Travel company Thomas Cook India’s game plan to set up an online foreign exchange platform is beginning to pay off. Amid the Covid-19 pandemic, the year-old FXMate has onboarded at least 800 partners since its inception in June 2020, generating over 3,000 transactions.

In a bid to expand its distribution network via a digital model, Thomas Cook India had conceptualised FXMate in early days of the lockdown in 2020.

The tool equips its B2B partners with seamless, contactless end-to-end foreign exchange solutions from the convenience of their location. FXMate’s target audience are travel agents, student counselors, wealth managers, financial consultants, insurance agents, money changers, etc.

Deepesh Varma, Sr. Vice President – Foreign Exchange, Thomas Cook (India) Limited told BusinessLine that the platform “is an initiative that is designed to offer two-pronged benefits: empower our B2B Partners with a convenient online transactional tool and ensure a seamless, contactless and safe experience for the end-customer.”

The web tool also allows players to quote live forex rates, share updates/transaction details/payment links with customers, and book transactions. FXMate works on a commission-based model.

Varma added that the company has seen a strong acceptance of the tool, “We intend to onboard a further 2000 partners this fiscal while we continue to build momentum to our digitisation plans.”

The forex business is an important unit for Thomas Cook India. For the quarter that ended on March 31, 2021, the company was able to register a good growth in revenues compared to the previous quarter mainly because of its forex business.

“The Foreign Exchange business continued to deliver QoQ with a 14 per cent revenue growth in Q4 over Q3 FY21. It displayed strong resilience since restart in April 2020, delivering over 200,000 transactions with a revenue recovery of over 37 per cent versus FY20. The prepaid card volumes for FY 21 were $109 million,” the company said.

As a part of a rejig plan, the company has decided to adopt an omni-channel way forward for its forex business. Earlier, the company mainly had offline forex booths. According to its annual report for FY20, it has a network of retail outlets at over 163 locations and 27 airport counters in India, Sri Lanka and Mauritius. However, since June 2020, its virtual branches have been operational and they delivered a turnover of ₹40 crore.

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