The coronavirus pandemic has forced foreign exchange money agent Travelex to close all of its U.K. offices for the next eight weeks.
The duration of the closure is currently eight weeks; however, Travelex reported that due to the uncertainty surrounding the coronavirus crisis that there is a possibility that this closure could continue for a longer period of time. According to the Johns Hopkins University Coronavirus Resource Center, the U.K. has more than 14,700 coronavirus cases among the world’s 566,000 cases.
Travelex reported that it is still able to service its U.K. customers’ foreign currency needs with its home delivery service. However, the home delivery service is also experiencing issues since it leverages Britain’s national post office, the Royal Mail, to deliver the funds for the last mile. The next-day service has now been moved to a two-day service. For all orders placed before 12:30 p.m., Travelex will process and dispatch them the following day.
The Royal Mail has also been forced to make changes to its delivery service due to the impacts of the coronavirus. The national post office has been experiencing an absence rate of currently double what it normally expects at this time of the year. As a result, the Royal Mail implemented several changes to mitigate the impact, such as the suspension of the 1 p.m. time guarantee on Next Day Special Delivery, which Travelex had been leveraging.
On New Year’s Day this year, Travelex became the victim of a ransomware attack that forced the firm to suspend services across 30 countries, according to the BBC.
