UK-based ALT21 has integrated its BankHedge solution with the Temenos banking platform to streamline FX hedging for banks and global multicurrency payments for SMEs. Integrated with the Temenos banking platform, BankHedge enables Temenos banking clients to fully automate their entire FX hedging process including the automation of settlements, to create seamless multi-currency management experiences, embedded when and where SMEs need it, via a simple self-service interface that’s accessible 24/7.

Foreign exchange (FX) and foreign currency exposure continues to be an expensive, complicated, and risky process for small and medium sized businesses worldwide, costing them billions in hidden fees and exchange rate fluctuations, as per the press release. This results in a dramatic erosion of revenue and profit pools for one of the most important engines of employment creation and economic growth globally. Innovative FX hedging solutions for SMEs While SMEs recognise the importance of having a foreign currency strategy, a big majority are still not using FX hedging services, reflecting a massively underserviced market.

By leveraging BankHedge, banks are now able to expand and improve their SME banking offering to address this gap, while opening up new market segments and revenue streams at low customer acquisition and servicing costs. In a bid to dramatically increase the mass-adoption of FX hedging solutions by SMEs, ALT21 has built a dedicated banking software division focused on providing cutting-edge technology for banks to improve their end-to-end FX operations and services. Accelerating financial improvement Temenos Exchange brings innovation such as BankHedge to market faster, and at scale, on top of Temenos’ open platform for composable banking.

The two companies share strong DNA of building digital infrastructure enabling banks to reduce the costs of development and accelerate the creation of new financial services for SMEs. This deep-routed integration with Temenos will offer an almost plug-and-play, universal solution which brings functional, technological, and commercial advantages to banks seeking to bring FX hedging and cross-border payment solutions to market, cost effectively, and at speed. Representatives from ALT21 said they’re on a mission to use technology to make financial services more accessible, transparent, and affordable to businesses worldwide.

They’re bent on providing a highly-automated service that cuts cost and complexity in a critically important area - protecting small businesses against high currency exchange fees and cross-currency fluctuations. With the majority of small businesses still operating solely in the banking ecosystem, their collaboration with Temenos is highly strategic step in their mission to become the hedging solutions partner of choice to banks in +150 countries running on the Temenos platform. .