[kictanet] Forex market disrupted by technology?

[waudo siganga]

Yes - people have to be alert about how technology will change
their occupations. For example, travel agents were shown the door
a while back. After some time probably the only safe occupation
will be that of constructing robots that in turn make other
robots that cook, drive you around and give you a massage on the
beach!


On Mon, 24 Jan 2011 18:54 +0300, "Paul Kukubo ICT Board"
<pkukubo at ict.go.ke> wrote:


Listers
This is worth observing from the perspective of what technology
can do.

[1]TransferWise launches its online currency exchange today,
which hopes to give the banks a run for their money, along with
disrupting the consumer-end of the money exchange market as a
whole. The headline proposition is that the platform gives anyone
access to the same mid-market exchange rates that banks get on
their interbank market, with TransferWise charging a flat fee of
£1 for each transaction regardless of the amount being exchanged.
That’s potentially a big deal.

But what’s equally notable is the company’s founders, which
includes Skype employee number one Taavet Hinrikus.

He spent 7 years at the VoIP company, most recently as Director
of Strategy, as well as being an Angel investor in a number of
other prominent and upcoming startups [2]including TweetDeck,
Mendeley, [3]wikimart.ru, and blip.tv. TransferWise’s other
founder is Kristo Käärmann who has a direct financial services
background with Deloitte and PricewaterhouseCoopers.

Naturally, Hinrikus says he wants TransferWise to “do to currency
exchange what Skype did to telecommunications.” It’s a nice line
but in this case there appears to be meat on the bone.
Traditionally, consumers pay between 3-6% for foreign currency
payments at through their bank. In other markets that have moved
online, cutting out the middle person (for the most part) has
“brought down costs almost everywhere you look”, notes Hinrikus.

To that end, TransferWise, which is licensed by the UK Financial
Services Authority (registered as Exchange Solutions Ltd.),
facilitates money transfers at “global mid-market rates” as
reported by Bloomberg, XE and others. At launch, the company
enables exchanges between the British Pound and Euro, with more
currencies to follow.

TransferWise’s direct and indirect competitors
include [4]Moneybookers and [5]PayPal at the low-end, or for
larger amounts currency brokers like HiFX, as well as other
upstarts such as CurrencyFair, and the banks of course. The
company remains self-funded by Hinrikus and Käärmann.
[6]get widgetminimize


[7]TransferWise
[8]TransferWise image
Website: [9]transferwise.com
Founded: March, 2010

TransferWise is an online currency exchange service that allows
people to exchange currency using mid-market rates for a flat
fee. [10]Learn More
Information provided by [11]CrunchBase
[12]get widgetminimize


[13]Taavet Hinrikus
Companies: [14]TransferWise
Information provided by [15]CrunchBase
Sent from my iPad
_______________________________________________
kictanet mailing list
kictanet at lists.kictanet.or.ke
http://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/listinfo/kictanet

This message was sent to: emailsignet at mailcan.com
Unsubscribe or change your options at http://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/
options/kictanet/emailsignet%40mailcan.com

References

1. http://www.transferwise.com/
2. http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/01/16/twitter-me-this-tweetdeck-secures-angel-funding/
3. http://wikimart.ru/
4. http://www.crunchbase.com/company/moneybookers
5. http://www.crunchbase.com/company/paypal
6. http://www.crunchbase.com/widget/
7. http://www.crunchbase.com/company/transferwise
8. http://www.crunchbase.com/company/transferwise
9. http://transferwise.com/
  10. http://www.crunchbase.com/company/transferwise
  11. http://www.crunchbase.com/
  12. http://www.crunchbase.com/widget/
  13. http://www.crunchbase.com/person/taavet-hinrikus
  14. http://www.crunchbase.com/company/transferwise
  15. http://www.crunchbase.com/
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <https://lists.kictanet.or.ke/pipermail/kictanet/attachments/20110124/88349eed/attachment.htm>