STANDARD Chartered (StanChart) is going to use Wise’s payments platform to offer multi-currency money transfers in Asia and the Middle East.
The lender will integrate Wise’s foreign exchange infrastructure to allow money movements in 21 currencies over the coming months, Steve Naude, managing director of Wise Platform, said.
“The big thing that we have spent time on is this direct access to payment schemes to help make payments faster and lower cost,” Naude said.
StanChart already has a relationship with Wise through its Hong Kong-based digital bank Mox, which was agreed earlier this year.
It’s the latest bank to use Wise’s plumbing for its international money transfer services, joining the likes of Brazil’s Nubank, HSBC Holdings partner Saudi Awwal Bank, and Monzo. Wise has 65 licenses globally and is plugged into six payments systems, which means the majority of its cross-border payments are completed instantly.
Last month, Wise said it had moved £35.2 billion (S$60 billion) across borders for customers in the three months to September, up around 20 per cent on a year ago.
Wise earns a small fee on each customer transaction. Although Wise does not disclose its revenue streams from its Wise Platform business arm, it is a growing part for the fintech that was founded to disrupt costly and slow foreign exchange services in banking.
The firm works with some of the largest lenders in the Asia-Pacific region, where the firm has 500 staff at its Singapore office. “Asia’s definitely a big part of our expansion strategy, both as Wise and as Wise Platform,” Naude said. BLOOMBERG
