Euro Exim Bank - Efficient, Versatile & Internationally Organized Bank

Banks are one of the safest and reliable methods of managing money. With the changes in technology, a lot of things have changed all over the world, but the banks have not evolved much yet. We have seen the rise of cryptocurrencies in recent times. Cryptocurrency is also called the currency of the future. One of the most innovative banks, the Euro Exim Bank, believes in cryptocurrencies and is one of the earliest banks to adopt Ripple Network to facilitate payments worldwide. We had a conversation with Graham Bright JP, Head - Compliance and Operations and Kaushik Punjani, Director at Euro Exim Bank Ltd, to know more about the company and its future plans.

Why was the firm established? And how far-reaching is it today?

Born out of a Small Payments Institution in the UK in 2015, with the competitive nature of the market and heavy sustained investment to make the business viable versus larger incumbents, the Bank made a conscious decision to change its specialize to specifically serve companies in their quest for the trusted instruments to facilitate global trade.

We also realized that we needed a jurisdiction with a very strong regulator and that was politically and geographically close to key markets. This led us to St. Lucia in the Caribbean, where in 2017, we established our new Headquarters. We now operate under the supervision, authorization, and regulation of the Financial Services Regulatory Authority, with a Class A banking license, with seven local staff including lawyers, trade experts, and compliance specialists.

Today, including our Representative office in London, consultants, agents, and partners worldwide, our collective team has expanded to over 250 people. We promote high levels of gender diversity and have achieved a steady revenue increase from targeted services, with the value of the instruments approached to issue over the past three years in excess of 3 trillion US dollars. We are also undergoing strategic geographic expansion with applications in place to establish additional Representative Offices in Singapore, India, Dubai and looking at other locations such as Africa, where emerging markets are creating strong supply chains and business flows.

Tell us about your specialization in the detection and prevention of illegal activities.

The sophistication, scale, value, and ingenuity of international crime have reached new heights, and companies are having to invest more than ever to fight back. International trade has changed, where new supply chains are emerging, new sources and origin of goods becoming more popular, and where we see more involvement of multiple parties (especially in demand for PPE during the Covid-19 pandemic).

In common with all financial companies, especially when dealing with non-present companies, cross-border goods flows, complex transactions involving sanctioned, tariffed products, identifying suspicious activity, proving wrongdoing, and reporting these elements are not just nice to have but essential to our daily operations. To protect ourselves and our clients, we have invested in commercial systems, training, and internal workflow enhancements to ensure we use all reasonable efforts to collect the right trusted data.

By implementing Blockchain and Artificial Intelligence, speeding up the processes on our trade platform, and allowing us time to look at exceptions, these technology enablers permit us to benefit from rapid sharing and disclosure of standard digitized documents, securely and confidently. With deference to our regulator, we are continually reviewing our systems, reinforcing training, data sharing, questioning, and ensuring that all staff read, acknowledge and adhere to our well documented best-practice internal policies, designed to inform and ultimately protect.

How can your customers rely on you for effective business transactions?

Trust is implicit in our service. Trade can be complex, and from the first interaction with clients, our process is designed to work closely with the applicants, keeping them fully apprised of the implications and next steps of each trade. This involves analyzing the transaction requirements, reviewing the relevant parties, and assessing the risk factors. Only after the first draft of an instrument has been created and approved, we request payment from the client. We offer competitive rates, a range of trade instruments, requirements for appropriate collateral, fast response, comprehensive tight due diligence, and local support with the backing of staff with years of banking and trade experience.

Explicate about your service Exim Wave. How has it been evolving since the start?

The nature of international trade business, involving SME’s and corporates in over 100 countries, working in differing jurisdictions, with multiple currencies and payment mechanisms, was the catalyst for the inception of the Exim Wave product. We wanted clients to experience global payment processing and seamless scalability to grow their business unencumbered by typical bank restrictions.

Our objective is to provide open and hassle-free payment processing through the web, online and mobile, supporting e-commerce websites, Point of sales, and pop-up stores, with a variety of payment methods such as debit and credit cards, bank accounts, transfers, mobile money, M-Pesa, Visa QR codes, etc. The product supports more than 150 currencies functioning globally, allowing clients to avoid high conversion fees and receive funds in the local currency, such as Naira, US Dollar, Euro, British Pound, and many more, 24/7 a comprehensive single point dashboard and no integration requirements. While this is a highly competitive market, our global reach, especially in Africa and Asia, makes our card services highly desirable and pertinent for small businesses and companies moving to digital operating environments.

Please share with us your contribution and experience in CSR activities.

The world is changing faster than ever, bringing international, national, and personal challenges for us all. There are deep uncertainty, political and social unrest and change, and, despite all good intentions, the curses of poverty, disease, inhumanity, greed, and vice persist. Euro Exim Bank is ever mindful of the wants and needs of less fortunate people in both our and global communities. CSR plays a major part in our company’s operations, fully supported and endorsed by the Board and management teams. It remains one of the company’s highest strategic ambitions to be recognized as a trusted, sound corporate citizen with strong policy and action.

About the Director

Kaushik Punjani obtained a degree in Chemistry, then gained valuable industry sector experience in manufacturing and global product distribution before entering the finance industry as a director and beneficial owner of Euro Exim Bank. His rounded experience covers online payments systems, confirmations, reconciliation, settlement, and trade, and his roles have covered management and delivery of financial solutions at UK businesses at all levels. His hands-on direction is driving the Bank to achieve phenomenal growth targets in handling instruments and expanding sales efforts.

With the board, this has meant skillfully navigating the complicated journey as the Bank copes with the effects of the global pandemic and dealing with logistical issues with demand from new sources, position and costs of transport, the reality, and presence of Brexit and new competitive market entrants.

About the Head - Compliance and Operations

Graham Bright JP is an innovative financial institution specialising in Trade Finance – issuing and relaying LCs, SBLCs, Performance Bonds and Bank Guarantees facilitating global trade. With a number of roles and more than 35 years (with 20 years at SWIFT) in the finance industry, his experience encompasses working collaboratively with industry utilities, regulators and Central Banks, consulting, and partner/channels management.

He holds a BA (Hons) degree in Business Studies, and is also a serving UK Justice of the Peace in Magistrates Court having sat on Criminal and Proceeds of Crime trials, and sits on Crown Court appeals. Formerly Director of FSI Solutions and Strategy at EMC, he was financial SME with responsibility for paperless banking, compliance and risk solutions. Prior to EMC, he was Managing Director of Financial Tradeware, provider of broker and hedge funds trading systems.

“GTR has a long-standing relationship with Euro Exim Bank, who frequently exhibit at and contribute meaningfully to GTR’s global events. We are proud to be a partner of Euro Exim Bank and of our ongoing collaboration with them,” Jeff Ando, Director Conference Production, Global Trade Review.

Get in Touch: www.euroeximbank.com