The multi-banking FinTech company, Ebury, recently introduced a tailor-made solution for the Antwerp-based diamond traders. Their offering aims at providing sustainable access to the financial markets through fully operational IBAN numbers and capitalises on a user-friendly digital payment tool to support traders in managing their transactions around the world.

Ebury was created in 2009 and is one of the fastest growing Financial Technology companies for corporate cross-border payment solutions. Menne Mennes, who oversees the activities of Ebury in the BeNeLux regions explains: "Our recent growth has been spectacular, with more offices opening every year. The Brussels office opened in November 2017, and was followed by the opening of the Dubai office, early 2018. The success story of Ebury is mostly due to the fact that banks lowered their quality of service to SMEs after the 2008 financial crisis. The high cost of international transactions and the lack of tailored service pushed a lot of SMEs to reconsider their approach and that's where Ebury comes into play." The company, which employs over 700 people across 17 offices, since then focussed on providing digital payment solutions in over 140 currencies to 25,000 clients across different types of sectors, with a focus on currency risk management and collections in foreign currency.

"When we recently received our Electric Money license from the FCA, it allowed us to think further than payments. Indeed, with this license, Ebury could now hold funds of clients in total transparency and security" continues Arnaud Penson, Head of Ebury Diamond Solutions, "In Belgium, we quite rapidly got in touch with the diamond sector, as most Antwerp-based diamond traders were neglected by the traditional banks and found themselves in a delicate position to pursue their activities. Most of the traders we met showed huge interest in our solution. However, we did not enter the market without doing our homework".

The sector has indeed seen some unsuccessful attempts by other FinTech companies in the past, which approached diamond traders without consulting their financial partners. As the consent of banks facilitating the services is crucial to prevent transactions from being blocked by the various intermediaries, it is very important for FinTech companies to work in complete transparency with their partner banks and to carry out strict compliance checks on their clients. "Our multi-banking model allows us to rely on a network of 14 different banks to ensure a continuous and durable access to the financial system. With the help of sector representatives, we spent a lot of time and effort building a consistent and strong compliance framework that gave the necessary comfort to our financial partner and enough flexibility for our clients. We believe that this strong cooperation combined with a customer-driven approach has resulted in a transparent and sustainable solution. We're here to stay", concludes Penson.

Ebury Diamond Solutions opened its system, based on a userfriendly digital payment tool, to diamond traders in March 2018. They have since been granting more than 200 fully-operational IBAN numbers to Antwerp-based diamond traders, ranging from sole traders to the bigger names in the market. Nancy Van den Bempt and Chahe Arslanian from Arslanian Cutting Works confirm "In the short time we have worked together, we received exceptional support from Ebury. They have provided great service to our organization and allow us to focus more on our customers, making us a very happy customer ourselves".

As banks left the sector - for a variety of reasons - many Antwerpbased diamond traders found themselves in trouble with no solution to do business internationally. "The only valid solutions they had were either completely offline, with a poor level of service or were too expensive to be viable. It had become a real challenge to remain competitive on the international scene for most of the traders as payments were not smooth, damaging their relationships with clients and suppliers", elaborates Mino Kumar, relationship manager at Ebury Diamond Solutions, "We work on a daily basis to improve our cash management system and make it as convenient as possible for our clients. It is the personal touch, the constant availability for all enquiries that differentiates us from the current players in the market". Anuj Sahny from Aria Designs affirms "Ebury is continuously improving their services. Their solution offers multiple advantages. The payment tool is user-friendly and allows you to deal in several currencies. The paperwork load is much lighter, as it's all online. It saved me a lot of time as I don't have to go in person to address countless issues. Last but not least, you always speak to the same contact person and he/she is always easy to reach and quick in response, on the phone or by email". Moreover, the transfer charges at Ebury are very reasonable for the level of service provided. "Transactions are very fast and the rates are competitive. We are sure that as Ebury will gain experience in the market, payments will go even faster, allowing us to focus even more on our business" adds Naresh Shah from N. Shah & Co.

But it is not only payments and collections. Historically, Ebury also differentiated themselves from traditional banking institutions by the risk management tools they offer to clients having exposure on foreign currencies. These hedging products, called forwards, allow clients to fix exchange rates for a certain period of time, protecting their margins against the volatility of currency pairs. "We have noticed that most of the traders we met are not aware of the existence of such products", Kumar analyses, "The use of forward contracts is widely spread across industries and allows companies to secure their profit with full transparency on the exchange rate and flexibility on the timing of exchange. For example, polished diamond traders selling to jewellers tend to sell in Euro and pay their suppliers in Dollars. Their currency risk is huge considering the market's average profit margins. The feedback we received on our risk management products has been very positive, as banks never offered such instruments to diamond traders in the past".

All in all, Ebury Diamond Solutions is looking to expand its client base towards the end of the year and will continue its expansion both locally and globally. "We have already met more than 250 diamond traders in the last 3 months and we intend to grow our client base to more than 400 clients by the end of the year. We want to facilitate trade in Antwerp as much as possible and are already looking at the next diamond hub we can move to. As our Dubai office is operational and as we are finalising all licenses for our Hong Kong office, we have plenty of options to expand on a global scale and connect the different hubs on the same financial platform" concludes Penson.