Global Reach Group Review: Taking the Extra Mile for Clients

Global Reach (officially: Global Reach Partners Limited) was originally established in 2001 as four separate brand names; Corporate FX, Private FX, Smart FX and Travel FX, which were merged into Global Reach in 2012.

That means the firm has now been helping clients move money internationally for over two decades. With an employee count of around 120, Global Reach is by no means the largest provider in the industry but it certainly isn’t one of the smallest either. The focus of global reach is very much as a currency broker as opposed to an online money transfer provider. Meaning a full suite of trading products are available, as well as an appointed currency dealer who can bring clients up to speed with different types of foreign exchange solutions and the foreign exchange market. Global Reach has built a team which has significant foreign exchange knowledge at its core and demonstrates highly valuable skills to its clients on a day-to-day basis.

Key developments for the firm have included:

• 2001: Global Reach Group founded (under the four previous brand names).
• 2005: Foreign Currency Exchange founded.
• 2006: First international office opened – Cyprus.
• 2011: Global Reach Markets gained FCA regulation for investment products (clients can trade options through Global Reach Markets still today).
• 2013: Global Reach Group acquired PSG FX.
• 2014: The firm became an FCA authorised E-Money Institution
• 2016: Global Reach bolstered its business with the backing of leading UK private equity firm, Inflexion Private Equity. Inflexion invests in high growth, entrepreneurial businesses with ambitious management teams and works in partnership with them to deliver growth. Later in the same year, Global Reach acquired FX Exchange too.
• 2018: Launched an overseas office in the Netherlands. Rebranded FX Exchange to Global Reach (private clients).
• 2019: Not long after opening an office in the Netherlands a Spanish office was established.
• 2020: Global Reach Canada founded with presence in seven locations (by acquiring Canadian firm EncoreFX).
• 2021: Partnered with Wolves Football Club as the team’s official payments partner.
• 2022: Became a feefo platinum trusted provider for the second year in a row.

Ever since inception, Global Reach has continued to grow its presence both organically and through acquisitions, helping to establish a large international footprint covering the UK, Europe and Canada. The company started off by focusing on corporate clients, and we assume this is still Global Reach’s largest audience as their numbers reflect high trading volumes per client (with just over 32,000 clients as of 2022 and roughly £7bn traded every year, each client is moving around £200,000 annually on average)

Who was FC Exchange?

London-headquartered FC Exchange (FC standing for “foreign currency”) was established in 2005, and held a 1A2 Credit Rating from D&B. Since the merger of FC Exchange, Global Reach FX has been trading more than £7bn annually with both companies combined. FC Exchange’s unique selling point was customer satisfaction. Unlike other companies in the industry who reward dealers and account managers based on how much profit they’ve turned for the company, FC Exchange took a different approach. FC Exchange chose to measure their employees by the level of satisfaction and retention of the clients they were handling. Throughout its time as a standalone operation, FC Exchange helped over 25,000 people move money between 2005 – 2016. Most of its staff were retained through the merger.

The integration of FC Exchange into the wider Global Reach Group has meant that, as well as being at the forefront of corporate foreign exchange, Global Reach is able to offer the same level of service to private individuals.

Merged Company – Global Reach Group – from October, 2018

After the merger in 2016, it was decided that FC Exchange would handle all private clients, whilst Global Reach would be fully dedicated to corporate clients. This had been the situation until October 2018, when FC Exchange rebranded itself as Global Reach Group UK private client desk. The two companies are now named simply Global Reach, and this Global Reach money transfer review entails both firms.

The current CEO of Global Reach, Nicholas Fullerton, was the previous CEO and co-founder of FC Exchange. Following the firm’s buyout by Inflexion and merger with Global Reach, Nicholas held the position of COO with the Global Reach Group from 2016 – 2019. Becoming CEO of the group in September 2019. The senior leadership team has significant experience in the international payments industry – some having made their way through the ranks at Global Reach and other key hires made from some of the industries largest providers.

Global Reach is one of the top 10 largest money transfer firms in the UK. Its recent merger with FC Exchange and launch in Canada only goes to cement this. It has gained a high level of recognition in various categories:

• Feefo 2022 Platinum Service Awards
• Electronic Money Award 2022 – Overall Payment Solution of the year
• Payments Awards 2022 – Best Cross-Border Payments Service
• Global Forex Awards B2B 2022 – Best Payments Solutions Provider
• Feefo 2021 Platinum Service Awards
• Department for International Trade Business Awards – Best New to Market Portugal
• Feefo 2019 Gold Service Award
• UK Forex Awards 2018 – Best Forex Payment Technology Solution
• Best Small Companies to Work For 2014 – The Sunday Times
• Sunday Times Profit Fast Track 100 (2012)
• Credit Level A2, Dun & Bradstreet
• Best Accreditation Standard (b.co.uk): Best Company To Work For 2016

Global Reach FX is a highly reliable money transfer company. In fact, it is undeniably one of the top 10 firms of its kind in the UK. It has been in business for longer than the vast majority of other currency brokerages on the market, moving large volumes abroad each year, while maintaining great feedback across the board.

With the acquisition of FC Exchange and EncoreFX in Canada , the company is growing at a staggering pace and increasing its presence in the private clients’ sector side. Bolstering its annual volumes from £5m to £7m. It is less internationalised than some of the industry titans, with fewer offices abroad, less regulatory authorities supervising them and unable to take on American clients, but they are still up there at the top when it comes to reliability.