Travelex, a market leading foreign exchange brand, has launched an FX affiliate referral programme with over 60 local banks across Japan, with over 30,000 of these banks’ customers having subsequently benefited from access to travel money since the programme’s launch late last year.

With many local Japanese banks reducing or withdrawing their in-house retail FX services, the referral partnership programme sees these banks refer those customers who require travel money directly to Travelex. These referred customers are then able to receive a discount on their travel money purchases simply by showing their bankcard.

The referral programme enables customers to receive a discount on their travel money purchases both in Travelex’s 66 stores across Japan or online. The discount also covers both cash purchases and purchases made on the Travelex Travel Money Card, which was introduced to the Japanese market last year.

The model has served to benefit the banks, their customers and Travelex: for the banks, the partnership means they are still able to assist their customers with travel money needs, even when not providing FX services directly; for customers, they are now able to access discounted travel money services nationwide; and for Travelex, the partnerships have helped further expand the company’s distribution network and customer base, and enabled them to help customers who would have otherwise struggled to access retail FX services.

So far, over 60 Tier 1 and 2 local banks have joined the programme, with over 30,000 Japanese customers served to date. Travelex is now working to expand the project even further, with the target of having served 40,000 customers in the coming months.

The partnerships in Japan follows a similar project in New Zealand, which saw Travelex partner with Bank of New Zealand to enable BNZ’s 1.2m customers to access discounted travel money. Over 3,000 BNZ customers successfully took advantage of the project within its first few months.

Jun Otani, Director, Travelex Japan said: “We believe everyone who wishes to travel should have convenient access to travel money services. We are therefore delighted to have already helped over 30,000 customers from more than 60 banks access discounted travel money in just a few months. These partnerships are part of our mission to increase convenience for Japanese travellers, putting them first and ensuring they can effectively access travel money how and when they need it. We look forward to expanding the project throughout this year and beyond.”