Our Clients and Case studies
Halo Financial works hard with every client to ensure they find the best and most appropriate currency solution, delivering award-winning customer service and competitive rates. This gives our clients peace of mind and the ability to focus on other parts of the business, knowing that their currency requirements are in good hands. Don’t just take our word for it – find out how we helped these companies with strategic currency services and a trusted, one-to-one relationship.
UK Trade Association
Company overview:
The client is a trade association and as part of its work, they attend events across the world with member organisations, helping to promote and support the UK entertainment industry globally.
Working with Halo Financial
When attending events such as the Game Development Conference (GDC) in the past, the trade association had conducted their own transfers, however they had found the associated time and costs of doing it themselves to be a major downfall. The client already had an existing relationship with Halo Financial, and felt that Halo would be the ideal company to help them with their exchange requirements. Over a ten month period, Halo Financial undertook several transactions totalling more than $160,000.
Events manager Alexa found the process of working with Halo Financial very easy, as she explains:
“I’m not a financially minded person, but the team took the time to talk me through all my options to ensure everything was explained perfectly. This made a big difference to my understanding; if I did have a question on anything, I could quite easily ask them. Now being in the position to have one point of contact for all transactions makes the day-to-day process a lot easier.”
The high-level of customer service offered by Halo Financial has made the administration of the transactions far easier, as Alexa noted:
“Halo are brilliant because they always respond when you need them to; they’re always there when we call and the transfers happen very quickly. On top of this, they work hard to ensure there is good back up paperwork of everything they have done, statements of accounts and other documents etc. This means it’s a very hassle free service.”
The benefits of using Halo
When previously completing transfers themselves, the client had faced problems trying to keep up with the ever-fluctuating exchange rate, which served as another reason why they sought the assistance of Halo. Alexa explains: “Working with Halo has meant that we were able to hold and fix a rate for a certain amount of money, which you can argue is necessary if you’re running a budget of well over $100,000!”
Halo Financial were able to lock in a desired rate for their client, ensuring they would not fall foul of a massive change in the exchange rate which could result in them losing thousands of Pounds or Dollars, and negatively impacting on the smaller companies at the event. Alexa continues:” To always know the exchange rate, thanks to the team’s expertise means we can feel secure in our spending as nothing is going to change or fluctuate dramatically; this has been one of our biggest benefits.”
An ongoing relationship
Thanks to the ease of working with Halo and the associated cost-benefits, the client will be using the services of Halo for return visits to the US for any other events that would be applicable for this service. Alexa concludes:
“We’ve been extremely happy with the level of service from Halo Financial and certainly look forward to continuing to work with them; we wouldn’t hesitate to recommend them to others in a similar position.”
Safety and lighting company – currency hedging strategy
Company overview:
The client is a manufacturer and distributor of security, safety, fire protection, home automation and lighting products with 600 staff and an annual foreign exchange exposure of circa £12 million. Products are manufactured in China and distributed throughout the UK and Europe.
Specific challenge:
- Chinese production costs in US dollars, profit taken in the UK
- Complex international payments structure: high volumes and frequency
- Client was paying invoices when they were due and had not hedged
- EU referendum created an uncertain political and economic landscape with the value of Sterling falling
Halo Financial provided an external treasury service that:
- Audited previous FX transactions to identify improvements and target savings
- Identified event risks and devised a strategy to target specific rates using a mixture of stop and limit orders
- Put in place a strip of forwards to cover the majority of the FX risk.
Value delivered:
- The approximate saving in 2016 was circa £350,000 (2.9%)
- The client continues to have forward protection above US$1.40.
- The client is utilising these forward contracts and gaining market share by providing better pricing than competitors based on the cost savings.
Food and drink company
Company overview:
Health food company with 25-year FMCG heritage, partnering with over 20 of the largest UK retail outlets.
The challenge:
- Key brands in three high-growth sectors – company needs to remain competitive
- Demand increasing in receptive market – MD doesn’t want to raise prices
- Significant currency exposure to the business from importing goods from Belgium
Financial approach:
- Halo works with the company to provide a personal and collaborative service, building the strategy aligned with the company’s vision, values and business objectives.
- Strategic guidance, a tailored hedging strategy and currency execution.
- Identifying opportunities in the currency markets when rates are favourable and to protect against risk from sharp adverse movements.
Value delivered:
- The company has doubled their volumes year-on-year and expect to increase revenues further in 2018.
- The hedging facility provides security and protects payments at timescales that suit the needs of the business.
- The level of personal service received from their dedicated, MSTA-qualified Halo Currency Consultant has built a long-term, trusting relationship over the past five years. Halo’s Head of Corporate Dealing updates the company personally whenever markets are moving and there could be potential implications for the business’s bottom line.
The company’s MD commented, “The strategic approach and hedging facility via our personal currency specialist has made a significant difference to our business and we believe genuinely differentiates Halo Financial from their competitors. We trust their guidance, which has been spot on every time we have worked together.”
Toy Manufacturer
‘We’re an international company that specialises in designing, developing and manufacturing toys. That means we have to make a lot of international payments, across a range of different countries. We use Halo Financial to manage our currency transfers – in these uncertain times, it really pays to understand the currency markets and how they affect our bottom line. Every stage of our business can be affected by currencies constantly moving up and down – and it also has a big effect on the companies we work with in the supply chain. Our currency consultant guided us through how the currency markets are moving and how it affects our business.’
– CEO, International toy manufacturer
Director, British and Irish Chamber of Commerce, London
Background
Our client came across Halo Financial through its membership of the British and Irish Chamber of Commerce. Having previously lived in Ireland, he was planning to buy a property in the UK, transferring money from Irish savings accounts to cover the cost. In total, our client wanted to exchange 65,000 Euros into Sterling
Customer experience
Before the transfer took place, he arranged for the funds to be made available from his various savings accounts and then subsequently close the accounts. During this time, Halo kept in touch on a daily basis to inform our client on the way the markets were moving and provided insight into the rate he would likely receive.
The benefits of using Halo
“Using Halo to exchange and transfer my money meant I was around £1000 better off. The whole process was completely transparent, I was updated regularly on the markets in the lead up and therefore, I knew exactly what I was getting. When I have dealt with banks previously, I didn’t feel as well informed and had no idea if I was getting a good deal or not.”
As well as saving him money, our client was also very satisfied with the level of customer service he received from the team at Halo.
“The service I received was extremely personable; I was dealing with people that understood my requirements rather than anonymous call centre agents.”
“I wouldn’t hesitate in recommending Halo to anyone who is looking to move money.”
UK based Accountancy Practice
Company overview
A firm of accountants who, as well as providing the traditional range of services expected of an accountancy practice, provide a complete accountancy package to several firms whereby they effectively become their Accounts department.
This is a similar process to when the Halo Financial team plays the part of an external treasury service, when companies do not have their own dedicated in-house treasury department, so straightaway, we could see that the relationship was a good fit.
One of the clients that the accountants offer this service to is a rapidly expanding chain of retail shops, whose products are supplied from Denmark, necessitating foreign currency payments in Danish Krone twice monthly.
The accountancy firm had been using the bank’s foreign currency payment system to make the payments from Sterling into Danish Krone and vice versa, but after reading an article on Halo Financial in the magazine of the company’s trade body, decided to give Halo a try.
Client Experience
Once the firm had cleared Money Laundering Regulations, they made their first foreign currency payment through Halo Financial. The practice’s lead Partner commented, “This experience completely matched expectations in both the ease of operation and the speed of service, and also the favourable rate of exchange we obtained.”
Benefits of using Halo Financial
“The Sterling equivalent of the transfer we made was 1.54% less than it would have been using the bank’s quoted price. Since then we have made many such transactions, with cost savings of around 1.5% on the amounts transferred, and the service we have received has always been first class.”
He continued, “Halo are also proactive in that they contact us if they feel that the current exchange rate is particularly favourable, so that we can, if we wish, arrange for the payments we are going to make later in the month to be made at the rate applying now.”
Recommendations
“If asked “would you recommend Halo?” then the answer would be unquestionably – yes.”
Reviews
Hundreds of reviews showing Halo’s excellent customer service.
We received the Platinum Trusted Service Award – having achieved excellent customer satisfaction for 6 years in a row.
Request a call back
We take the security and accuracy of your data very seriously and you can unsubscribe at any time. View our Privacy Policy