OFX, established in 1998 under the OzForex Group (OFX:ASE), has emerged as one of the oldest and largest money transfer firms globally. While the company initially operated under different brand names per market, it consolidated its brands under the OFX umbrella in 2017, retaining the regional designations like OFX UK and OFX Australia. 

Despite a dip in the number of OFX transactions to 1.2m in FY2023,, OFX’s financial health remains robust. The OFX group transferred $31.9bn in the year, a slight fall on the $33bn transferred in FY2022, but improved net profit to $37.6m, up 43.1% on FY2022.

Despite a slight dip in the number of transactions to 1.2m in 2022, primarily due to no longer processing transfers for offshore share purchases, OFX’s financial health remains robust. The company marked a record-breaking FX turnover of $33bn AUD, attributable to growth across all client segments. This strong financial performance has propelled OFX’s share price upwards, fostering a positive forward momentum.

It was in 2013 that the OzForex group completed their IPO with the help of FT partners, valuing the firm at the time at AUD $480,000,000. Prior to the offering, OzForex was owned by Accel Partners, The Carlyle Group, Macquarie Bank and other founder / private investors. The transaction was a sale of 100% of the value of the company to a “club” of institutional investors, followed by an IPO, the largest IPO of an Australian company in 2013. Following Brexit, OFX obtained an Electronic Money Institution licence from the Central Bank of Ireland (CBI) to continue offering its services to European based clients. 

With over 1 million customers globally, OFX has approximately 65,000 website visits every day. Staffing wise, the OFX group employs 500+ people worldwide, offering excellent customer service and some of the best rates in the industry to people and businesses across the globe. By tapping into teams in the UK, US and Australia, it’s able to offer genuine 24/7 customer service to customers over the phone.

Sponsorships

OFX announced a sponsorship deal with the NHL on September 22, 2021. The company is now the league’s official currency exchange provider in Canada and the US. It’s clear that North America is considered a key growth market for OFX, made evident by the firm’s recent $70m acquisition of the Canadian-based foreign exchange company Firma in December 2021. Skander Malcolm, who has been CEO of OFX since 2017, commented on the acquisition, “Firma generates strong earnings from a high-quality customer base and has an excellent service culture, so there is a lot of alignment with OFX. By bringing our businesses together we become a much bigger corporate specialist with a strong recurring revenue base and considerable growth opportunities.”

OFX is also

OFX partners with the BKT URC, a European Rugby league boasting more than 30m viewers in the 2021-2022 season.

Acquisition of Paytron in 2023

In May 2023 OFX announced it would be acquiring online multi-currency account and expense management software provider Paytron. The move fits in with the group’s approach to continue its focus on corporate customers and innovation. 

The goal is build a one-stop shop for businesses to access world-class cross-border payments, accounting workflows, virtual cards and a spend management platform.

Proprietary Technology

Finally, it’s also worth highlighting OFX works with over 50 regulators across the globe. OFX takes the security of its users seriously and uses sophisticated technology to monitor registrations, logins and transactions to identify suspicious activity. Their fraud system utilises a multi-layered approach to detect and prevent fraud by detecting phishing, malware and fraudulent apps that are targeting OFX’s product and customers.

BRW Fast 100, 2005

Fraud Prevention Award – Digital Identity Summit 2016

UK Trade & Investment International Business Awards Finalist, 2006

Canstar – Outstanding Value in Money Transfers, 2016 – 2019

Hong Kong Leader’s Choice Award – Excellent Brand of Forex Services – 2021

Finder – Best International Money Transfer Provider – 2022

OFX money transfer is one of the most reliable and safe to use money transfer companies out there. In fact, OFX, trading on the Australian Stock Exchange, is one of only two money transfer providers in this position (the other being Wise), and as such undergoes a great deal of scrutiny. Aside from these two, the only other public companies are the remittance focused legacy giants Western Union and Moneygram. People have been using OFX to transfer money for 20+ years and the firm has kept a pristine reputation on OFX money transfer reviews from across the internet.

There are thousands of client reviews on TrustPilot and ReviewCentre.

TrustPilot has now aggregated the previously separate reviews of UKForex and OzForex into the sole brand OFX (there is no distinction between OFX UK and OFX Australia). So be sure to check reviews relevant to your location to better understand the process and support team. In total there are over 6,400 reviews as of December 2023 with an average rating of 4.3/5 – ‘Excellent’. Most OFX money transfer reviews are positive, while around 10% are complaints.

There are new OFX reviews added daily by OFX customers from across the world. We endeavour to update this OFX reviews with them as soon as they accumulate.

Common praises for the service include

• Local Client Support
• Local Bank Accounts
• Great Rates
• Helpful and informed staff
• Quality and fast service

OFX complaints are somewhat rare but they focus on the following topics:

• Poor rates provided,
• Delay in making a payment
• Privacy issues
• Complex info required when adding new beneficiaries

In virtually all cases, complaints are a result of delays with transfers. This trend continued in 2023 with nearly a half of all negative reviews left this year relating to transfer speed. We can see from our OFX review analysis that one user pitted OFX vs another international money transfer company by making the exact same payment with both – the other provider completed the transaction in 48 hours, while OFX took over a week.

It should be noted, however, that this is in contrast to the many positive OFX reviews regularly praising a fast service. Some of these OFX reviews are from clients who have been using the service for years and are yet to encounter any delays to their transfers. A recent 2022 review commented, “I have been using OFX for about 15 years now and I have always had good swift results.”

As OFX makes the effort to respond to all complaints we can see some of the delays have been as a result of payment systems simply being closed on the weekend or their customers selecting a slower settlement method, causing a delay in the funds reaching OFX in the first instance. While other transfers have been delayed due to intermediary banks not forwarding funds fast enough. It’s worth noting that OFX does not choose its intermediary banks, but rather the primary bank they use for payments will have a network of intermediary banks it uses themselves.

The other factor that seems to be increasingly at play is OFX requesting more information in order to process transfers. This is causing a lot more back and forth and adding a number of days to the process. These enhanced compliance requirements seem to be common across the industry, and help to combat financial crime, but they are certainly frustrating.

OFX has a substantial number of reviews at over 6,400 (of which 90% are positive). Overall, this gives us a high level of confidence that clients appreciate the service provided to them. However, it’s worth noting for comparison that major competitor Currencies Direct has amassed over 10,000 reviews and enjoys a much better 4.9 / 5 rating.Online money transfer giant Wise (formerly TransferWise) has over a colossal 190,000 reviews, but has a slightly worse 4.1/5 rating.

Fees:  OFX’s newest fee policy is that all FX trades and international payments are free of charge, regardless of the amount sent.

Exchange Rates:
As with all other major currency brokerages in the world like World First, Global Reach Partners, or Moneycorp, the exchange rate markup applied by OFX is quite flexible and heavily dependent on the currency routes and volumes which are being traded.

world like World First, Corpay, or Moneycorp, the exchange rate markup applied by OFX is quite flexible and heavily dependent on the currency routes and volumes which are being traded.

A small transfer of less than several thousands of dollars involving an exotic pairing (for example: NZD to BRL) will be just slightly less expensive than banks, but the popular corridors like GBPEUR will be a lot cheaper, especially if large volumes are traded.

The only indication we have about how expensive or cheap OFX exchange rates really are, comes through client reviews, which are generally very positive about this aspect. Out of several hundred reviews scrutinised by us, we found several dozens of satisfied clients who specifically mentioned how low the cost was in comparison with their banks or other companies they have tested.

From our experience in the foreign exchange industry, it makes perfect sense. Large companies are able to offer better rates to their clients because their own FX costs are reduced. Just like when a wholesaler saves money by buying in bulk from a manufacturer, the more currency an FX broker can purchase and the more payments they make, the better the deal they’ll be able to get with their banking partners.

OFX Online Exchange Rates on OFX.com

International Money Transfer Fee Calculator

Limits: Recently OFX UK and the entire OFX group changed the minimum transfer limits to £100 or equivalent in US Dollars, Australian Dollars, Canadian Dollars, New Zealand Dollars or Hong Kong Dollars. Some reviews indicate OFX have allowed test transfers under this amount too.

Intermediate and receiving fees: Based on its strong global presence and holding as many as 115 OFX accounts s around the world, in most instances there won’t be any receiving or intermediary fees at all. OFX will make sure to transfer money between its own bank accounts where possible (certainly on major currencies to popular destinations) and credit the receiving account using a local transfer rather than a SWIFT wire.

OFX was a very traditional payment provider until 2015. Fixed fees were applied to any transfer lower than $3,000, and the minimum transfer was $750.In 2016, together with the rebranding from OzForex to OFX, they stepped up their game to stand in line with many other providers who offer lower minimum payment thresholds and a no-fee policy across the board. Fast forward to 2022, and with transfer volumes for the OFX group at an all-time high, they’ve stood by this no-fee policy which seems to be serving them very well.

Seemingly, their rates are also up to par with other global leading currency brokers in this field, and thus, a client can expect that OFX would provide them with one of the cheapest quotes available on the market.

Offices: New Zealand (Auckland) Australia (Sydney) Canada (Toronto) USA (San Francisco) China (Hong Kong) UK (London) Singapore

Ways to approach: Email, Phone, Online – 24 hours, 7 days a week!

Translations: None.

Accepts Clients: Worldwide.

Currencies Handled: 55 currencies which is quite a complete selection.

Client Reviews: Happy with the support they have received.

The OFX brand is truly a service oriented company. It has an impressive number of international offices and has been present in all major money transfer markets for a significant period of time. It launched in New Zealand in 2001, the UK in 2005, Canada in 2007 and the US (currently its fastest growing territory) in 2013. Meaning it has more history and experience in these markets than some startups operating solely out of just one of these countries.

It must be noted there is a lack of translations to the OFX website, so unless you’re happy to use English the service is limited. Even the European, Hong Kong and Singapore landing pages for OFX are in English – which could be a barrier for say Hong Kong residents expecting to navigate a website in Cantonese.

Due to OFX’s global coverage it has recently started offering 24/7 telephone and email support which is a unique perk that no other company we have reviewed offers. In fact, if you call the UK office out of working hours you will be redirected to the American or Australian office.

Clients are extremely happy about the level of service they have received by their dealer or the support team, and many of them even mention their dealer’s name in their OFX reviews.

As a public company, OFX has to withstand harsher restrictions than other companies. That means total transparency. Any client can easily view the latest financial reports that have been published to know what this company is up to, and how much money they’re making off clients.

In addition to all of this, we should re-iterate OFX is a very global company with a very wide selection of offices across the world. Local settlement is possible in the USA, Canada, Australia, Europe and of course – the UK. That means that in all of these countries you can send money domestically to OFX in order to fund your transfer, and you can also pay via debit card for personal transfers (which again, is quite unique in the landscape, as a number of companies accept only local bank transfers). This reduces payment fees throughout the transfer process and ensures payments can be processed as fast as possible.

OFX has a good offering of hedging tools, including: spot contracts, recurring payment discounts, forward contracts, and limit orders. These, combined with clear communication from the OFX customer service team, helps users anticipate and take advantage of ideal market conditions.

A fully functional money transfer app which is available on both Android and iPhone devices. Even though it’s still relatively new it has already gathered, as of December 2023, over 3,700 reviews with a rating of 4.6 / 5 on Google Play Store and 2,500 reviews on the App Store (rated 4.8 / 5), making it one of our chosen best international money transfer apps. Our continued analysis, where we track scores over time, also indicates to us that OFX is listening to customer feedback – after the first 1000 app reviews or so the OFX app was rated at 4.2 / 5, then after reaching 3000 app reviews the score improved to 4.4 / 5 – so it’s no mean feat bringing this score even higher.

OFX has recently joined companies like World First and Currencies Direct in offering a specific array of services for online sellers who operate on marketplaces such as Amazon. OFX, similarly to other companies, helps such merchants to create a foreign collection account overseas, so they can receive payments in local currencies when they sell abroad. Clients can hold funds in these accounts and have the option to make local payments (such as paying Marketplace fees) or transfer these balances into another currency. This is a big step forward for OFX, particularly for online retailers, and their service seems terrific. OFX saw a slight dip of 6.9% in their online sellers revenue in FY2023 but the number of active clients increased by 5.5%.

In addition to its daily market commentary, OFX provides customers with a monthly currency outlook, such as this written for September 2023 providing currency updates across all major territories. As you would expect from an industry leader, its industry analysis is some of the most in-depth around.

Now that OFX has acquired Australian fintech Paytron, the OFX group is also offering spend management software, automated payables, multi-currency accounts and international payroll. The latter two functions will be of particular relevance to internationally-focused companies. However, this very much seems to be under a separate Paytron registration for now.

Pretty standard suite of hedging available for businesses, but all the basics are provided and we know for certain the level of staff professionalism and industry research is higher than the industry standard. Online sellers in particular can enjoy unique features.

The app is refreshing, and appears to be on the higher-end of things, which is a big advantage compared to the majority of companies which don’t have apps.

It will be interesting to see if and how OFX and Paytron will merge in the future. We’re sure multi-currency accounts and international payroll services will be of relevance to OFX customers.