Orbis Exchange Group partners with TaxConnex to support international businesses expanding into the US
Global payments and treasury specialist joins forces with US sales tax experts to help international businesses manage the financial and compliance challenges associated with entering and growing across the United States.
9 September 2026: Orbis Exchange Group, the global payments and treasury partner with offices in London, Dubai and Los Angeles, has agreed a strategic partnership with TaxConnex, a specialist provider of US sales and use tax compliance services.
The partnership will create a trusted route between both organisations, giving international businesses access to a tailored support system and specialist expertise that can adapt to their needs as they grow.
The challenges of expanding into the US
The United States presents significant opportunities for international businesses, but it also introduces financial and regulatory considerations that can be unfamiliar to companies entering the market for the first time.
Businesses may need to receive revenue from US customers, convert dollars into their home currency, pay international suppliers and employees, and manage the effect that exchange-rate movements can have on margins and cash flow.
At the same time, selling across different US states can create sales tax obligations that differ considerably from the VAT systems used in the UK and many other international markets.
Sales tax requirements are generally determined at state and local level. Depending on where and how a business sells, it may need to assess its economic nexus, determine whether its products or services are taxable, register in relevant states, calculate the correct tax, and manage ongoing filings and remittances.
These responsibilities can arise even when an international business does not have a physical office or employees in the US.
The result is that international growth can create two connected challenges: establishing the right infrastructure to move and manage money efficiently, and understanding the compliance obligations created by selling into new markets.
Bringing together complementary expertise
Orbis supports businesses with cross-border payments, international collections, named currency accounts and foreign exchange risk management.
Rather than approaching each international payment as an isolated transaction, Orbis works with businesses to understand their wider currency requirements, payment routes, commercial timelines and exposure to market movements.
TaxConnex supports international businesses in understanding and managing their US sales tax responsibilities. Its services include nexus and taxability reviews, registrations, sales tax calculations, managed filing and remittance, and ongoing advisory support.
By bringing these capabilities together, the partnership can help businesses put the appropriate financial and compliance foundations in place as they enter or expand across the US.
What the partnership means for clients
Orbis clients with existing or planned US operations will be able to access specialist support from TaxConnex when sales tax obligations, registrations or ongoing compliance require attention.
TaxConnex clients with international payment, collection or foreign exchange requirements will be able to access Orbis for support with the movement and management of money across borders.
The partnership is designed to provide businesses with:
Access to specialist US sales tax expertise
International named accounts to make receiving overseas revenue quicker and easier
Efficient cross-border payment solutions
Support managing exposure to changing exchange rates
Greater visibility over incoming and outgoing international payments
A coordinated route to relevant expertise as their international requirements evolve
Each organisation will remain responsible for its own specialist area. Orbis does not provide tax advice, and TaxConnex does not provide foreign exchange or payment services.
Supporting businesses throughout their international journey
The partnership reflects Orbis Exchange Group’s wider commitment to building a carefully selected network of specialist partners around the needs of internationally active businesses.
Entering a new market rarely creates just one isolated requirement. A company expanding into the US may simultaneously need to reconsider how it collects revenue, converts currency, pays suppliers, protects its margins and complies with unfamiliar tax obligations.
Having trusted specialists who understand where their respective services connect can make that process considerably easier.
Through the partnership, Orbis and TaxConnex aim to give businesses access to the right support at the right stage of their growth, without expecting internal finance teams to manage every specialist requirement alone.
Comment
“Expanding into the US can be a major opportunity for an international business, but it also creates a new set of financial and operational challenges. Our role is to ensure businesses have the right payment, account and currency-risk structure to support that growth.
“TaxConnex brings specialist expertise to an area that can be particularly difficult for international businesses to navigate. This partnership gives our clients access to a more complete support system as they establish themselves and grow across the US.”
Robert McClelland, Account Director, Orbis Exchange Group
“International businesses entering the US often discover that sales tax is very different from the VAT or GST systems they are familiar with. Obligations can vary between states and become increasingly complex without the right preemptive measures in place
“By partnering with Orbis, we can help businesses address both the sales tax responsibilities and the international financial requirements associated with operating in the US.”
TaxConnex spokesperson
About Orbis Exchange Group
Orbis Exchange Group is a global payments and treasury partner with offices in London, Dubai and Los Angeles.
The firm supports businesses with cross-border payments, international collections, named multi-currency accounts, foreign exchange risk management and lending solutions. Services are delivered through a panel of established banking, fintech and payment partners, supported by dedicated account management and a platform providing visibility over transfers and incoming payments.
Visit orbis-exchange.co.uk to learn more.
About TaxConnex
TaxConnex is a specialist provider of US sales and use tax compliance services for growing businesses.
The company combines experienced tax practitioners with proprietary technology to provide sales tax advisory services, nexus and taxability reviews, registrations, tax calculation solutions, managed filing and remittance, and exemption certificate management.
TaxConnex also works US and international businesses selling into the US, helping them understand and manage obligations across different states.
Visit taxconnex.com to learn more.
Connect on LinkedIn - Taxconnex
John Haggerty John P Haggerty
Brian Greer Brian Greer
Orbis Exchange Group and Frater Property Partners to Support Sports Professionals with International Payments and UK Property Investment
London, UK — 8th September 2026
Orbis Exchange Group has announced a strategic partnership with Frater Property Partners, creating a more connected route for sports professionals, investors and internationally mobile clients seeking support with UK property investment, international payments and foreign exchange.
The partnership brings together Frater Property Partners’ property investment expertise with Orbis’ international payments, foreign-exchange risk management, multi-currency banking and funding network.
For clients buying, selling or investing across borders, the property decision and the movement of money are often inseparable. Through the partnership, Frater clients with international payment, currency or funding requirements can be introduced to Orbis, while Orbis clients seeking specialist UK property investment support can be connected to Frater.
Clients can learn more about Orbis Exchange Group’s international payments and foreign-exchange services at orbis-exchange.com and Frater Property Partners’ UK property investment services at fraterpropertypartners.com.
William Fuller, Sales Director at Orbis Exchange Group, said:
“Property is often one of the biggest financial decisions a sports professional, investor or internationally mobile client will make. It is important that the right people are involved early — not only to identify the right opportunity, but to structure the payment, currency and funding side properly too.”
“James and the Frater team have built a strong proposition around making UK property investment more accessible and hands-off for their clients. Our role is complementary: helping where international money movement, currency exposure, banking or wider financial infrastructure becomes relevant.”
James Cohen, Managing Director at Frater Property Partners, said:
“Our focus has always been on putting investors first and helping them access high-quality property opportunities with a clear, transparent and hands-off approach.”
“Partnering with Orbis gives our clients access to a trusted specialist where their circumstances involve overseas income, international transfers, currency requirements or wider funding needs. It is about ensuring clients have the right support around the full decision, not just the property itself.”
The firms will work together on appropriate reciprocal introductions, educational content and relevant events, while each remains responsible for the specialist advice and services within its own area of expertise.
About Orbis Exchange Group
Orbis Exchange Group supports businesses, investors and private clients with international payments, multi-currency collections, foreign-exchange risk management, banking solutions and access to a trusted
funding network. Its role is to help clients move money efficiently, manage currency exposure and access the right specialist support around complex financial decisions. Learn more at orbis-exchange.com
About Frater Property Partners
Frater Property Partners is a property investment business providing access to UK buy-to-let investment opportunities. Its hands-off investment model supports clients from sourcing and acquisition through to management, with a focus on high-growth locations, transparency and long-term investment objectives. Learn more at fraterpropertypartners.com
Media contacts
Orbis Exchange Group William Fuller, Sales Director williamfuller@orbis-exchange.co.uk | 0203 918 5622
Frater Property Partners James Cohen, Managing Director james@fraterpropertypartners.com | 0161 5330 441
The Client Conversation You're Not Having: FX Referral Partnerships for Accountants and Advisers
If you advise businesses that trade internationally, some of your clients are losing five figures a year on currency conversion and have no idea it's happening.
It doesn't appear in their management accounts as a cost. There's no invoice, no fee line, no supplier to query. It's embedded in an exchange rate that looked perfectly reasonable on the day.
You're one of the few people positioned to spot it — and, if you want to, to build a recurring revenue line from solving it.
Why you can see it and they can't
The cost of currency conversion is a spread: the difference between the rate a client receives and the rate available in the wholesale market. Because it's built into the rate rather than charged as a fee, it never surfaces anywhere a business owner would naturally look.
But you look at things they don't.
An accountant reviewing a P&L sees foreign supplier payments and unexplained margin variance. A corporate finance adviser modelling a cross-border deal sees conversion at completion. A commercial broker arranging funding for an importer sees the currency exposure sitting behind the facility. A management consultant working on international expansion sees payroll, entity structure and repatriation.
Each of those is an FX conversation. Very few advisers have it, because it isn't their specialism and there's no obvious next step to offer.
That's exactly what a referral partnership provides.
How it works in practice
The mechanics are simple, and they're broadly consistent across the market:
You register as a partner. Paperwork, an introducer agreement, agreed commission terms.
You introduce a client with currency requirements. Usually a warm introduction rather than a handover — you stay in the conversation.
The FX provider does the work. Onboarding, compliance, exposure review, execution, ongoing management.
You receive a share of the revenue generated on that client's transactions — typically for the life of the relationship, not just the first trade.
That last point is what makes referral arrangements meaningfully different from one-off introduction fees. A client trading regularly generates revenue every month. A partner introducing a handful of active trading clients can build a genuinely material recurring income line without carrying any delivery obligation.
What it's worth
Commission is generally structured as a percentage of the revenue earned on the client's transactions, so the value depends entirely on how much and how often the client trades.
A rough sense of scale: a client converting £2m a year at a competitive spread generates a level of annual revenue that, shared, becomes a meaningful ongoing figure for the introducer — and repeats for as long as the client trades. Three or four such clients change the arithmetic of a practice's non-billable income.
Specific rates vary by provider, volume and structure, and any provider should be willing to model it transparently against your actual client base before you sign anything.
The part most people get wrong
Here's the risk, stated plainly: a bad referral costs you more than a good one earns you.
You are lending your credibility. If the client is passed to a call centre, chased for volume they don't have, quietly repriced after three months, or sold a hedging structure that doesn't suit their exposure, that damage attaches to you — not to the provider.
So the diligence matters more than the commission rate. Before partnering with anyone, establish:
Regulatory standing. Are they authorised or registered with the FCA, and in what capacity? Check the FCA Register directly rather than taking a logo on a website at face value. Ask how client funds are safeguarded and with which institutions.
Pricing integrity. Will they state the spread as a number? Does the pricing hold, or does it widen after onboarding once the client has stopped comparing? Ask them directly what happens to a client's pricing at month six. Their willingness to answer is informative.
Advisory depth. Does the first conversation with your client start with "what rate are you getting?" or with "how does currency affect your business?" A provider that leads with price will compete on price, lose on price, and add nothing your client couldn't get from a comparison site.
Suitability discipline. Forwards and options create obligations and costs. Any provider recommending them without first mapping the client's actual exposure is selling product, not giving advice. Ask to see how they conduct a discovery conversation.
Communication. Will you be kept informed? Will you know if your client has a problem before your client tells you they have one?
Where the fit is strongest
Referral partnerships work best where the adviser already has visibility of the client's international activity:
Accountants and tax advisers — foreign supplier payments, overseas subsidiaries, translation exposure at year end
Corporate finance and M&A advisers — cross-border consideration, completion timing, deferred payments
Commercial finance brokers — importers needing both funding and currency cover
Business setup and immigration consultancies — clients relocating capital across jurisdictions
Property and relocation specialists — overseas purchases with completion dates months out
Trade bodies and membership organisations — a member benefit that costs nothing to provide
The common thread is that the client already has the requirement. Nobody is being sold something they don't need. The introduction simply connects an existing problem to someone who handles it properly.
A reasonable way to test it
If you're considering this, don't start with a contract. Start with one client.
Pick a client you know trades internationally, ask the provider to review that client's current arrangements, and watch how they handle it. You'll learn more from one conversation about whether they're safe to introduce than from any partnership deck.
If it goes well, you have a template. If it doesn't, you've lost nothing but an hour — and you've protected a relationship that took years to build.
How to Build an FX Hedging Policy: A Framework for Finance Directors
Most mid-sized businesses hedge currency risk the same way: someone in finance notices a payment is due, checks whether the rate looks "alright", and either books it or waits a few days.
That isn't a strategy. It's a series of unconnected decisions made under time pressure by someone whose actual job is something else.
A written FX policy fixes that. It doesn't need to be long — three pages is plenty for most businesses — and it doesn't need a treasury team to maintain. What it needs is answers to six questions.
Step 1: Map the exposure
You cannot manage what you haven't measured, and most businesses have never written their exposure down in one place.
Build a simple twelve-month grid: currency across the top, months down the side. Then populate it with:
Committed outflows — signed contracts, confirmed POs, agreed supplier payments
Committed inflows — invoices raised in foreign currency, contracted receipts
Forecast flows — expected but not yet contracted, with a confidence percentage attached
Balance sheet items — foreign currency bank balances, intercompany loans, overseas subsidiary values
Two things usually emerge from this exercise, and both surprise people.
First, gross exposure is almost always larger than anyone estimated. Second, net exposure is often meaningfully smaller than gross, because inflows and outflows in the same currency partially cancel each other out.
A business paying €3m to European suppliers and receiving €1.2m from European customers has €1.8m of genuine exposure, not €3m. Hedging the gross figure means paying to manage risk that doesn't exist.
That offsetting is called a natural hedge. It's free, and it's the first thing to look for.
Step 2: Define the risk in business terms
"The euro might move" isn't a risk statement anyone can act on. Convert it into something the board recognises.
Three measures do the job:
Value at Risk (VaR) — the maximum loss you'd expect from currency movement over a given period, at a given confidence level. Useful for framing worst-case scenarios.
Cash Flow at Risk (CFaR) — how much your forecast cash flow could vary because of exchange rates. Useful when covenant headroom or working capital is tight.
Earnings at Risk (EaR) — how much net profit could move. This is the one that gets attention in a board meeting.
You don't need modelling software. A workable approximation: take your net annual exposure, apply a realistic adverse move (GBP/EUR and GBP/USD have both seen 8–10% swings within a single year on more than one occasion in the last decade), and express the result as a percentage of forecast operating profit.
If a plausible currency move wipes out 20% of your profit, you have a board-level issue, not a payments issue. That single sentence is usually what turns FX from an administrative task into a strategic one.
Step 3: Set the hedge ratio
This is the core of the policy: how much of the exposure you cover, and when.
A layered structure works for most businesses:
0–3 months
Hedge ratio: 90–100%
Rationale: Committed, high certainty, no time to recover from a move
3–6 months
Hedge ratio: 60–80%
Rationale: Mostly committed, forecasts firming
6–12 months
Hedge ratio: 30–50%
Rationale: Forecast-driven, retains flexibility
12 months+
Hedge ratio: 0–25%
Rationale: Strategic only, if visibility genuinely supports it
Adjust for your own circumstances. Businesses with thin margins, fixed-price contracts or covenant pressure hedge more. Businesses that can reprice quickly, or whose customers absorb currency movement, can hedge less.
The critical discipline is that the ratio is decided in advance, in writing, when nobody is under pressure — not in the moment, when the rate has just moved and someone is tempted to wait.
Step 4: Choose the instruments
The policy should state which tools are permitted and who can authorise them.
Forward contracts — for committed exposure. Fix the rate, obligation to settle.
Vanilla options — for probable but uncertain exposure (tenders, pipeline, conditional deals). Premium paid, full downside protection, upside retained.
Limit orders — to target a better rate on flexible timing, with no obligation.
Stop-loss orders — to cap the damage on unhedged exposure while leaving upside open.
Collection accounts and currency accounts — to hold foreign currency and match inflows against outflows rather than converting twice.
Many policies also state what is not permitted, and this matters more than it sounds.
If the policy says "hedging instruments may only be used against identified underlying exposure, and speculative positions are prohibited," you have removed an entire category of risk with one sentence.
Step 5: Assign authority and controls
Short section, high value:
Who can execute trades, and to what value
Who must approve above that threshold
Dual authorisation requirements for payments
Which counterparties are approved, and their regulatory status
Standing rule on callback verification for any change to beneficiary bank details
That last one isn't strictly an FX control, but invoice redirection fraud targets international payments specifically, and the policy document is the right place for it.
Step 6: Set the review cycle
Policies rot. Build in:
Monthly — update the exposure map with actuals and revised forecasts
Quarterly — review hedge ratios against policy, report mark-to-market position
Annually — reassess the policy itself against how the business has changed
The reporting matters as much as the hedging. A finance director who can show the board a hedged rate, a budget rate and the variance between them has converted an unmanaged risk into a managed number.
What good looks like
A business operating to a policy can do things an unhedged competitor can't:
Quote fixed prices in a customer's currency with confidence
Tender for longer contracts without pricing in a currency buffer
Forecast cash flow accurately enough to plan investment
Explain margin variance to a board or lender without pointing at the exchange rate
Stop treating every payment as a decision
None of that comes from getting a better rate. It comes from removing uncertainty from a part of the business that was quietly generating it.
The uncomfortable question
If you don't have a written policy, your business still has an FX strategy. It's just an implicit one: hedge nothing, convert when payments are due, accept whatever the market gives you.
That's a legitimate choice for some businesses. It's only a problem when nobody has actually chosen it.
Businesses Don’t Need Another FX Broker
There are thousands of FX brokers, and Orbis is not interested in becoming simply another one.
The traditional model is pretty straightforward. Call a client, ask if they need euros or dollars, give them a rate, book the trade, then call them again next week.
There’s obviously a place for execution. But Orbis believes SMEs should expect more than that now.
Understanding why the currency is being bought
If a business needs to buy €250,000, Orbis can provide an exchange rate. But that alone doesn’t reveal very much.
Orbis would rather understand: What’s the €250,000 for? When was the supplier price agreed? When does it need paying? Is this happening every month? What’s the annual exposure? What’s the margin on the product? What exchange rate was used when it was priced? What happens if sterling drops 5%?
That is where the real conversation starts, because Orbis can begin to understand the underlying risk.
Sometimes the FX isn’t even the real problem
This is something Orbis is seeing more and more.
A business comes to Orbis with an FX problem. Once everything is mapped out, it may become clear that part of the problem is actually cash flow.
Maybe the customer pays in 60 days but the overseas supplier wants payment in 30. Now there is a working-capital issue as well.
That opens up a completely different conversation. Could invoice finance help? Could trade finance help? Could the international payment structure be improved? Could the business collect foreign currency directly rather than constantly converting backwards and forwards?
That is far more valuable than simply trying to win the next €50,000 trade.
Broker → Adviser → Strategic Partner
This is something Orbis talks about internally.
First, an FX provider has to be a good broker. Understand the market. Understand the products. Understand execution.
Then it needs to become an adviser. Understand the client’s exposure and help the client make better decisions.
But ultimately, Orbis aims to sit in the third category:
Strategic partner.
A partner the CFO or FD can call and say:
“Here’s what the business is trying to do over the next 12 months. How can Orbis help?”
Maybe that’s FX. Maybe it’s collections. Maybe it’s funding. Maybe one of Orbis’ partners needs to be brought into the conversation.
That’s where Orbis believes the industry is heading. And it’s where Orbis is positioning the business.
So if the current relationship with an FX provider mainly consists of calls asking:
“Anything to buy today?”
Maybe it’s worth having a different conversation.
Your Bank Might Be Charging You More for FX Than You Think
Here’s something any FD or CFO who makes regular international payments should do. Find out exactly what you’re paying for FX.
Not the £10 payment fee. The actual margin inside your exchange rate. Because there’s a big difference.
Orbis has spoken to plenty of businesses over the years who think they’re getting a good FX deal because they’re paying very little in visible fees. Then we look at the exchange rate. That’s where the cost is.
A 1% difference doesn’t sound like much
Let’s say you’re exchanging £100,000. 1% is £1,000. Maybe that doesn’t sound business-changing.
But if you’re exchanging £2m over a year? That’s £20,000.
2%? £40,000.
3%? £60,000.
Suddenly it’s worth looking at. And that’s money that can disappear without ever appearing on an invoice marked:
“FX charge: £60,000.”
It’s simply built into the exchange rate.
But there’s another mistake businesses make
They become obsessed with shaving a tiny amount off the transaction margin while ignoring the bigger risk.
Let’s say you save 0.5% on the cost of buying €500,000. Great. But then you leave another €1m completely exposed and sterling falls 5%.
The wrong battle has been won.
This is why FX shouldn’t purely be a conversation about:
“What’s your rate?”
There are really two questions:
Are you getting competitive pricing?
And:
Are you managing your currency exposure properly?
You need to look at both.
Here’s what to ask your current provider
Ask them:
What’s the live interbank rate?
What’s the rate you’re giving me?
What’s your margin?
How much did you make from our account last year?
A good provider shouldn’t be uncomfortable answering those questions.
Transparency in FX needs to improve. Businesses should know what they’re paying. And if you’re putting £1m+ through the market every year, it’s absolutely worth finding out.
Orbis can benchmark an existing FX setup pretty quickly. Sometimes everything looks good. Sometimes thousands of pounds in unnecessary cost are identified.
Either way, at least you know.
Spot or Forward? You’re Probably Asking the Wrong Question
We get asked this a lot.
“Should we be buying spot or should we book a forward?”
And the answer is normally:
It depends.
Not particularly exciting, but it’s true.
If somebody tells you every business should be hedging everything, I’d be cautious.
Equally, if you’re buying millions in foreign currency every year and doing absolutely everything on spot because “that’s what we’ve always done”, I’d question that as well.
Let’s make this really simple
You’ve got a €100,000 supplier payment tomorrow.
You buy the euros at today’s rate.
That’s spot.
You’ve got a €100,000 supplier payment in three months and you agree the exchange rate today.
That’s a forward.
The big advantage of the forward isn’t necessarily getting a better rate.
It’s knowing what that €100,000 is going to cost you.
That’s the important bit.
“But what if the rate gets better?”
Probably the most common question we hear.
And it’s completely understandable.
You book a forward at one rate and then watch the market improve.
It’s frustrating.
But you’ve got to remember why you hedged in the first place.
If you took out home insurance and your house didn’t burn down, you wouldn’t complain that you’d wasted the premium.
You protected yourself against something you didn’t want to happen.
FX hedging is similar.
If your business can comfortably absorb currency movements, fine.
Stay more exposed.
But if a 5% move wipes a big chunk off your margin, that’s a completely different conversation.
It doesn’t have to be all or nothing.
This is probably the biggest point.
You don’t necessarily have to choose between:
100% spot
or
100% hedged.
Let’s say you’ve got €1m of fairly predictable purchases over the next six months.
Maybe you protect part of it.
Maybe you leave some open.
Maybe you protect more of the requirements you’re highly confident about and less further into the future.
There are plenty of ways to approach it.
But the strategy should come before the product.
That’s why when somebody asks us:
“Should I book a forward?”
We’d rather first ask:
“Show us what you’ve actually got coming up.”
Then we can have a proper conversation.
Why Most SMEs Don’t Actually Have an FX Strategy
Most businesses we speak to don’t have an FX strategy.
They have an FX process.
An invoice comes in. Someone in finance logs into the bank or calls their FX provider. They check the rate, buy the currency and pay the supplier.
Job done.
Except that’s not really managing FX risk.
If you’re spending £1m, £2m or £5m a year buying euros, dollars or another currency, movements in the exchange rate can have a serious impact on your margins.
And the strange thing is, plenty of businesses know exactly what they’re spending on salaries, rent, finance, raw materials and pretty much every other major cost.
But ask them what a 5% move in GBP/EUR would do to their annual cost base and quite often nobody has actually worked it out.
That’s where we’d start.
Stop trying to predict the market
One thing we’re constantly trying to get clients away from is the idea that FX management is about predicting where the pound is going.
It isn’t.
Nobody knows exactly where GBP/EUR will be in three months’ time. Neither does your bank. Neither does your broker.
We can have a view. We can look at the data. We can understand what’s driving the market.
But building your entire strategy around a prediction isn’t risk management.
It’s speculation.
The better question is:
If the market moves against us, what does that actually do to our business?
Let’s say you know you’re going to buy around €2m over the next 12 months.
Map it out.
When will you need it?
How certain are those requirements?
What’s your budget rate?
What happens to your margin if sterling drops 3%?
What about 5%?
At what point does it become uncomfortable?
Once we know those answers, we can actually start talking about strategy.
You don’t necessarily need to hedge everything
Another misconception is that having an FX strategy means locking everything in.
It doesn’t.
In fact, blindly hedging 100% can create another problem if your forecast changes.
There might be a good argument for protecting more of the currency you’re confident you’ll need over the next three months, slightly less further out and leaving some exposure open.
Every business is different.
That’s the point.
Your FX strategy should be built around your business, not whatever product somebody wants to sell you that month.
I look at FX more like insurance
My background before FX was in insurance, and I’ve always looked at the two in quite a similar way.
You don’t insure your building because you think it’s going to burn down on Thursday.
You insure it because you’ve identified a risk that you’re not prepared to carry completely yourself.
FX should be approached in much the same way.
If currency movements can materially affect your margins, you need to decide how much of that risk you’re comfortable carrying.
The objective isn’t to beat the market.
It’s to protect the business.
That’s a very different mindset.
At Orbis, that’s why we increasingly start relationships with an exposure mapping session rather than simply asking:
“Do you need to buy any currency today?”
Because before we talk about the trade, we want to understand the reason the trade exists.
Forward Contracts Explained: How Importers Fix Their Rate and Protect Their Margin
Most businesses don’t lose money on foreign exchange because they paid a fraction of a percent too much on a single transfer.
They lose money because there was a gap between the moment they agreed a price and the moment they paid it — and nobody managed what happened in between.
That gap is where forward contracts do their work.
The problem in one example
A UK distributor agrees to buy €500,000 of stock from an Italian supplier. Payment terms are 90 days.
The moment that contract is signed, the business has quoted its own customers, built its margin, and priced its stock — all based on the exchange rate it saw on the day of the deal.
But it doesn’t buy the euros for another three months.
If sterling weakens by 4% over that period, the stock costs roughly £17,000 more than the figure the business planned around. On a product line running a 12% gross margin, a large slice of the profit on that shipment has gone — not because of anything the sales team, the buyer or the supplier did, but because of a currency market the business never intended to participate in.
That’s the point most finance teams miss. You are exposed to the FX market whether you meant to be or not. The only decision available is whether you manage the exposure or accept whatever happens.
What a forward contract actually is
A forward contract is an agreement to buy or sell a fixed amount of currency, at a rate agreed today, for settlement on a date in the future.
That’s it. Three components:
The amount — how much currency you need
The rate — agreed now, not later
The date — when the currency is delivered
You typically place a small deposit (a margin) at the outset, then pay the balance on or before the settlement date. Many providers, Orbis included, offer flexible or “window” forwards that allow you to draw down the currency in stages as invoices fall due, rather than in one lump at maturity.
What a forward contract is not
Three misconceptions come up in almost every first conversation we have:
It’s not a prediction. A forward rate isn’t anyone’s forecast of where the currency is going. It’s derived from today’s spot rate adjusted for the interest rate differential between the two currencies. Nobody at the other end of the trade is guessing.
It’s not a bet. Gambling creates risk that didn’t previously exist. Hedging removes risk that already does. A business with €2m of euro invoices due next year is already carrying a currency position. A forward closes it.
It’s not about beating the market. Businesses that hedge properly aren’t trying to win. They’re trying to know. The value of a forward isn’t the rate you get — it’s the certainty you buy.
When a forward is the right tool
Forwards suit exposures that are known and committed. The clearest cases:
A signed supply contract with fixed pricing in a foreign currency
A confirmed purchase order with payment terms of 30, 60, 90 days or longer
Recurring overseas payroll where the monthly cost is predictable
An agreed acquisition or property purchase with a completion date
Tendering for work where you’ve quoted a fixed price and can’t reprice later
That last one deserves attention. If you’ve submitted a fixed-price tender in a foreign currency and won it, your margin was fixed on the day you quoted. Every day after that, the currency market gets a vote on your profitability.
When a forward isn’t the right tool
Forwards create an obligation. You will buy that currency on that date at that rate. That’s the trade-off for certainty, and it’s the reason forwards don’t suit every situation.
If the underlying transaction might not happen — a bid you haven’t won, a deal that could fall through, a project that may be delayed — a forward can leave you holding currency you no longer need. In those cases a vanilla option is often the better structure: you pay a premium for the right, but not the obligation, to exchange at a set rate. You keep full downside protection and still benefit if the market moves your way.
Similarly, if the rate you want is meaningfully better than the market and your timeline is flexible, a limit order sits in the market waiting for your target level without committing you to anything.
The right instrument depends on how certain the underlying cash flow is. That’s the question to answer first — not “what rate can you get me?”
What does a forward cost?
There are no premiums or upfront fees on a forward. The cost sits in two places:
The forward points. The difference between the spot rate and the forward rate, driven by the interest rate gap between the two currencies. Depending on the pair and direction, this can work for you or against you. Buying euros forward with sterling has, in recent years, often been marginally favourable — a detail plenty of businesses never realise.
The spread. The margin your provider builds into the rate. This is where most FX firms make their money, and it varies enormously.
The second one is worth pressing on. Ask any provider — including us — to show you the spread as a number, not a rate. A provider who won’t quantify their margin is telling you something.
How much of your exposure should you hedge?
There’s no universal answer, but there is a sensible framework:
Rule-based hedging — hedge a fixed percentage of forecast exposure on a set schedule (say, 100% of committed orders and 50% of the forecast pipeline). Predictable, defensible, easy to explain to a board.
Layered hedging — hedge more of the near-term exposure and progressively less of the further-out exposure, adding cover as forecasts firm up.
Opportunistic hedging — hedge partially and leave some exposure open. This requires genuine market monitoring and a clear tolerance for the outcome if it goes against you.
Most SMEs are best served by the first two. The third quietly turns a finance function into a trading desk, usually without anyone deciding that’s what they wanted.
The question to start with
Before you look at a rate, answer these:
What currency payments or receipts are committed over the next 12 months?
What exchange rate is baked into your pricing and budget?
How far could the rate move before your margin becomes uncomfortable?
What proportion of that exposure are you willing to leave unmanaged?
If you can answer those four, you have the beginnings of a currency strategy. If you can’t, you don’t have a rate problem — you have a visibility problem, and no exchange rate will fix it.
William Fuller is Co-Founder and Sales Director at Orbis Exchange Group. Orbis works with businesses across the UK and UAE on international payments, currency risk management and trade finance.
Orbis Exchange Group enters the football market through partnership with Lagom Sports Compliance
Payments and treasury specialist teams up with a football-only compliance advisory to support clubs, agencies and investors managing high-value currency flows under a tightening regulatory regime.
LONDON, 21 August 2026 - Orbis Exchange Group, the global payments and treasury partner with offices in London, Dubai and Los Angeles, has agreed a strategic partnership with Lagom Sports Compliance, the leading governance, risk, compliance and anti-financial crime advisory working exclusively with professional football. The partnership covers mutual client referrals, jointly authored content and a shared presence at sector events and aims to help Orbis further enter into the sports market.
Professional football is a heavily international industry operated, in most cases, by lean finance teams. A mid-table club may settle a transfer fee in euros across three seasons, receive broadcast and sponsorship income in several currencies, pay agent commissions to counterparties in a dozen jurisdictions and draw shareholder funding from an overseas holding company, all without the treasury function a corporate of equivalent turnover would take for granted. The result is avoidable cost, unmanaged currency risk and, increasingly, avoidable regulatory exposure.
Orbis addresses the first two by giving organisations the benefit of a treasury function without the overhead of building one. Rather than tying clients to a single bank or provider, the firm works across a panel of banking, fintech and payment partners, matching counterparties and payment routes to the client's profile, and advising on exposure across the wider supply chain rather than transaction by transaction.
Why football, and why now
The regulatory environment around the sport is changing quickly. In England, the Independent Football Regulator will open its provisional licence application window on 1 November 2026, with the regime binding from the 2027/28 season and around 116 clubs in scope. In the European Union, professional clubs and licensed agents come within the formal anti-money laundering perimeter on 10 July 2029, bringing due diligence, source of funds and transaction monitoring expectations that will be familiar to anyone who has worked in regulated financial services.
Those requirements are evidential rather than presentational. Organisations will need to demonstrate how they satisfied themselves about counterparties and money movements, and the record that demonstrates it is largely a payments record. That is where the two firms' work meets.
What the partnership covers
Orbis will introduce clients to Lagom where licensing readiness, anti-money laundering frameworks or governance capacity is the constraint. Lagom will introduce clients to Orbis where currency exposure, banking infrastructure or payment routing needs attention. The firms will publish co-authored articles across both platforms and attend industry events together. Orbis provides no regulatory or compliance advice, and Lagom provides no foreign exchange or payment services. Each remains responsible for its own scope.
Comment
“Football is a global business, but many clubs and agencies are still expected to manage complex, high-value international flows with relatively small finance teams. We are entering the sector because our role is not simply to execute a transaction; it is to help clients build the right payment, banking and currency-risk structure around it. Lagom’s specialist compliance expertise makes this a genuinely complementary partnership.”
— William Fuller, Co-Founder, Orbis Exchange Group
“Football is a genuinely international business run by small finance teams under intense public scrutiny. Clubs and agencies are about to be asked to evidence their money movements to a standard financial services has lived with for years, and that evidence begins with how payments are structured and routed in the first place. Orbis brings capability to a part of the market that has been under-served, and our clients will benefit from it.”
— Jonathan Greenstein, Co-founder and Director, Lagom Sports Compliance
Orbis offers a no-obligation review of foreign exchange arrangements to organisations across sport and other sectors. The first jointly authored article from the two firms will be published later this year.
About Orbis Exchange Group
Orbis Exchange Group is a global payments and treasury partner with offices in London, Dubai and Los Angeles. The firm provides cross-border payments in more than 130 currencies to over 180 countries, named multi-currency accounts, foreign exchange risk management and lending solutions that finance international and domestic payables. Services are delivered through a panel of established banking, fintech and payment partners, supported by dedicated account management and a platform giving clients full visibility of transfers and incoming payments. Payment and e-money services are provided by appropriately authorised third-party providers. Orbis Exchange Group Limited, company no. 11360185. orbis-exchange.com
About Lagom Sports Compliance
Lagom Sports Compliance is the leading specialist governance, risk, compliance and anti-financial crime advisory firm built exclusively for professional football. Founded by Jonathan Greenstein and Isabel Lemes, the firm advises clubs, agents, investors and competition organisers across the United Kingdom and the European Union on Independent Football Regulator licensing under the Football Governance Act 2025, EU anti-money laundering obligations, UEFA financial sustainability requirements, football agent regulation and operational resilience. Its consultants come from regulated financial services backgrounds. Lagom Sports Compliance is a trading name of Lagom Consultants Limited, registered in England and Wales, company number 15527181. lagomsportscompliance.com
Media contacts
Orbis Exchange Group: William Fuller – williamfuller@orbis-exchange.co.uk
Lagom Sports Compliance: Jonathan Greenstein, jg@lagomsportscompliance.com