London, 02. September 2024. In an era where fintechs become increasingly bloated with ancillary products and spend years integrating their platforms with third parties like banks, UK fintech Atlantic Money today took a step in the opposite direction. With the launch of Portals, Atlantic Money allows users to make international transfers directly from their bank account and with the fintech’s network but without needing the fintech’s app. Users can access the Atlantic Money network from their main bank account, making transfers with Portals as convenient as SWIFT but still as cheap as Atlantic Money’s fixed fee pricing of £3 per transfer.
Portals' innovation lies in its simplicity. After a one-time setup, users receive a unique set of Portal accounts for each recipient. A USD recipient's Portals includes both GBP (sort code + account number) and EUR (IBAN) Portals. Users can then initiate local bank transfers directly from their home bank to these Portals. For example, a UK customer sending money to a USD recipient simply transfers GBP from their banking app to the designated GBP Portal. The Portal automatically exchanges GBP to USD, then delivers USD to the US account. This process creates a direct link between the person's UK bank and the US account with Atlantic Money’s infrastructure operating in the background.
Just as with a SWIFT transfer, users can now make international transfers without leaving their familiar banking environment. There's no need for a separate app or additional confirmation steps to set up the transaction. This streamlined experience makes Portals the first truly app-less international money transfer service, ushering in a new level of convenience and integration for users.
“Portals demonstrates our commitment to making international transfers as simple as possible. With our app-less approach, we are extending the existing banking infrastructure – just like SWIFT – instead of adding a new service on top of it. Portals allow every person and business to benefit from Atlantic Money’s fixed fee transfers within their banking home turf and without any custom integrations”, adds Neeraj Baid, CEO and co-founder of Atlantic Money.
Portals are built for recurring payments. An analysis of 40k transfers handled by Atlantic Money shows that 94% of users that recurrently transfer do so to the same recipient bank account, which highlights the need for a solution like Portals to make those recurring transfers easier.
Users can set up recurring transactions in their primary bank account while continuing to benefit from Atlantic Money’s fixed fee. This makes Portals particularly valuable for expatriates sending money home, businesses paying international suppliers, or individuals supporting family members abroad.
“First we removed percentage fees from international transfers, now we take ourselves out of people’s way. Portals challenges the industry to rethink how we approach building simple, elegant, behind-the-scenes financial services in an increasingly interconnected world”, adds Baid.
With Portals, users can transfer up to £1m to major currencies such as EUR, USD and INR for a £3 fixed fee and at the current exchange rate. Standard delivery transfers are paid out within 2 business days, while express transfers are paid out instantly.
Users can continue to use the Atlantic Money app to get updates on the Portals transfer or, if required, submit compliance documents.
