Currencies Direct
UK FX and international payments specialist for individuals and property buyers since 1996.
On the record
Checkpoint: First post-2022 audited results or a sale process disclosure from owners Corsair, Palamon, and Blackstone
The call
A profitable, licensed FX specialist with real distribution, but no audited numbers since 2022 and an unproven property-software pivot while Wise and Revolut push into its turf.
Currencies Direct moves money and handles foreign exchange for individuals and property companies, making strong profits (40% margins) through partnerships with investment platforms and real estate firms. It is hard to replace because it holds government licenses, has deep client relationships, and handles complex regulatory rules that take years to master. However, cheaper startups like Wise and Revolut offer simpler, faster service to regular people, which is squeezing Currencies Direct's prices, and the company's recent focus on property software (through a rebrand called Redpin) is unproven and distracts from its core business. The biggest change would come if Redpin's property software actually succeeds in creating a new business line, though the lack of public financial updates since early 2022 makes it hard to tell if that is actually happening.
Why
01
AI pressure: Wise and Revolut AI-driven rate quoting and KYC automation. AI lets rivals automate KYC and quote thin margins instantly, squeezing the manual, relationship-based FX model this firm runs on. Could AI do the core job? Unlikely.
02
Bigger players: Wise and Revolut. Both keep drifting upmarket into higher-value transfers and property-linked payments, the exact niche this firm depends on. Could a giant copy it? Probably.
03
What protects it. UK/EU payment licenses, 15,000 property partner referrals, and Hargreaves Lansdown distribution that a pure app cannot replicate overnight.
What would change this call
Currencies Direct or Redpin publishes audited 2023-2026 revenue/EBITDA figures. Would show whether core FX growth has stalled since the Jan 2022 £105M/£43M mark.
Wise or Revolut launches a dedicated property/high-value transfer tier. Would show mass-market rivals directly targeting Currencies Direct's defensible niche.
Sale, refinancing, or IPO announcement involving Currencies Direct or Redpin. Would confirm PE owners are executing an exit after 11 years of ownership.
Wise or Revolut launches a dedicated property/high-value transfer tier. Would show mass-market rivals directly targeting Currencies Direct's defensible niche.
Sale, refinancing, or IPO announcement involving Currencies Direct or Redpin. Would confirm PE owners are executing an exit after 11 years of ownership.
Key numbers
- Revenue £105M, EBITDA £43M
- £165M dividend recap in 2021
- £140M Blackstone investment
Named risks
- No independently audited revenue or EBITDA figures published since January 2022.
- AI-enabled social-engineering fraud exploiting phone-based verification, as shown in Feb 2024 Ombudsman case.
- Unproven Redpin pivot to property-vertical embedded software could stall or dilute core FX brand.
- Margin compression from Wise and Revolut moving upmarket into high-value transfers.
- Mature PE asset in year 11 of ownership with no fresh capital since 2022, raising exit/recap uncertainty.
Rivals, as read in July 2026
| Rival | Direction | Evidence |
|---|---|---|
| Wise | gaining on | Wise Business drifting upmarket into large-transfer segment, per Wise's own 2026-01-20 blog post |
| Revolut | gaining on | Mass-market app expanding features that compress spread-based margins industry-wide |
| Traditional banks (HSBC, Barclays, Citi) | contesting | Five banks fined £1.1bn/$1.7bn by FCA in 2014 for G10 FX benchmark manipulation, still dominate wholesale FX |
| World First (Ant Group) | contesting | Direct specialist competitor in SME/retail FX transfers as of 2026 |
| Ebury and Moneycorp | contesting | Overlapping SME and private-client FX transfer offerings as of 2026 |
Questions people ask
- Is Currencies Direct profitable?
- Yes. For the 12 months to January 2022, Currencies Direct reported £105M revenue and £43M EBITDA, a roughly 41% margin, per Blackstone's 2022 investment announcement. No independently audited figures have been published since, so current profitability is unverified but the historical trend was strongly profitable.
- Who owns Currencies Direct?
- Currencies Direct is privately owned by a PE consortium: Corsair Capital and Palamon Capital Partners acquired it in a deal valued above £200M completed end of 2015, and Blackstone Tactical Opportunities added a £140M strategic investment in March 2022. Since November 2023 the group operates under parent entity Redpin Holdings Limited.
- Could AI replace Currencies Direct?
- Not fully. Money movement requires FCA, EU, and FinCEN/state licensing that an AI model cannot obtain, protecting the core transfer business. However, a February 2024 Financial Ombudsman case (DRN-5617248) shows its phone-based fraud verification was still manual, exposing it to AI-driven social-engineering scams that could erode this workflow.
- Who is Currencies Direct's biggest competitor?
- In mass-market retail, Wise and Revolut are drifting upmarket and compressing spreads; in wholesale FX, traditional banks like HSBC, Barclays, and Citi dominate, though five banks were fined £1.1bn by the FCA in 2014 for FX benchmark manipulation. Specialist rivals include World First (owned by Ant Group), Ebury, and Moneycorp.
- What is Redpin and how does it relate to Currencies Direct?
- Redpin is the parent group formed when Currencies Direct relaunched in November 2023 under new Group CEO Arnaud Loiseau, pivoting strategy toward embedded payments and software for the global property market. Currencies Direct and TorFX remain the group's consumer-facing brands, per Palamon's November 17, 2023 announcement.
Timeline
- 2026-02-26Redpin LinkedIn page shows approximately 681-684 employees
- 2025-08Financial Ombudsman issues provisional decision on 2024 email fraud case DRN-5617248
- 2025-04-16Currencies Direct expands licensed service to all 50 US states
- 2023-11-17Currencies Direct relaunches as Redpin; Arnaud Loiseau named Group CEO
- 2022-03Blackstone Tactical Opportunities makes £140M strategic investment
- 2021-03-19Company completes £165M dividend recapitalisation backed by CVC Credit and Alcentra
- 2015-12Corsair Capital and Palamon Capital Partners complete acquisition, deal valued above £200M
- 2015-08-11Corsair Capital and Palamon Capital Partners announce acquisition of Currencies Direct
Revision history
21 July 2026
First assessed. Defensible for now. The text above is fixed as of this date and is not edited afterwards.
In the same band
Sources
- About Currencies Direct
- Currencies Direct Completes £165 Million Dividend Recapitalisation (2025-01-21)
- Currencies Direct Announces £140 Million Strategic Investment from Blackstone (2024-08-04)
- Corsair Capital and Palamon Capital Partners to acquire Currencies Direct (2015-08-11)
- Currencies Direct relaunches as Redpin (2023-11-17)
- Redpin launches following £140m backing from Blackstone (2023-11-15)
- About Us
- Currencies Direct Review, Is it Safe and Legit? (2025-09-17)
- Market-leading currency services for US customers (2025-07-15)
- LinkedIn (2026-02-26)
- Products, Competitors, Financials, Employees, Headquarters Locations (2025-07-06)
- Simple International Transfers