2019 End Of Year Update: Australia and New Zealand

To our Wise Australia and New Zealand community,

As 2019 comes to a close, it’s time for us to reflect on the year that was. There are now more than 6 million people all over the world using Wise to move well over 7 billion dollars a month, so a big thank you to all of you who have continued to support us.

Read on to find out how much closer we got to achieving our mission this year and what we have in-store for you in 2020!

Australia and New Zealand go green.

After endless requests, we launched the Wise Platinum debit Mastercard for both personal and business users in Australia and New Zealand.

For people going on holiday or relocating abroad, the Wise card is up to 11x cheaper than travel cards and we’ve already seen thousands of cards in use on six continents.

But that's not all. Because it's a Platinum card, you get extra Platinum perks for free. That includes e-commerce protection, airport concierge, and global health and travel access.

Wise x Up = superpowered international transfers.

We took an exciting step towards modernising international banking in Australia. Our first partnership is with digital bank Up, whose customers will now get cheaper, faster, transparent payments to 70+ countries and 40+ currencies, right from their app, powered by Wise.

Five stars from the industry.

This year, we won not one, but two independent awards in Australia, for our transparent, convenient and low-cost money transfers.

Canstar awarded Wise five gold stars for providing outstanding value in the 2019 International Money Transfers ratings while financial comparison site Mozo, gave Wise the 2019 Experts Choice Award in the International Money Transfers category.

Speedy onboarding.

In Australia, we automated identity verification during account setup for many of our mobile users. Here, customers would previously have needed to upload documents that prove their identity. Now we run checks in the background, making onboarding instant for 40% of Android users, up from 26%.

For our Aussie business customers, we integrated with the Australian Business Registry API. This allows for a faster business verification experience thanks to automatic lookup of a user’s business details. More than 75% of new business users in Australia are already getting this experience.

Even speedier transfers.

Our goal is to make sending money from Sydney to London under 20 seconds. So, we’ve added PayID as new pay-in method for our Australian customers which makes this the fastest way to send money from Australia.

The push for transparency Down Under continues.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has been conducting an investigation into markups on foreign exchange. We’ve been providing input, and the ACCC released their report later this year.

It found that banks and foreign exchange providers should have to inform customers about the total price of a transfer. The report stops short of giving clear recommendations about how to do that, so we’re staying closely involved through consultations and written responses.

It will take up to 12 months for any changes to roll out across Australia. But we’re working to make sure all Aussies know exactly what they’re paying for when it comes to moving money internationally.

Sneak peek at what’s coming in 2020.

We’re going to be making 100% of our transfers from Australia instant as well as giving you the ability to schedule your transfers.

For our card customers, we’ve heard your requests! Google/Apple/Samsung/Garmin Pay will be launching next year.

Thank you, and see you in 2020!