GRTU members could see reduced rates on their transactions with Revolut for Business

Malta’s retailers’ association GRTU has partnered with Revolut and will be providing its members a free three-month subscription to the company’s business payment platform.

Addressing a press conference on Friday morning, GRTU President Paul Abela said the incentive will “potentially reach €1 million in value for 7,000 companies based in Malta”.

He said the GRTU had always maintained the need for reducing charges and excessive fees at retail outlets to be as low as possible in order to reduce costs for retailers.

Abela said that while Revolut would not be offering all banking services, it was offering an innovative and cheaper way to execute transactions.

This, he said, was especially true when one considers that the retail and wholesale sector had experienced a more modest growth in recent years, when compared to other sectors.

Revolut officially launched in Malta last month, seeing the total number of users in Malta increase from 25,000 before the launch to 40,000 presently – roughly 13% of the working population.

Maximising profit

Revolut country ambassador Philip Mifsud said the company had been engaged in talks with the GRTU in order to understand the sector’s “pain points”, most of which he said were related to transaction fees.

Using the Revolut for Business platform, businesses will pay a fixed monthly subscription that will not change or be variable depending on the IBAN to IBAN amounts. This, he said, could see t monthly expenses reduced by 7%. 

Among the advantages of the system were instant payments across borders and institutions for all Revolut users, as well as a multi-currency card, he said. In fact, applying for a Revolut for Business account will automatically mean that 25 foreign currency accounts, with their own separate IBANs will be opened for that business.

This would also allow the businesses to transfer foreign currency between their own accounts at inter-bank rates, commission free.

The service will also provide users with a system for paying for goods, where payment is deposited in a drop-box and which is only released once the goods have been received.

Revoult does not allow certain sectors to apply for the Revolut for Business account which includes crypto-currency exchanges, the sale of weapons, gambling or adult entertainment to mention a few.

Finally, Revolut Business also offers the integration of various APIs that will allow the Revolut for Business account to simultaneously function together with other work flow automation tools and cloud based accounting software.

GRTU will be holding a number of workshops for its members and the public in order to explain exactly how the system works.