Customers have a global corporate account that they can use not just for foreign exchange and cross-border payments, but also for free real-time transfers via a peer-to-peer network. To make it even easier for SMEs to do business, amnis offers a multi-currency debit card and virtual IBAN accounts in 20 currencies, including local GBP and USD accounts. That enables them to receive payments in their own name in more than 20 different currencies.
Questions to Michael Wüst, Co-Founder of amnis:
Can you describe your company’s mission and vision? What makes it unique?
We seek to give small and medium-sized enterprises the same access to international banking tools enjoyed by multinational groups, giving them a competitive edge in the international arena. We do this by thinking through every process from the customer’s viewpoint and deploying our solution in those areas where businesses actually come into contact with foreign currencies. That means when paying invoices in another currency and when receiving payments. Our platform enables businesses to strategically plan and manage forex, exchange rate risk and international payments, using a single, unique tool. The entirely digital banking solution is tailored to the needs of SMEs, focusing squarely on user-friendliness and automated workflows. The fair and transparent pricing and the combination of cross-border and local payment routes enables companies with low foreign-currency volumes to save some money as well as time.
What are your most important export markets, and why?
amnis currently serves customers from more than 30 countries, and we are continuing to grow quickly. In our first wave of expansion into central and eastern Europe, we added operations in Germany, Austria, the Czech Republic, Poland, Slovakia, the Netherlands and Italy. Our focus is on markets where import/export volumes are high, there is a need for foreign currencies and the coverage from traditional banks is inadequate.
What are the biggest challenges that your industry will have to tackle in the coming years?
The costs to companies of cross-border payments are much too high. Large groups with their own payment factories are at a competitive advantage thanks to their digital processes. Our mission is to open up access to automated payment processes for small and medium-sized businesses as well. We will therefore be adding connections to more than ten accounting systems this year, in order to automate the booking of payments and debit card transactions.
What is your company’s most innovative product or service? What are you proudest of?
We will be bringing a multi-currency debit card to the market in April 2023. This will make us the first provider in Switzerland and Europe to debit card payments in any currency free of charge in the payment currency from a free payment account denominated in the same currency. Companies can set up an unlimited number of physical or virtual cards for their employees using the self-service options. Smart settings allow limits to be defined per card based on the country or cost type.
How can S-GE meaningfully support you in future?
S-GE can assist amnis in our international expansion through its foreign network encompassing wide-ranging markets and its expertise in international transactions. Switzerland Global Enterprise events and surveys offer interesting insights that are highly relevant for our areas of focus and target group.
Our membership also unlocks synergies between amnis and S-GE members operating internationally. amnis makes the ideal addition to a local Swiss franc account and is entirely geared around the needs of SMEs, giving them a global competitive advantage.
