Broadening global reach with SWIFT and multi-currency improvements

How businesses can send, receive, and hold funds more flexibly through Fire’s enhanced international payments solutions.

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Supporting global businesses with international payments solutions

With global supply chains and international customer bases now the norm for many businesses, the need for flexible, scalable payment infrastructure is essential to the smooth running of the global economy. Yet, international business payments remain a complex and often costly challenge for businesses of all sizes. From currency limitations imposed by sending or receiving parties to slow and expensive settlement processes, it’s clear that more needs to be done to support greater cross-border payment flexibility, particularly by streamlining transaction processing time, reducing fees, and improving transparency across jurisdictions.

At Fire, we’re working to make international payment solutions more accessible for all our customers. We offer flexible options for outbound payments, access to euro and sterling accounts with instant FX capabilities, and the ability to receive payments in 31 currencies from more than 180+ countries and territories via SWIFT.

In this article we explain what SWIFT is, why it matters, and what it means for our business customers.

How SWIFT works and why it matters for payments

International payments rely on a global network to ensure they are secure, traceable, and efficient. That network is SWIFT, the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication, and it is at the core of modern international payments solutions.

SWIFT is a communications network used by financial institutions around the world. While SWIFT itself doesn’t move money, it sends the secure, standardised messages that instruct financial institutions to transfer funds between accounts. It’s important to note that SWIFT is not a payment system like SEPA or Faster Payments, but a secure messaging system.

For example, when a business sends an international payment, their financial institution uses SWIFT to instruct the recipient bank where the funds should go and in what currency. Once the message is received and verified, the funds move along a chain of correspondent banks (intermediary institutions that hold accounts with one another), until they reach the recipient bank, which then credits the payment to the beneficiary’s account.

In essence, SWIFT ensures that when money needs to move across borders, the sending and receiving banks are speaking the same language.

Delivering multi-currency capabilities for business customers

Multi-currency capabilities are a key focus for Fire as we continue to grow our product offering. We group these capabilities into three core pillars: receiving, holding, and sending funds.

‘Receive’: introducing SWIFT receipt of incoming international payments

Every business needs to get paid. Until now, Fire customers have been able to receive payments in euro and sterling through the local clearing systems of SEPA and Faster Payments, respectively.

The ability to receive payments from cross-border jurisdictions has been a key feature requested by our customers, and we’re pleased to have brought this product to market. With this solution, Fire business customers can provide their clients or creditors with SWIFT-addressable account details to receive international payments from more than 180 countries and territories worldwide, in addition to payments via the local clearing systems in the EEA and the UK.

Default accounts play an important role in how Fire handles international payments. Depending on whether a customer is an EU or a UK customer, the default accounts refer to the first euro or sterling accounts created during onboarding. When an international payment is received, Fire uses these default accounts to ensure smooth processing.

• Payment to customers of Fire’s EU entity are credited to the customer’s default euro account.

• Payment to customers of Fire’s UK entity are credited to the customer’s default sterling account.

This setup eliminates the need to manually assign incoming payments to specific accounts, as everything is automatically routed based on the payment currency, reducing the administrative burden on customers.

For customers managing multiple sub-accounts, it is important to note that only the first euro and sterling accounts, known as the default accounts, will receive international payments.

‘Hold’: instant access to euro and sterling accounts

Currently, Fire customers can hold funds in both euro and sterling. With a Fire account, customers can instantly convert funds between these two currencies 24/7. Unlike traditional FX providers and high street banks, Fire uses the live market rate and does not add a margin to the conversion rate during weekday trading hours. All our FX-related fees are designed to be highly transparent, giving customers cost certainty and confidence in using Fire for their payment processing needs.

Access to both euro and sterling accounts allows Fire customers to trade across the EU and UK with ease. It also gives businesses the flexibility to choose which currency to hold their funds in, helping to manage currency fluctuation risk and reduce exposure to volatility.

‘Send’: enabling cross-border payouts

Alongside the local clearing systems of SEPA and Faster Payments, Fire’s multi-currency payout solution enables business customers to make payments through 14 local payment rails. This gives businesses the ability to pay staff, suppliers and partners in other countries and jurisdictions as if they were based in the same country. By using local payment rails, businesses can reduce payment processing costs and avoid the higher fees typically associated with international payment methods such as SWIFT.

Multi-currency flexibility and future expansion

At Fire, our goal is to provide business customers with the digital payment solutions they need to build flexible, secure and scalable payment processes. Through our current programme of work – which complements our existing payment infrastructure and introduces enhanced multi-currency business accounts – we are continuously developing new, practical and relevant features that support real business needs.

As we expand our receiving, holding and sending capabilities, customers can expect even greater flexibility: the ability to hold funds in more currencies, automate FX conversions through the Fire Payments API and access deeper international treasury management features. All of this forms part of Fire’s commitment to delivering robust international payments solutions as the payments ecosystem continues to evolve.

Benefits of Fire’s multi-currency programme and international payments solutions

To sum up, as Fire progresses through its multi-currency programme of work, business customers will benefit from increased global reach for both sending and receiving payments. This reduces the need to route payments through third parties or rely on multiple providers to meet international payment needs.

At Fire, we are committed to being a secure, reliable and trusted partner for international businesses. We continuously invest in our suite of payment products and API to ensure that businesses can scale with confidence, supported by comprehensive international payments solutions that help them reach global markets.

Interested in simplifying your international payments and gaining more multi-currency flexibility?

Contact sales@fire.com to learn how Fire can help your business send, receive and manage global payments more efficiently.