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Driving innovation in cross-border payments: An interview with Wise Platform's Roisin Levine

Wise
12.07.24
Read time 2 minutes

Roisin Levine, Wise Platform's Head of Partnerships for the UK and Europe, speaks with Financial IT at Money 20/20 Europe and explains how banks can leverage Wise's global infrastructure as a correspondent to deliver fast, convenient, low-cost and transparent international payments to their customers.

Financial IT: Since our last discussion at Money 20/20, can you provide an overview of the growth Wise Platform has experienced?

Roisin Levine: We've grown a lot in the last few years. Ultimately, what Wise Platform is all about is providing the infrastructure that we've spent over a decade building at Wise to banks and enterprises around the world. At first, this infrastructure was mainly for our direct customers, who are often consumers and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) using our application. Now, we are allowing banks and platforms to leverage this infrastructure, which helps move money cross-border seamlessly, often instantly, and at low cost. It's really important for us to be able to deliver this to many millions of customers via our partners.

Levine explains that Wise Platform now offers an API-accessible solution, or a Correspondent Services product which allows banks to send payment instructions via SWIFT messages - mirroring the traditional process used for global money transfers. The full video interview is available by clicking the image above.

Financial IT: How has the introduction of the Correspondent Services product impacted your existing services and customer base? Can you share success stories?

Roisin Levine: Our Correspondent Services solution ultimately came about because we realized that the infrastructure we built was super important and provided a great experience to our customers. Additionally, there were many banks and platforms around the world interested in leveraging that infrastructure. So, we created an offering that is available by API, or a bank can make a payment instruction to us by SWIFT message, which is a traditional way they might think about when moving money cross-border. We listened to lots of banks around the world who told us that making it simpler to get integrated and set up would be a better way to begin our partnership. This feedback led to the launch of our Correspondent Services solution a few months ago at Sibos.

Currently, 62% of all payments on our network arrive instantly. When we say "instant," we mean that the payment lands in the recipient's account in under 20 seconds.*

Financial IT: In what ways can fintechs like Wise help traditional banks innovate more rapidly in the cross-border payments space?

Roisin Levine: One of the most important parts of Wise is the idea of instant payments. We believe that real-time payments are the future, so wherever we can in the world, we make sure that payments move instantly. Currently, 62% of all payments on our network arrive instantly. When we say "instant," we mean that the payment lands in the recipient's account in under 20 seconds.* We know this experience is amazing for both the customer and the recipient. We aim to help banks provide this experience to their customers using our infrastructure, which offers instant connectivity to the payment rails.

Financial IT: What is next for Wise?

Roisin Levine: For Wise, it's all about continuing towards our mission, which focuses on speed, convenience, low cost, and transparency for customers. Every quarter, we update how we progress on this mission, discussing new routes opened, how quickly we move payments, and our efforts to lower costs for customers. For Wise Platform, it’s about ensuring our partners and their end users benefit from our infrastructure and the mission’s core elements.

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*Transaction speed claimed depends on funds availability, approval by Wise’s proprietary verification system and systems availability of our partners’ banking system, and may not be available for all transactions.

*Please see terms of use and product availability for your region or visit Wise fees and pricing for the most up to date pricing and fee information.

This publication is provided for general information purposes and does not constitute legal, tax or other professional advice from Wise Payments Limited or its subsidiaries and its affiliates, and it is not intended as a substitute for obtaining advice from a financial advisor or any other professional.

We make no representations, warranties or guarantees, whether expressed or implied, that the content in the publication is accurate, complete or up to date.

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