EXCLUSIVE – Bank of Ireland Global Markets has teamed up with fintech company WorldFirst to offer its U.S. based SME customers a foreign exchange and payments service, under the brand – Bank of Ireland Global Payments.

The service is completely digital, Darsh Mariyappa, head of Bank of Ireland Global Markets U.S., told Bank Innovation. It enables the bank’s SME customers in the U.S. to make international payments with no transfer fees and competitive exchange rates.

“The new service lets our customers access a seamless interface,” he said. “The customer can use the service through the website at no additional cost. Because it’s all digital, the onboarding process is quick and efficient.”

The service was born out of the bank’s desire to expand into the digital payments space in the U.S. market.

“We are still moving in the pilot phase,” Mariyappa said. “The product has been rolled out to processors and customers. So far the response has been positive.”

In terms of numbers and amount processed through the service, Mariyappa said it was too early to release the numbers, given that the service was made available to their customers only last week.

Based in Dublin, Bank of Ireland Global Markets is a subsidiary of The Bank of Ireland. It provides treasury products and services to retail, corporate and institutional customers. Additionally, it is also responsible for managing the foreign exchange, interest rate and traded credit risk for the Bank of Ireland Group.

Based in London, WorldFirst is an international money transfer platform.