(10 September 2024 – Australia) Wise will expand its services to over one million business and retail customers in Australia after being granted an Australian Financial Services Licence (AFSL) by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC).
The new licence will allow Wise, which launched in Australia in 2016 under the name TransferWise by Estonian founders Kristo Kaarmann and Taavet Hinrikus, to offer its “Assets” investment product to Australian customers in Q4 2024. This will allow clients to invest in money market funds across multiple currencies with no minimum balances. Australia customers already hold more than A$1 billion in funds on the Wise platform.
Wise’s operations are growing quickly in particular providing its services on a “white label” basis to existing banks such as Bendigo Bank’s digital bank, Up Bank, to handle customers’ FX transactions.
“We’ve made a number of significant strides this past financial year and we’re excited to keep building on that momentum with the granting of this new licence and to bring Assets to Australia soon” commented Wise Australian Country Manager Tristan Dakin
“In Australia, people wanting to send money overseas get slammed with all of these hidden mark-ups on the exchange rate. Wise’s goal is for people to be able to conduct transactions in a range of countries where they might be operating for the same price as they would if they were dealing with their local bank. Wise discloses every fee at the time it is incurred which is different to the banks. Australian banks do not regard foreign currency transactions by individuals and small businesses a priority.”
“The banks in Australia are very focused on credit and lending. That’s really where they make their money. We provide services which are probably considered ancillary, and we do those things really well. Australian banks are effectively charging three to four percent on foreign currency transactions by giving customers exchange rates worse than the official Reserve Bank rates. Wise uses the Reserve Bank exchange rate for money transfers and charge a disclosed fee per transaction” Kaarmann commented.