London-based international online money transfer platform, Wise, announced on Friday they will be joining Australia’s payments network, creating faster transfer opportunities in the country, at a reduced cost.
UK-headquartered global online transfer platform, Wise Plc, announced on September 24th, they will be joining Australia’s payments network. Wise’s presence in the country will allow for faster and more cost effective digital payments across the country, according to the Chief Executive Officer of Wise, Kristo Kaarmann.
Kaarmann said Wise plans to become a shareholder and direct participant in the Australian New Payments Platform (NPP), a distributed switch for individual ‘Payment Access Gateways’ that route and exchange financial messages between each other. Through the NPP, users can conduct payments directly to accounts or through a PayID, facilitating quick and efficient digital payments throughout the country.
Joining the NPP will allow the digital payment platform to reduce Australia’s current average cost of money transfer inside and outside of the country, by allowing for real-time payments and removing the need for middlemen through this integration.
Although Wise did not specify how much transfer costs will be reduced by, the company stated that they currently charge about 0.56% on Australian transfers. Compared to the average 4% to 6% charged by Australia’s major banks, the FinTech platform’s rates are already competitive, and offer a promising reduced cost for Australians.
With ten years of experience in FinTech, Wise is available in the UK, Singapore, the US, and many other countries. In Australia, the platform also has a banking licence, while in other countries will collaborate with banks directly.
“Our average cost is already many multiples cheaper than the banks,” Kaarmann said, “We want to get as close to zero as possible, in terms of cost.”
Wise, who joined the London stock exchange in July this year, was their largest tech listing ever. They are estimated to conduct between 1% and 2% of global transfers performed individually, and by SMEs.
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