News & Press - Wednesday, July 14, 2010 18:44 - 0 Comments

World First launches Advisory Services

Instant access to foreign exchange experts for finance directors

World First, the foreign exchange broker, today announced the launch of its new Advisory Services, a service to allow finance directors the ability to minimise risk and maximise profits from their foreign exchange exposure.

Most companies’ first port of call when it comes to foreign exchange provision is their main banking provider. Jeremy Cook, head of World First’s new Advisory Services, says, “Until now, there has been little opportunity for companies to be able to sanity check the foreign exchange service provided to them. The different products within the Advisory Services offering can ensure you are getting a fair deal, paying the right price, and hedging your exposure using industry best practices. It doesn’t have to be the necessary evil it can be perceived as.”

Few businesses can justify employing a full-time foreign exchange expert and World First’s Advisory Services is designed to be there when a finance team needs it. The service can provide analysis and advice when movements in exchange rates or economic events are threatening to affect a company’s bottom line.

Jeremy continues, “We sit behind the scenes and effectively watch your back. We can check your pricing for you, do specific research and provide hedging advice including coming up with initial ideas and strategies or checking the strategies you already have in place.”

World First’s Advisory Services is aimed at businesses where fluctuating exchange rates can have a material impact on profits. The service is provided completely independently from World First’s core dealing business, ensuring clients receive unbiased, objective opinions.

One World First Advisory Services client is Villa Plus, a travel company whose finance director Raj Mavani says of the service, “We have been trialling World First’s Advisory Service for the past couple of months and the service has been outstanding. We have used similar services in the past and the bespoke nature of advice on hedging that Jeremy and his team have offered is the best we have received. The information provided is first class and the hedging ideas that they have come up with take into account every facet of our business. We recommend them highly.”

ENDS

Contact

For further quotes, comment and analysis from Jeremy, please call him on: 020 7801 3023 or Wendy Casterton on: 020 7801 1060.

Jeremy Cook is fully media trained and is ready and available to provide comment and interviews across all media, print, web and broadcast.

Notes for editors:

World First Advisory Services provides clients with access to one or more of four services:

Price Check: Independently reviews the pricing a client receives from their foreign exchange provider, taking into account the transaction amount, currency pair and timeframe. Price Check also factors in any requirements for a deposit or margin.

Economic Advice and Research: Keeps clients up to date on what is going on in the markets and the likely effects on their business.

Hedging Advice: Provides clients with initial ideas and strategies to manage their foreign exchange risk. Alternatively, the suitability of structures that clients’ foreign exchange providers may be offering can be assessed.

Advisory Complete: A total package of all of the above.

About World First

World First is a currency exchange broker, serving both private and corporate clients. Set up in 2004 by directors Jonathan Quin and Nick Robinson, the company is experiencing very fast growth and now employs over 80 people in two offices (London, UK and Sydney, Australia).  It was named the 53^rd fastest growing company in the UK in the Sunday Times Fast Track 2009. It also won ‘Service Business of the Year’ at the Fast Growth Business Awards 2010. With over 20,000 private clients and 4,700 corporate clients, World First transacted over £1 billion in 2009.

World First’s corporate clients are generally import or export companies, making regular transfers. World First helps them minimise their exchange rate risk and manage their currency exposure.

Private clients largely use broker services to purchase a property abroad, usually a second home or investment or to emigrate.

World First is also now offering currency options to SMEs and private clients through World First Markets Ltd, which is authorised and regulated in the UK by the FSA. World First is the first broker to offer currency options which have, until now, been the preserve of very large corporate organisations through their banks.

World first UK Ltd is authorised and regulated by the FSA as an Authorised Payment Institution and is registered with HMRC. World First Markets Ltd is authorised and regulated by the FSA.