KlickEx Presentation at Pacific Islands Regional Initiative Launch
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Transcript of KlickEx Presentation at Pacific Islands Regional Initiative Launch
KlickExmeans Opportunity
What is KlickEx?
A real time, safe settlement system for remittances and inter-bank (mobile or wallet, or account) transfers.
It includes Foreign Exchange markets, Compliance Control, real time settlement and inclusive access to retail, merchant or institutional partners.
KlickEx operates a utility clearing service, and also two branded remittance companies.
It offers mobile top-ups, cash transfers, agent and bank account integration – as the lowest cost operator in the Pacific for the past 6 years.
What is De-Risking?
Following the GFC, the largest banks in the world
started reviewing their portfolios.
Afraid of “sub-prime” markets – they began to withdraw
Improper behavior lead to very large fines:
HSBC: 1.8 Billion USD - Cash Laundering
Standard Chartered: 800m
JP Morgan, Citi, Credit Suisse…..
Banks began to fear regulators…….
De-Risking – A perfect storm
Not only Sub-Prime…. Banks under fire in all markets….
Currency manipulation,
FX price fixing,
LIBOR fixing, Derivatives Loading….
Tax Evasion… the list goes on, and on, and on….
Angry regulators in the UK, US… and EU. Start focusing
on regulatory revenue generation to cope with public
demand, penalizing banks on non balance sheet items.
Compliance, Compliance, Compliance…
Banks start to review most of their activities…
Derivatives.. (too profitable)
Equities… too strategic
Lending (housing and commercial)… too core
Remittances:
Small value payments. High Risk, Low revenue
Competitive channels to banks
Huge overheads, given the old multi-lateral correspondents
Dodd-Frank… FATCA… Aaaaaagh!
Soon… to banks…
Anyone with cross border requirements, becomes “high risk”.
They may cause a bank to fall foul of regulators “targeting”
penalties that show banks have poor conduct…
But do not want to ping for POOR BALANCE SHEETS – sensitive.
FATF: No amount too small for IED/ATF - $30 is “enablement”
BITCOIN….. HAWALA
All “alternative systems” are risky, right?
“YES” – banks say, “Else we’d have thought of them”.
Fall Out
Barclays – Shut 90% of accounts in the UK.
“me too” banks follow…
…WestPac, ANZ, HSBC, NAB, BNZ, JPM, Citi.. Etc…
“Non core business”
“Non Strategic Customers”
“No reason given at all”….
Millennium Development Goals: Foster Competition:
Over 5,000 MTO accounts shut in Australia – maybe 10k?
Ripple Effect (no pun intended)
Mount Gox, Ripple, many other “alternative” providers
close shop, or face huge regulatory penalties.
KlickEx is audited no less than 5 times by regulators (UK,
EU, US, NZ, AU) in the period 2012-2014.
Banks “feel vindicated”…
But consumers suffer….
Central banks plea – regulators make statements… but De-
risking accelerates
Avalanche
Western Union, Exited by HSBC
Standard Chartered – takes on WU.. But “no 3rd parties”
WestPac exits Oz Forex
BNZ exits Hi-FX ($10b per year)
Deutsche Bank, Barclays, HSBC – it’s not just MTOs….
And here we are now…. Fearful of “account nesting”.
What can be done?
MTO Landscape in the Pacific
In the Pacific:
80% of the populations were unbanked
40% of GDP was remittance based
20% charges on remittances was common.
Yet no low cost/immediate payment domestic banking infrastructure.
So we set out to bridge the gap.
If ever there was a market for a real time, cross border, low cost, and widely available payments system: Here it was!
Is there an answer?
In 2014, Westpac mistakenly closed KlickEx accounts in
the Pacific
“irrevocable, non-negotiable – group-wide policy”.
But: with-in 2 weeks – all accounts were re-opened.
Now, more than 2/3rds of the MTOs landing money into
Tonga (by number, not by volume) use a KlickEx clearing
system.
Despite an environment of severely restricted competition
– KlickEx has ensured costs are the lowest they have been:
Ever.
In 2009 KlickEx set out to build:
One central network…
connecting banks
connecting agent locations.
connecting people.
Satisfying regional compliance concerns
Via stores, agents, banks, phones and web.
Institutional, grass roots, and peer to peer.
In 2007, we started work.
What might a solution look like?
KlickEx has a unique, compliance intense, clearing
machine – that isolates AML risk from banks.
Full Compliance & Tracking
Send and Receive
Money Spot View
What it does differently
A multi directional clearing platform for local and cross
border payments – and everything in between.
Imitating SEPA in Europe, Faster in the UK – KlickEx began
in 2007, and launched in 2009.
Delivering ultra-low cost mobile and web based
infrastructure as a basis for financial inclusion.
KlickEx is a multi-currency platform to connect bank
accounts, mobile wallets, agent networks and merchants.
Designation?
The simple solution.
Pilot program – shelter the banks from AML concerns.
Gain transparency.
Lower Costs.