Memo entrusts JPM with the management of its international payments

Memo Bank has chosen the American bank J.P. Morgan to handle their international payments and currency management. This partnership aims to enable Memo Bank's corporate clients to accelerate their international development.

FACTS

•  The direct connection with the leading US bank allows Memo Bank to offer foreign exchange for more than 130 currencies at attractive rates to its customers.

• This partnership will allow Memo Bank to offer its SME customers an international payment service directly integrated into the bank account.

• The exchange fees and commissions are fully predictable and depend on the currency chosen.

• Without sufficient volumes, French SMEs are often confronted with unreadable and disproportionate exchange rate fees and commissions.

CHALLENGES

• Addressing the internationalisation issue: International transfers and foreign exchange are a recurrent source of problems for SMEs: telephone processes, slowness, and hidden fees are commonplace when it comes to receiving or sending money internationally.

• Limiting intermediaries: Memo Bank, the first independent bank created in France in the last fifty years, is obsessed with not subcontracting to its competitors, as many fintech players, particularly those who are adept at Banking-as-a-Service, do, activities that could undermine its independence. As a principal member of Visa and a direct participant in the EBA Clearing house, Memo Bank has once again chosen to connect as closely as possible to payment services by developing an international payment solution via SWIFT with J.P. Morgan.

MARKET PERSPECTIVE

• A few days ago, the French bank BNP Paribas announced the acquisition of the fintech Kantox, which specialises in automated foreign exchange risk management. Kantox's technology has attracted the bank, which will be able to distribute it to its corporate clients. It is counting on a long period of joint work with the fintech, which began in 2019, to generate synergies from this merger.

• For a long time considered as the poor relation, SMEs did not attract much attention from banks, which gave rise to numerous fintechs whose promise was to better take into account the specific needs of this clientele. But in recent years, there seems to be a turnaround and competition in this segment has intensified.