Final Word from Wednesday, January 11, 2006
Lloyd Dorfman, who founded the Travelex foreign-exchange company, said in Prague yesterday that one of the secrets to becoming a successful entrepreneur is never to give up. He announced that Travelex had won a tender for operating a money-exchange service in the new terminal at Prague airport, but he also revealed that Travelex had had to - gasp! - give up and close all but one of its bureaus in the center of Prague, because it couldn't, and didn't want to, compete against the "cowboys" in the local money-exchange business. He and his staff spoke of the various tricks the moneychangers use and the lack of compliance against money laundering. Neither the world's biggest non-bank foreign-exchange dealer, nor the Czech National Bank, is a match for these wheeler-dealers. So Travelex has retreated to the orderly confines, and easy margins, of Prague airport. [Czech Republic foreign-currency exchange]