The CEO of e-banking and international payments group FairFX has hailed a “ground-breaking year” as the business enjoyed its first full year of profitability.
The London-headquartered company posted group turnover of more than £1.1m for the year to 31 December 2017, an increase of 41 per cent from £800m a year earlier.
Revenue for the year soared by 52 per cent from £10.2m to £15.5m.
FairFX also recovered from an adjusted pre-tax loss of £1.6m in 2016 and reported a profit of £900,000.
The firm’s highlights for the 12-month period included winning over 73,000 new customers and acquiring Q Money and its associated e-money licence.
“2017 has been a ground-breaking year for the group in terms of growth and expansion of operations,” said chief executive Ian Strafford-Taylor.
“The group has reported its maiden full year profit as a public company and completed over £1bn of transaction volume for the first time.
“The strategic acquisitions of Q Money Limited and CardOne Banking have been key to evolving the business and enabling FairFX to move further into the digital banking sector.
“2018 will see the group continue to develop new products, with a particular focus on the SME banking space, and cross sell its existing services.”
FairFX also provided a trading update in the first quarter of 2018. The highlights include growing group turnover to £439.5m and acquiring international payments business City Forex for £6m.
Strafford-Taylor said the acquisition fits with the company’s strategy to both scale the business and increase control over the supply chain to improve margins.
He said: “In addition, the group has a pipeline of development for 2018 to further boost revenue and operational efficiency and consequently, the Board is confident that the outlook for the full year remains in line with market expectations.”