Thanks everyone for your opinions, comments and disagreements - pleased to see that we've sparked a debate.
If currency transfers can be facilitated in a way that circumvents the markets and requires no actual trading of currency, then many of these concerns and processes voiced above become irrelevant.
Of course there is huge complexity behind the formation of the mid-market rate, and yes, perhaps we were being ever so slightly facetious in our post!
The point we really want to get across is about improving transparency for end users, and how difficult it is to get a straight answer from a bank's customer-facing staff.
We speak to consumers and businesses every day who have no interest in what happens behind the scenes. All most of them know is that at any one point in time there is an 'official exchange rate' of sorts, but they never see that rate when they actually come to make a transfer or exchange.
As a result it's difficult to work out which provider is really the most cost-effective for their money transfers, and how much they're really paying. This is what we think is broken, and it's great to see so many people also passionate about it.
If currency transfers can be facilitated in a way that circumvents the markets and requires no actual trading of currency, then many of these concerns and processes voiced above become irrelevant.
Of course there is huge complexity behind the formation of the mid-market rate, and yes, perhaps we were being ever so slightly facetious in our post!
The point we really want to get across is about improving transparency for end users, and how difficult it is to get a straight answer from a bank's customer-facing staff.
We speak to consumers and businesses every day who have no interest in what happens behind the scenes. All most of them know is that at any one point in time there is an 'official exchange rate' of sorts, but they never see that rate when they actually come to make a transfer or exchange.
As a result it's difficult to work out which provider is really the most cost-effective for their money transfers, and how much they're really paying. This is what we think is broken, and it's great to see so many people also passionate about it.