Nicolas Steiger

News

FlashFX Welcomes Bankers’ Endorsement of Government-Backed Cryptocurrencies

A government-endorsed digital Australian dollar has the potential to lead to increased trust and certainty, particularly to grow the digital currency marketplace.

Exchange Rates

How to get the best rate with our Exchange Rate Calculator

We take a closer look at how to find and read currency exchange rates, as well as how to convert currency using an exchange rate calculator.

Exchange Rates

3 steps to getting the best currency exchange rates

To be sure you are getting the best currency exchange rates, you must know what the current real market foreign exchange rate is and whether any upfront or transaction fees are applied to your transfer, including fees applied by the receiving back to the recipient's account. Do your homework, compare,

Remittances

The value of choice, control & transparency

International money transfer services and banks around the world continue to trap consumers with opaque and overpriced exchange rates. For too long the foreign exchange industry has profited in the shadows. It has never served the remitters’ best interests to provide transparency to their customers. Like a puppet being manipulated

Banks

Big banks = high cost international money transfers

Australia ranks among the most expensive G20 countries to send money from. This is largely due to the fees banks charge for international money transfers.

Ripple

Ten New Customers Join Ripple’s Global Payment Network

Ripple announced the addition of 10 new customers to their growing global network. Among them some of the world’s largest banks, innovative smaller banks, and payment service providers (PSPs). As the only blockchain provider that has real use cases and customers using our solution commercially, more and more customers

Blockchain

Embracing Blockchain for Payments

Payments are one area where banks should completely embrace blockchain to compete with fintech challengers and to expand their market share. The existing payments infrastructure used by banks faces multiple challenges relating to security, speed and cost. No wonder, Santander Group executive chairman, Ana Botín believes that her bank’s

Regulation

ASIC enforcement taskforce recommends tightening bank rules to protect customers

Banks, financial services houses and credit companies will face public naming and shaming over bad behaviour in a suite of major reforms being considered by the Turnbull government. However, the reforms put forward by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission enforcement review task force do not include naming the executives

FinTech

Fintech all talk no action in bank competition race

Australia's banking sector is one of the most highly concentrated in the world and the much-hyped arrival of digital disruption has hardly shifted the dial. More competition is not the solution to the housing affordability crisis, but there is no doubt it would benefit consumers. Australian Competition and Consumer Commission

Regulation

ASIC’s Greg Medcraft lashes bank ‘oligopoly’

Chairman of the corporate watchdog Greg Medcraft lashed out at the banking “oligopoly” for chipping away at customer trust with sector-wide interest rate hikes out-of-cycle with the Reserve Bank of Australia. “I think every time you do an out-of-cycle increase you chip away that trust,” Mr Medcraft said. “It’s

Australia

The quiet engine powering Australia’s innovation boom

Not that long ago, building a global company was reserved for large incumbents and heavily capitalised start-ups. But that’s changing. Instead of needing millions in the bank or being based in the heart of Silicon Valley, the internet — and the tools it enables — are empowering a new generation of

Currency Conversion

The Real Cost of Foreign Exchange Conversions - What the banks don't want you to know.

Do you know what the actual foreign exchange conversion rate is? You probably know the conversion rate your bank is charging you, but did you know there is another "higher" rate known as the market rate? In fact, the market rate is the only real rate at which to convert

Australia

New Payment Platform in Australia

Australia is due to release a near real-time domestic payments platform. The New Payments Platform (NPP) will allow for near real-time funds transfer between bank accounts, regardless of who a user banks with. It’s due to launch later in 2017. The NPP has been developed between the RBA and

Market Update

The Australian dollar rallied back to the highs after FOMC

The Australian dollar surged back above the 0.7700 level on Thursday morning, propelled higher by renewed US dollar weakness after yesterday’s US Federal Reserve [https://www.federalreserve.gov/newsevents/press/monetary/20170315a.htm] lifting interest rate by 25 basis points. The gain in the AUD/USD was the

International Money Transfers

Everything you need to know about foreign currency transfers

You set up a foreign currency transfer. The money leaves your account. It disappears for days. And then it turns up (significantly reduced) in the recipient's account. That's just how it works! And the banks really don't need you to know anymore. But, have you ever wondered what happens to

Market Update

US rate hike at next meeting "would likely be appropriate" if data is good enough, Fed's Yellen

The Australian dollar finished lower the last week, breaking sharply on rising expectations for a U.S. interest rate hike at the Fed’s next meeting on March 15. Strong U.S. economic reports and continued hawkish remarks from U.S. Federal Reserve officials were the catalysts behind rising U.

Market Update

Increased AUD buying power on EUR transfers with Eurozone Greek debt worries re-appearing

Since the start of the new year, the Australian Dollar increased by about 5.8% in value compared to the EURO, lingering in the mid 0.72s, as fears that Greece will be forced to crash out of the Eurozone persist. Greece’s government is currently at an impasse with

Banks

Send money and track it like a parcel, what does that mean?

The world of foreign currency payments for retail clients has not seen much innovation & change in the past years. Most people who wish to send money overseas to their family, friends or for simple investment purpose are still at the mercy of overpriced, opaque and inefficient processes at the banks

Digital Currency

Why can’t you track your money?

The quality of lives has been tremendously improved by innovation from new technologies and business models. Its normal to check your mobile for the next bus arrival, book a hotel and track the parcel of your latest online acquisition. We enjoy it, we almost demand it for whatever service we

Banks

Don’t pick your own bank by default

In this ever-changing world, Australian retail clients are creatures of habit. While most of us know that banks like to charge a fee at every turn, we still don’t challenge them enough. This is extremely evident when sending money overseas, where bank fees are not only exorbitant (in excess

Study Abroad

Flight of the International Students

Getting an education abroad is an increasingly likely prospect for students across the globe, especially for those living in the Global South. In the 2014 – 2015 academic year, the world’s stock of internationally mobile students grew to approximately 5 million. While Britain and the United States (US) are becoming

Australia

Israel inspires NSW startups - FlashFX

ISRAEL’S innovation prowess cast its spell on an eight-strong delegation of NSW startup founders, who returned to Sydney last week full of confidence, “chutzpah” and new business opportunities after spending 10 days at Austrade’s new Landing Pad facility in Tel Aviv. The delegation members shared their experiences at

Australia

Media Release: Support for NSW startups to go international

Anthony Roberts Minister for Industry, Resources and Energy NSW Government In an Australian first, the NSW Government is collaborating with the Australian Trade and Investment Commission (Austrade) to take eight NSW fintech and cyber security startups to the Tel Aviv Landing Pad, one of five established by Austrade. Minister for

Market Update

8 reasons why the Australian dollar didn't fall after the RBA cut rates

Even after a small pullback on Wednesday, the Australian dollar is still higher than where it was trading at before the Reserve Bank of Australia cut rates on Tuesday, taking its official cash rate to a record-low level of 1.50%. The strength in the Aussie has baffled some analysts,

News

Only A Happy Customer is a Returning Customer!

At Flash FX, we truly believe in making sure that each and every customer is happy and satisfied with their foreign exchange transfers. Sounds strange right? Is anyone ever truly satisfied with a foreign exchange transaction? For too long consumers have been denied basic control or visibility over their foreign