Many industries have been affected by the global Coronavirus pandemic, including the currency industry. To find out how COVID-19 has affected the currency industry, read on.
Services that are common amongst most Money Service Businesses, include:
- Currency exchange (where a client can trade domestic for foreign banknotes, and vice versa)
- Cheque cashing
- Payday loans
- Wire transfers
- Electronic transfers
- Bullion trading (the purchase or sale of precious metals)
- Cryptocurrency exchanges
These services have all been impacted by COVID-19, resulting in the following:
- An increased demand for precious metals. Gold and silver are attractive investments during a crisis because they are tangible resources and their value is independent of the health of the government.
- Funds in your bank account are essentially IOUs from the government. When there is a perceived threat to the reliability of the issuer (the government), there is always an increased demand in products that are independent of the government.
- Cryptocurrency has also become attractive during the pandemic. Both gold and Bitcoin showed significant growth in value over the past five months.
While the price and demand of precious metals and Cryptocurrency soared, the demand for banknotes plummeted. The demand for currency is largely tied to travel, and because most non-essential flights were grounded, so too were the requests for physical money.
What’s happening now?
Currency Converters has two distinct types of clients: Travellers who need banknotes and business owners who need wire transfers. Wire transfers are used by local businesses to pay international invoices or to receive payments from abroad. Most local businesses continue to send and receive funds at pre-COVID levels which remains a very encouraging sign of economic resiliency.
At Currency Converters, it’s been our goal to continue to service our clients safely throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. We’re happy to report that our internal processes and controls have been ramped up to ensure the safety of both our staff and clients. If you are interested in any of our services, you can get in touch with us here.
