How far would you go to meet your clients’ specific needs?  What about using your spare time to learn centuries-old shipping law?

Meet Aaron Morley, going above and beyond for clients for over 10 years.    

As a Relationship Manager at Privalgo, Aaron supports clients from a range of sectors with international payments, foreign exchange, risk management, and alternative banking.    

We spoke to Aaron about going the extra mile to improve client relationships, how changes to barriers to entry have impacted the payments space, his biggest inspiration, and much more.    

What’s your job role and what do you do on a daily basis?

I’m a Relationship Manager at Privalgo which means I manage a portfolio of corporate clients in various different sectors.

I help them with international payments, foreign exchange, risk management, and alternative banking.

Did you once read an entire shipping book in a weekend to better understand a client’s industry?

I did yeah. I was introduced to a shipping client and their biggest constraint was that no one understood shipping law.

Many legal shipping terms date back centuries and have never been updated, so they use specific wording that often makes no sense in the modern day. You’d read a contract, and the language would be completely different to what we’re used to.

That’s what annoyed that client; it was a big deal for them because of how long they’d spend explaining all the terms to a provider or bank.

To be as efficient as possible, I dedicated some time to reading about shipping law to understand their industry better. It was hard work, but definitely improved our working relationship.

Discover our top shipping risk management practices.

What excites you about the payments industry?

It would probably be the change in barriers to entry in the modern world, largely due to Covid. You can establish strong client and banking relationships anywhere in the world without needing to fly to meet people.

Everyone’s much more open to conversations now and people haven’t got issues dealing with companies that aren’t domestic.

That’s exactly where Privalgo’s heading in the next few years; we’re building a global network.

What’s your biggest accomplishment since joining Privalgo?

I would say the biggest achievement of them all is joining Privalgo before it was even called Privalgo and being involved in the journey from the beginning.

In 2018, we had seven people with no business name, no regulation, nothing. Now we have 65-plus employees and we’re turning over billions of pounds worth of currency all in the space of five years.

It’s something I take a lot of pride in and being a part of it is without a doubt my biggest achievement.

What advice would you give someone entering the payments industry?

• Be inquisitive
• Always ask questions
• Always ask why

Who’s your biggest inspiration in the workplace and why?

Stewart Blake – because he’s the best mentor you can have.

He’ll give you criticism in a way that allows you to learn without having any bad feelings towards the feedback.

Sometimes he’ll say the harsh stuff to you which, you know, is true, but no one else is going to tell you.

He’ll give you the feedback no one else will – which gets the best out of me.