The European Union (EU) is an international organisation made up of 28 European countries, of which only 19 use the euro as their official currency. These 19 are: Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia and Spain. There are an estimated 512 million people that live within the European Union.

The euro, and the monetary policies of those who have adopted it in the EU, is controlled by the European Central Bank (ECB). It is the second-largest reserve currency in the world and trades most actively against the USD. This makes it especially important to understand how the value of the euro might be influenced by interest rate policy set by the ECB and the US Federal Reserve.

In 2009, the European sovereign debt crisis left several eurozone member states unable to repay or refinance their government debt. Global fears about the possible collapse of the EU caused the value of the euro to fall by nearly 19% against the USD.

To send money to Europe you’ll need the name on the recipient’s bank account, the IBAN number and the SWIFT/BIC Code. An IBAN identifies an individual’s bank account, their bank, and their country and is primarily used for international money transfers to the European Union.

In most cases, FlashFX sends money to Europe via a SEPA transfer. SEPA (or the Single Euro Payments Area) is the new format for cross-border euro bank transfers. Its aim is to make euro-denominated transactions in the SEPA area no different to domestic payments in terms of cost and speed. SEPA is similar to PayID in Australia. FlashFX is in the unique position to make SEPA payments for international transfers from Australia. Our European partners are located within the SEPA area and have the technology to connect them to local bank accounts across Europe.