In 2007, Geoswift became one of the rare foreign businesses to facilitate currency exchange retail operation services in China. Since that time, Geoswift has developed into a unique servicing bridge between China and the rest of the world, acting as an intermediary for North American clients that need to facilitate payments into or out of China.

In this digital age, large entities such as Amazon, Airbnb, Uber, global banks, and others have a service need to pay tens of thousands of global recipients-both businesses and individuals-quickly and efficiently, according to Dana Nino, Executive Vice President. Payments to China are especially difficult to navigate in comparison to the rest of the world.

"We streamline the process and help with the vetting and set up to ensure the payments are done in a compliant manner, with US privacy and info security rules incorporated into the payment flow," says Nino.

Most recently the company launched a new payment solution in 2018, offered to third-party payment companies, in response to the large demand for person-to-person (P2P) payments between global locations and China. The Geoswift P2P payment solution allows the customers of Geoswift's own third-party clients to send P2P payments to China via the third party's online portal or application.

"We also facilitate payments out of China for many industries, including education," notes Nino. For example, a parent in China can pay tuition online using local Chinese payment methods such as Alipay or Union Pay for more than 700 global universities via Geoswift's payment gateway solution.

Those working outside of the financial technology, or fintech, industry might be surprised that the payments flowing into China from a single large US merchant or bank can total tens of billions of dollars annually. Given the complexities of both Chinese and US regulations, problems may occur when it comes to payment. If that happens, Geoswift works quickly to help its clients.

New Chinese regulatory requirements created a huge problem for one large American Geoswift client, for example. US privacy and security rules prevented the client from meeting all the levels of transparency required by the new regulations. In response, Nino traveled with the client to China. Along with a Mandarin-speaking colleague, she and the client met with banks and payment companies as well as regulators in several key provinces in China to explain the situation.

"We were able to negotiate a major win that greatly reduced the amount of data the Chinese banks and regulators were requiring to get the payments processed," says Nino.

The payments industry has a huge presence in Silicon Valley and San Francisco, notes Nino. "Companies such as Yapstone, Blackhawk, and Geoswift have leveraged their East Bay office locations to attract top fintech talent and will continue to grow here in the years to come," she says. "We are hoping to see more and more payment companies locate their headquarters or branch offices in the East Bay as much of the payment industry talent is located here."

Geoswift is headquartered in Hong Kong, with teams spread across Beijing, Shanghai, Singapore, London, Vancouver, Seattle, and the San Francisco Bay Area via the company's Pleasanton office in Hacienda. Up to 12 senior staff work at the Hacienda office, which is involved in sales and service, compliance, information security, and other areas.

"We wanted to find a location that was commuter friendly and found that most of the employees on staff and that we were looking to hire all lived in the East Bay," says Nino. That made an office at Hacienda in Pleasanton "an ideal location."

For more information about Geoswift, please visit www.geoswift.com.