Mark Frey has established Corpay as a market leader in cross-border payments and currency risk management since being appointed Group President of Corpay Cross-Border Solutions in March 2022.
A proven leader with over 20 years’ experience in trading and treasury operations, Mark has been with us for over a decade. He led the successful acquisitions and integrations of AFEX and Global Reach in recent years.
Prior to Corpay, Mark was with Western Union.
Connect with Mark on LinkedIn.
This transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix.
TRANSCRIPT
Intro: Broadcasting live from Fintech South 2025 at the Woodruff Arts Center in Atlanta, Georgia. It’s time for Atlanta Business Radio now. Here’s your host.
Lee Kantor: Lee Kantor here. Live from Fintech South 2025. So excited to be talking to my next guest, Mark Frey with Corpay. Welcome.
Mark Frey: Thank you. It’s a pleasure to be here.
Lee Kantor: For folks who aren’t familiar. Can you share a little bit about Corpay? How are you serving folks?
Mark Frey: So Corpay is effectively a business payments company. We help three key segments of customers, those who are tied to vehicle mobility payments in North America, Europe, Anzac Region and South America as well. We also provide lodging solutions, both workforce solutions as well as airline and distressed passenger solutions. And then I run our global cross-border payments business, which is really about moving money across borders and helping companies individuals manage foreign exchange risk.
Lee Kantor: So why is it important for Corpay to be involved with Fintech South and with Tag?
Mark Frey: So Fintech South is a very important organization for us. We’re an Atlanta based company. Our head office is here in Atlanta. This is a show that we take part in every year. I think it’s an important networking opportunity. We meet with customers, partners and and colleagues alike here, and it’s just a fantastic way to network and be a part of the ecosystem ultimately that we’re a contributor to.
Lee Kantor: So how do you communicate to the people at Core Pay to get involved with organizations like Tag and Fintech? Stuff like what’s your recommendation in order to kind of wring the most juice out of an out of an event like this?
Mark Frey: Yeah, we certainly try to encourage its much participation as we possibly can for our team, not just in events like this, but throughout the calendar year as well. We’ve got a strong contingent of core folks here that participate in sessions that are part of the panel interviews, speaking engagements, and also have a booth at the show to try and just meet as many people as we possibly can.
Lee Kantor: Now, um, how do you see, from what you’ve learned to today and what your experience is in, uh, in fintech? What kind of trends are you seeing when it comes to, uh, fintech, whether it’s technology, whether it’s, um, just payments. What are kind of what’s in the crystal ball for you guys?
Mark Frey: I think the key theme that we see in our market is the ability to move money fast, ubiquitously, and as cost and frictionless as we possibly can.
Lee Kantor: And safely.
Mark Frey: Yes, safely and secure is obviously a key part of it as well. So our customers are are are looking for solutions. They’re somewhat technology agnostic as to how. So whether that’s a real time payment network or it’s stablecoin or it’s a blockchain enabled payment or even more traditional means of payments that we’ve managed to find ways to to speed up and accelerate. Our customers are really just looking for a solution for their business. They don’t care what the technology is that underlines that.
Lee Kantor: Are they, um, looking forward to a day when, you know, physical checks go away?
Mark Frey: Well, I think everybody is looking forward to that. No, no, it’s the rest of the world is already at that stage. So. So as someone who, uh, I hail from Canada, uh, we run a global business. We don’t issue checks anywhere in the world like we do have a tendency to do so in the United States. So that is is something that I think is somewhat unique to this market and is still a tremendous business opportunity. If you can provide solutions that help businesses conduct their business in a way that is secure, they feel comfortable with and can move away from paper based payments, there’s a world of opportunity.
Lee Kantor: So how do you kind of rationalize why America is a leader in so many areas and places, but is a laggard when it comes to physical track?
Mark Frey: You know, I think it’s a it’s a function of the sort of the fractured banking system in the United States versus other markets. To a certain extent. Uh, I think there has been a focus It’s historically on card and and and as a solution. And that certainly is a viable solution in terms of making card based payments versus checks. But I don’t think there’s been the same ubiquitous adoption of real time payment rails in the United States that we’ve seen in other markets, and that is beginning to change now. We are certainly seeing more of a push in the marketplace and greater adoption and sort of a demand from customers to be able to move money more, more seamlessly than with old big paper based payments.
Lee Kantor: Because it seems like there is adoption from a consumer standpoint for digital.
Mark Frey: Well.
Lee Kantor: Like that’s already happened. Like no one is clamoring for me to write them a check. Like if I do a transaction with a friend of mine.
Mark Frey: It’s it’s a Venmo or it’s an accounting account.
Lee Kantor: We’re comfortable with that.
Mark Frey: It’s a crypto.
Lee Kantor: Payment. But for business, it seems like.
Mark Frey: We’re absolutely.
Lee Kantor: Five steps behind.
Mark Frey: Here. So this is a common recurring theme in the United States. I think that that the personal consumer market leads the business market. And we all, as business leaders and, and managers of our enterprises get used to that consumer like experience, and then that begins to become the de facto standard that we want to apply to our business organizations as well.
Lee Kantor: So how does your customer come to you? Like what is the first pane that that you all saw for your customers?
Mark Frey: So we do three key things for our customers. We exchange from one currency to another and in a seamless fashion, and provide risk management solutions to manage the risk of doing business internationally and multiple currencies. We can move money anywhere in the world without checks. Real time to to.
Lee Kantor: What a concept.
Mark Frey: To to Nigeria or Kenya or Malaysia, anywhere in the world. And then we also provide real time bank account solutions in many countries around the world so that if you’re a US based company and you want to expand to the UK or Germany or Canada, rather than having to establish local banking relationships in each of those markets, core pay can be your financial institution of choice everywhere.
Lee Kantor: So if I partner with Core Pay, that’s kind of that solution is built into the service that you’re offering.
Mark Frey: It’s all one tech stack, all the same piece of technology that deploys all of our solutions everywhere in the world.
Lee Kantor: And then what’s kind of the pain that your customer is having right before they hire you?
Mark Frey: So it it it is oftentimes someone who has, you know, doing business internationally. And foreign exchange rates have shifted, um, unfavorably for them. And then they’re looking to find a way to remediate that within their business, either their export market or their supplier that they’re importing from is no longer economic. And it sort of disrupted their business model. And they’re looking for a solution to manage that foreign exchange risk. The next ancillary solution is, well, how do you move that money? Either you’re getting paid from your foreign customers or you need to pay foreign vendors. How do you do that as efficiently as possible without a check? And then can can you actually receive those funds internationally with a foreign bank account?
Lee Kantor: And so then they come to you and you’re able to kind of create this holistic system that’s solving all those problems.
Mark Frey: Yeah. What we effectively do is we help US based businesses go global, ultimately to to find customers and vendors around the world and to move money and to establish bank accounts that allow it to be easier for them to sell in international markets and collect money in foreign currency from their customers and then remit back to the US.
Lee Kantor: So if there’s a US company listening that is thinking about kind of going international, they should contact you before doing it. So they put all the appropriate things in place in order to make that transition seamless.
Mark Frey: Couldn’t have said a better myself.
Lee Kantor: So if somebody wants to learn more about Corp, what’s the best way to connect Corp.
Mark Frey: Com. You always find me on social media on LinkedIn as well. Mark Frei uh, happy to have a conversation, engaging with anyone that we think we can help them grow their business globally.
Lee Kantor: Well, Mark, thank you so much for sharing your story today. You’re doing such important work and we appreciate you.
Mark Frey: Thank you so much.
