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For access to your online account please contact your personal account manager, alternatively email team@regencyfx.com.
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For access to your online account please contact your personal account manager, alternatively email team@regencyfx.com.
Paying suppliers overseas is one of those operational realities that many businesses accept without question. The invoice arrives, the payment goes out and somewhere in the middle a bank or payment provider takes a cut that rarely gets scrutinised.
For many businesses, particularly those making regular or high-value transfers, those hidden costs add up to a significant annual drain on margins that could easily be avoided. We have seen businesses lose tens of thousands of pounds a year to exchange rate margins alone, simply because nobody had ever sat down to calculate what they were actually paying.
This guide explains where the costs hide, what tools are available to manage them and how the right approach to international supplier payments can turn a cost centre into a genuine source of competitive advantage.
Before you can reduce costs, you need to understand where they come from. International payments typically carry three layers of expense and the most damaging is often the one that appears nowhere on the invoice.
Transfer fees
The transfer fee is the flat charge that banks typically apply per transaction. It is visible, predictable and easy to compare. It is also, frankly, the least of your problems.
Exchange rate margins
Banks and many payment providers do not give you the interbank rate, which is the rate financial institutions use when trading with each other. They give you a marked-up version of that rate and the difference between what they offer you and the interbank rate is their profit on the transaction.
On a payment of £50,000, a margin of just 1.5 percent costs you £750. On a payment of £250,000, the same margin costs you £3,750. Multiply that across a full year of supplier payments and the picture becomes uncomfortable very quickly.
Timing risk
If your invoices are denominated in a foreign currency and you wait until payment is due before buying that currency, you are exposed to whatever the market happens to be doing on that day. A currency move of 3 to 4 percent over a few weeks is not unusual and for businesses with tight margins, that kind of swing can make the difference between a profitable contract and a loss-making one.
Understanding these three cost layers is the starting point. The next step is working with a provider that has the tools and expertise to address all three.
Most businesses instinctively trust their bank for international payments because the relationship is already there. The bank knows them, the process is familiar and the payment happens without friction. What businesses rarely interrogate is the exchange rate they are actually receiving.
High street banks consistently apply some of the highest exchange rate margins in the market. They can do this because business customers rarely compare rates on individual transactions, particularly when the payment is just one line item in a busy month. The bank relies on this inertia and it is expensive.
This is not speculation. It is a pattern we see every week when businesses first approach us. In almost every case, the conversation starts the same way: they assumed their bank was giving them a reasonable rate and nobody had ever sat down to calculate what they were actually losing.
Working with a specialist currency broker gives you access to rates that are significantly closer to the interbank rate. Our business model is built entirely around currency, not around selling overdraft facilities and business current accounts. When FX is your core product rather than an ancillary revenue stream, the incentive to offer competitive pricing is fundamentally different.
For businesses making regular international payments, the savings from switching to a specialist currency broker are often substantial enough to be meaningful at board level. We regularly work with companies that save tens of thousands of pounds per year simply by routing their supplier payments through Regency FX rather than their bank. That is not a marginal efficiency improvement. It is a genuine recovery of profit that was previously being surrendered without anyone noticing.
To put this into concrete terms, consider a UK manufacturing business that pays a German parts supplier €250,000 every quarter. The exchange rate provided by its high street bank added more than £6,000 in hidden FX costs to each payment. Over the course of a year, those unnecessary charges totalled more than £24,000, a significant cost that many businesses never realise they are paying because the margin is built into the exchange rate rather than shown as a separate fee.
A forward contract is one of the most powerful tools available to businesses with international supplier costs and it remains one of the most underused.
A forward contract is an agreement to buy a set amount of foreign currency at a fixed rate on a future date. It allows you to lock in today's rate for a payment you know is coming in three, six or twelve months' time. At Regency FX, forward contracts are available for up to 12 months with a deposit of just 10 percent of the total amount.
The value of this is clearest when you think about how businesses actually operate. If you sign a contract to supply goods or services at a fixed price but your costs include foreign currency components, you are carrying currency risk from the moment the contract is signed to the moment the invoice is paid. If the currency moves against you during that period, your margin shrinks. If it moves sharply, the contract can become loss-making.
Forward contracts remove that uncertainty entirely. By fixing your exchange rate at the outset, you know exactly what your cost base is going to be. That allows you to price accurately, plan cash flow with confidence and remove a variable that is genuinely outside your control.
At Regency FX, we work with clients to identify where forward contracts make sense in their payment cycle and structure them in a way that fits their cash flow. This requires a conversation about your business, your supplier relationships, your payment timing and your appetite for risk. That is exactly the kind of advisory relationship we build with every client and it is something an app-based platform cannot replicate.
Two practical levers that businesses frequently overlook are payment consolidation and timing.
Payment consolidation means batching smaller payments to the same currency destination into a single larger transfer rather than sending multiple individual ones. Every transfer carries a fixed cost component, so paying four suppliers in euros with one consolidated transfer rather than four separate ones immediately reduces that overhead. For businesses with multiple overseas suppliers in the same currency zone, this is low-effort cost reduction that requires no new tools or processes.
Timing is more nuanced but equally valuable. Currency markets move constantly and some periods are more volatile than others. Major economic announcements, central bank decisions and geopolitical events can all cause significant short-term rate movements. While nobody can predict markets with certainty, a specialist who monitors those markets throughout the day can advise you on windows where conditions are more favourable and help you avoid transacting at obviously disadvantageous moments.
This is where working with Regency FX makes a tangible difference. Our dedicated account managers watch the markets daily and are available to give you a genuine, informed view on timing when you need to make a decision. That is a fundamentally different experience from logging into an app and pressing a button, particularly when the payment is large enough that a half-percent difference in rate has real commercial consequences.
There is a category of international payment where the stakes are high enough that self-service is simply not the right model. Large supplier contracts, structured hedging programmes, recurring high-value payments and time-sensitive transactions all sit in this category.
For these situations, having a dedicated account manager at Regency FX means having a named, real person who understands your business, knows your payment patterns and is actively looking out for your interests.
Specifically, your dedicated account manager will:
Your dedicated account manager is reachable by phone, email or WhatsApp, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. This is not a support ticket system. It is a direct line to a named specialist who knows your account.
This kind of relationship is not a luxury. For businesses with significant FX exposure, it is a risk management tool. Knowing that someone with genuine expertise is monitoring your position and can act quickly on your behalf is worth considerably more than the marginal convenience of an app-based platform.
When you are moving significant sums internationally, the regulatory framework around how those funds are handled is not a minor consideration. Businesses should always ask their payment providers how client funds are protected, what regulatory authorisations they hold and what happens to money held on their behalf between instruction and settlement.
At Regency FX, all client funds are processed through FCA-authorised e-money partners including Sciopay, GC Partners and CurrencyCloud, which is owned by Visa. Your money is held in segregated client accounts, completely separate from Regency FX's own business funds at every stage of the transfer.
This is the same safeguarding model used by leading fintechs and it means your funds are protected regardless of the amount involved. You can verify the regulatory status of any currency provider on the FCA register at register.fca.org.uk.
We are clear about when we can truly help businesses and when we can't.
We are not competing with app-based platforms for businesses sending a few hundred pounds to a freelancer overseas. For transfers under £2,000, an app-based platform may be perfectly adequate. We start where the apps end.
We are built for businesses managing significant international payment obligations where the exchange rate, the timing and the support structure all have a material impact on the financial outcome.
This typically means businesses that are:
If your business is operating at that level, the question is not whether to use a specialist. It is whether your current approach is genuinely serving you or whether you have simply defaulted to your bank out of habit.
What is the difference between using Regency FX and using my bank?
The most significant difference is the exchange rate you receive. Banks apply a margin on top of the interbank rate that is consistently higher than what a specialist currency broker charges. For large or regular payments, this difference adds up to real money. Regency FX also offers forward contracts, limit orders and dedicated account management that most banks do not provide to standard business clients.
What is a forward contract and is it right for my business?
A forward contract lets you fix an exchange rate today for a payment you need to make in the future, typically up to 12 months ahead. At Regency FX, forward contracts require a 10 percent deposit. If you have known future currency costs and want to protect your margins from market movements, it is worth having a conversation. Many of our clients use them to price contracts with confidence, knowing their cost base will not shift between signing and payment.
How much do we need to be transferring for Regency FX to be worthwhile?
We deliver the most value for businesses making regular transfers or high-value single payments above £2,000. For transactions of £50,000 or more, the case for using a specialist rather than a bank is very clear. On a £250,000 supplier payment, a 1.5 percent rate improvement saves your business £3,750 on that single transaction.
Are business funds safe with Regency FX?
Yes. All client funds are processed through FCA-authorised payment partners including Sciopay, GC Partners and CurrencyCloud, which is owned by Visa. Client funds are held in segregated client accounts, completely separate from Regency FX's own operating funds. You can verify this on the FCA register at register.fca.org.uk.
Can we make payments outside of business hours?
Yes. The Regency FX online portal is available around the clock. Your dedicated account manager is also reachable by phone, email or WhatsApp 24 hours a day, 7 days a week for anything that requires personal attention.
What does the onboarding process involve?
Opening a business account with Regency FX involves a straightforward compliance and KYC process in line with FCA requirements. As soon as you enquire, you will be assigned a dedicated account manager who will take the time to understand your business, your payment patterns and your currency exposure. The process is designed to be quick and straightforward.
Can Regency FX help with regular supplier payments rather than one-off transfers?
Absolutely. Supporting businesses with regular supplier payments is one of our core services. We can help you establish efficient recurring payment arrangements, implement a tailored hedging strategy to manage ongoing currency exposure and identify consolidation opportunities that can reduce the overall cost of your international payment operations.
What currencies does Regency FX support?
We support a wide range of currencies and regularly work with businesses managing payments across multiple countries and currency corridors simultaneously. Your dedicated account manager can advise on the best approach for your specific requirements.
International supplier payments are not a commodity. For businesses with meaningful FX exposure, the provider you choose, the rate you achieve and the strategy you apply all have a direct impact on your margins and your ability to plan with confidence.
Our service is built around four things.
Safety. All funds processed through FCA-authorised partners with segregated client accounts at every stage of the transfer.
Savings. Rates significantly closer to the interbank rate than banks, with no transfer fees and full transparency on every cost.
Service. A named dedicated account manager available 24/7 by phone, email or WhatsApp, monitoring the markets on your behalf and verifying every payment detail before it is sent.
Strategy. Forward contracts, limit orders and structured hedging programmes that protect your margins and give you the certainty to plan ahead.
If your business is currently processing international supplier payments through a bank and has not reviewed the true cost of doing so, the conversation is worth having. The saving is often larger than expected and getting started is simpler than most businesses assume.
Get your free quote today and find out how much your business could save.
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