The multi-currency account for businesses with international clients

One account, many currencies: a multi-currency IBAN (international bank account number) account in your company’s name is a clever solution for cross-border money collection. The same IBAN number can have more than 20 currencies linked. This allows you to collect different currencies in one place with just one single account, making account management incredibly easy.

How does that work?

Typically, your bank account allows you to receive funds in one currency only. Thus, if you plan on receiving foreign currency payments, you’ll need to open a separate bank account for each currency. Consequently, you have to manage multiple accounts and provide different account numbers to your clients abroad. Moreover, these foreign currency business accounts come at a high cost, involve tons of paperwork and long processing times.

A multi-currency IBAN account, however, is a type of virtual IBAN account that comes with just one account number and is set up to send, receive, and hold more than one currency. The payments made in various currencies are re-routed into one central account, cutting down on administrative expenses and time with benefits like simplified and cheaper currency exchange as well as local incoming payments without intermediary banks.

At first glance, “multi-currency account” and “foreign currency account” sound like synonyms. Behind the terms, however, are completely different structures.

A foreign currency account is created by the traditional house bank as a separate account. As a rule, this account is set up for one currency only. Thus, you receive one complete account including IBAN, but also administrative expenses and corresponding fees for each foreign currency. Especially for SMEs with a lot of business and trading links abroad, this is anything but an ideal solution.

An account designed for multiple currencies is different. This is a FinTech solution that often specializes specifically on the needs of SMEs with numerous possibilities and advantages compared to a standard foreign currency account.

To get a multi-currency account, you simply need to open an amnis account. Our onboarding is completely digital and takes around 30 – 40 minutes.

The multi-currency IBAN for your company will then be created automatically during the onboarding process. Thus, it will be available as soon as your amnis account is activated. You will receive an email when your onboarding is completed and your account is ready.

You can find all your amnis IBANs and payment instructions in our amnis WebApp by clicking on your name in the upper right corner and selecting “Payment instructions”.

If you would like to learn more about the advantages of the different plans and amnis’ offerings, you can book here a non-binding demo to see the WebApp live in action!

An account designed for multiple currencies not only offers considerable administrative relief for the entire payment process, but also pays off financially.

House banks charge exorbitant, non-transparent exchange fees, which vary depending on the currency. Minimum fees often amount to double-digit sums just for transfers to other European countries. SMEs that make a large number of international money transfers every month can thus quickly pay hundreds, if not thousands, of euros in transfer fees, which is a significant burden, especially for medium-sized businesses that usually don’t have a chance to get a corporate multi-currency account as larger companies can.

Companies from a wide range of industries with diverse business models can benefit from multi-currency accounts.

In international trade, customer payments from abroad can be received in their local currency. This simplifies the payment process for both parties and minimizes currency exchange costs. In addition, this account allows global transfers to suppliers and contractors in their local currency. This way, you can ensure that the full amount is received by the recipients. Last but not least, opening a multi-currency account may also pose advantages for international e-commerce businesses. Customers can make transactions in their preferred currency, which provides convenience and opens up new market opportunities for your business.

Furthermore, amnis provides a business debit card linked to the currency account, granting field staff increased financial flexibility on the road and the opportunity to carry out international transactions at domestic rates.

When transferring money abroad, you can choose between two different payment routes:
a) SWIFT payments
b) Local payment routes

Which option you select, may depend on factors such as cost savings, ticket size, traceability, speed of execution, or simply the availability at the payment institution.

SWIFT

SWIFT (Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunications) is a global messaging system largely used by banks and financial institutions for cross-border payments. A SWIFT transfer, also called an international money transfer, is a secure and internationally standardised method for sending or receiving money from banks all around the globe, which is why they can be received by almost everyone everywhere.

SWIFT payments come, however, at high cost, since banks usually charge transfer or recipient fees. The type of SWIFT transaction (BEN, OUR or SHA) will determine who incurs the fees.

Note that some banks may route your money via an intermediary bank if there is no direct relationship. This means that payment processes can get slower and more expensive, since there are more parties involved who charge fees. Minimizing these, sometimes quite significant, fees is a big part of the reason why companies look for local payment routes.

Local payment routes

Local payment routes are a relatively new, cost-effective payment method, which have been growing in availability in recent years. Local payment providers use a network of local bank accounts all over the world to get access to domestic payment schemes. By doing so, they can cut out intermediary banks and, thus, unnecessary fees.

Examples of domestic payment schemes include SEPA in Europe, Faster Payments in the UK and ACH in the United States.

Local payment routes allow you to execute and receive local payments in the domestic currency as if you were based domestically. This means that you can settle payments locally, without cross-border fees typically charged for SWIFT payments. You or your beneficiaries will therefore receive the full transaction amount, without any deduction.

When choosing a multi-currency account as a business, you should consider providers that offer a variety of features including factors like:

• Fees: Which providers have competitive exchange rates, low or no transaction fees, and transparent pricing structures?
• Currencies: Which providers offer the currencies within an account that are relevant to your business needs?
• Management: Is there access to a user-friendly interface, efficient money transfer options, multi-user management, and reliable tools to manage multiple currencies?
• Support: Are local customer support resources available to ensure timely assistance?
• Security: Does the provider adhere to legal regulations to protect your funds and data?

Several financial institutions in Switzerland offer multi-currency business accounts tailored to meet the diverse needs of international businesses and amnis is among those that fulfill all the above-mentioned conditions.

The security of a multi-currency account depends on the provider. amnis is a Swiss company whose web application was developed with the latest cyber security standards. Furthermore, the handling is designed to be extremely intuitive, so that even errors from the user side usually do not take place.

amnis is regulated as a payment institution in the EEA and as such is subject to the banking supervision in Liechtenstein (FMA). Client funds are protected via segregated accounts, which are monitored by the supervisory authority and auditors.

Send and receive funds worldwide via our local and cross-border payment rails: Besides our local payment options, we have the capability to send any major currency to over 200 countries and receive money from more than 180 countries via SWIFT.

Please refer to our country list for a complete overview of supported currencies with your foreign currency business account.