The idea behind Currency Exchange International, Corp. (TSX: CXI) began on a beach where Randolph Pinna, President and CEO, and his dad identified the need for hotels to have some sort of currency exchange service.

Fast-forward a few years, and Currency Exchange International (CXI) has become a full-service foreign exchange company and service provider, while also providing services through its subsidiary, the Exchange Bank of Canada as a Schedule I bank.

Prior to publicly listing, CXI’s management team saw the vision of becoming a bank group; raising capital on Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX) allowed them the capitalization needed to have a Schedule I bank in their group.

The company chose to list on TSX as it was a great marketplace, had an exceptional investing community, and had a knowledgeable team to work with and guide them through the listing process.

Pinna explains how the company has a three-year rolling strategic plan with a 5-7 year vision which shows a +20% growth in the next three years. Due to new technologies, products and acquisitions, Pinna feels that CXI can maintain that growth for the next 3-5 years.

He also highlights a trio of factors for the company’s expansion, which includes proprietary technology: CEIFX in the United States and EBCFX in Canada. This software does all the recordkeeping, transactions and inventory management. Second, the company’s pricing has to be competitive and third, its service needs to be excellent, especially when the product holds value. 

Further, CXI shares are priced at a premium due to the company’s good profile and risk aversion. It is evident that the market has recognized a need for a specialized foreign exchange provider as the world gets smaller, so specialty modern bank groups are seemingly more attractive to the investing community.

Pinna notes that because of CXI’s large software platform, the market has pushed CXI towards the FinTech realm rather than the banking realm, based on valuation models. Although blockchain is not off the table to move this software forward, CXI’s proprietary technology has been sufficient thus far.