must be considered, to successfully transact a cross-border payments execution. This critical intelligence is offered to all of the Company’s clients through GPN and is unmatched in the scope of exotic markets and currencies that it covers, for which information is often difficult to ascertain from other sources.
Carsten Hils, Global Head of INTL FCStone GPD
Carsten Hils, Global Head of INTL FCStone Ltd’s Global Payments Division, commented on today’s news:
The Global Payments Division specializes in transferring funds to the developing world, and our success would not be possible without the critical intelligence sourced from the trusted relationships that we maintain with a variety of global partners — the most essential of course is our trusted network of approximately 300 correspondent banks. The Global Payments Network provides our clients with all of this market-moving information through a single, comprehensive portal, ensuring that they are armed with the intelligence necessary to most effectively transact cross-border payments and understand foreign exchange considerations. We possess deep and unique knowledge of local markets because we liaise directly with global correspondent banks, regulators and other market participants as a core element of our innovative business model, and this knowledge equips our customers for success.
INTL FCStone Ltd’s Global Payments Division sources market-moving information for GPN through its “boots on the ground” approach. GPD team members regularly travel through Africa, Asia and Latin America, in both developed and developing countries, and source intelligence from local contacts.
Hils concluded:
With more than 20 years of experience in providing payments to the developing world, GPD has developed a global network of expert contacts which afford us industry-leading expertise and intelligence in local market conditions that are critical to the success of our clients’ operations. The Global Payments Network provides clients with significant added value through this intelligence, which helps them to make educated decisions on how to process payments effectively. We look forward to onboarding additional clients to the Global Payments Network and to unveiling enhancements to the portal in the coming months.