Video: 10 Minute IT Jams - An update from Currencycloud

Currency Cloud is growing. Under rainy Melbourne skies, Mark Litcham, the chief executive of international payments provider Currency Cloud, shared insights into the company's recent expansions and its ambitions in the fast-evolving Asia Pacific (APAC) fintech scene.

Currency Cloud, whose headquarters are in London, specialises in delivering cloud-native fintech banking, brokerage and payments infrastructure for other companies, rather than directly to consumers. "Currency Cloud is a cloud native B2B2X provider of international payment, FX, currency and virtual account solutions," Litcham explained. "We are based out of London but we're a global operating business." The company's footprint extends beyond the UK, with offices in Sydney, Singapore and the United States. 

As Litcham described, the company is particularly focused on "expanding our operations here in Australia and Singapore". The enthusiasm is clear: "We're truly global here, but we're just expanding our operations here in Australia, and Singapore also."

APAC, and especially Singapore, is now central to Currency Cloud's next phase. "We're going to be headquartered for APAC out of the Singapore region," Litcham said. "We have an office over there that we opened back in April." The company's APAC chief, Rohit Narang, was described by Litcham as "a really good operator, previous entrepreneur, and we're really excited to have him on board."

Currency Cloud is now working through regulatory licensing hurdles. "We're in the process of getting our MAS licence and we're looking forward to getting that in the course of this year," Litcham said, referring to the Monetary Authority of Singapore. He also highlighted a recent achievement: "A couple of months ago we actually got our Australian licence and our country manager Nick Briscoe down here is super excited by that."

Securing this local compliance in Australia opens up new possibilities for Currency Cloud's product range in the region. "Having our licence down here really enables us to offer our much broader, richer offering, which is certainly those global collection accounts and more of the liquidity and FX," he said. The company's infrastructure is highly integrated, Litcham noted: "We offer that really to our clients by packaging that up behind a suite of APIs so they can really control that experience themselves, but we take all the hard work out of it and make that process much simpler for them."

Currency Cloud's model is strictly business to business. "We are a B2B2X offering, so we don't take on those end clients," said Litcham. He likes the word "embedded" to describe the company's approach. "When you use us, we're invisible to your customers – they believe it's you that's providing that service," he explained.

Across the APAC region, demand for such solutions is growing rapidly as fintechs proliferate. "What we're seeing, particularly in the APAC region for demand, is a massive increase in fintechs down here," he said. Litcham reported a vibrant scene, describing his visit to a conference in Melbourne as evidence: "It's a really burgeoning community down here."

He cited a particular challenge for local providers: "In the space, a lot of providers find it quite difficult to obtain banking capability, particularly in Australia." Currency Cloud addresses this gap. "Our offering enables them to pick up an off-the-shelf product and get it to market really quickly," Litcham said. The new Australian licence is expected to accelerate uptake. "We're seeing some really good demand for that expanded offering that we're going to bring now we're starting to get licensed."

Asked about the kinds of clients they serve, Litcham mentioned several partners, including Wallex in Singapore and Bano, while emphasising the diversity of the client base. "We're seeing a lot of activity in the banking as a service space, being able to provide that international payment capability for them," he said. "Where we're really seeing some success as well is in the wealth tech space – providers that are giving access to customers to share trading, particularly international share trading, and we're making that embedded international payment that they're doing incredibly simple and easy."

Litcham also hinted at confidential ongoing talks: "A couple of names I can't mention but we're seeing some real success ... we're talking to some potential product development with some of the second tier banks here in Australia as well." The growth trajectory is clear. "We're getting into some customers that have some really good flows, really good customer bases, and I'm really excited about that," Litcham said.

A large part of Currency Cloud's appeal is its ability to simplify complex, cross-border financial procedures, integrating those functions seamlessly into other businesses' digital ecosystems. "Quite often, as you know, the international payment piece is an ancillary component to what people are actually doing, which again adds to that benefit of us being embedded, because it just – they're not having to go away and think about it, they're getting a great experience," explained Litcham.

Looking to the future, Litcham is bullish about Currency Cloud's presence and prospects in the region. "I'm really excited about that – to be able to improve the international offering that they have and make that embedded within what they're providing to their customers," he said.

As the interview drew to a close, Litcham returned to the company's core mission. "We take all the hard work out of it and make that process much simpler for them," he said.