Transparency: A secret growth lever for financial service providers

Transparency has evolved from a nice-to-have to business critical in financial services. Today's customers - both individuals and small businesses - expect complete openness from their financial providers.

Swift reports that 71% of consumers would abandon a bank over hidden fees, while 69% of SMEs wouldn't return to a provider who failed to clearly communicate costs. These figures represent a clear sign that the tide is turning against the opacity inherent in traditional, intermediary-heavy international payment processing.

However, transparency extends beyond fee structure or exchange rates. Customers also demand to know precisely when their payment will arrive, where it is in the journey, and exactly how much will reach the recipient. This level of visibility has rapidly become a competitive differentiator in the market.

The through-line: transparency directly impacts a provider's reputation and bottom line. So, how can financial institutions rise to this challenge? Here are three strategies to help your bank overcome industry challenges to deliver fee clarity, precise delivery times, and payment tracking.

Precise delivery times: Answering a basic question

We've all been there. You send funds to a relative abroad for an emergency, only to find they’re still waiting a week later. 'When will my money arrive?' is a question that wreaks havoc on far too many customer service departments - a basic inquiry that traditional cross-border payment processes are still unable to answer.

Here's why: traditional international payment processing is like a relay race with too many runners - each handoff between intermediaries creates another opportunity for delay or error. The consequences: 44% of consumers and nearly half of all small businesses (49%) say they'll abandon a provider after just one delayed payment experience.

But it doesn't have to be this way; many industry players are now introducing accurate delivery time estimations to counter this.

At Wise, our robust global network and powerful backend infrastructure means we're able to offer 90% accuracy on delivery times* - a key reason we're currently rated 4.3 on platforms like Trustpilot.* What's more, we're able to offer these same benefits to our bank partners that leverage our infrastructure.

Modern customers expect precision - financial service providers who deliver exact arrival times aren't just offering convenience; they're building the foundation of trust that transforms one-time users into lifelong clients.

Photo caption: “When will my payment arrive?” This basic question demands an answer in today’s fast-paced world. With traditional payments processing involving multiple steps and intermediaries, delays and errors naturally multiply.

Fee clarity: How much will reach the recipient

Imagine you’re sending a payment to a supplier and only part of the payment is received. This scenario creates frustration and erodes trust - trust that many small businesses spend years building with global suppliers.

So, why do organisations struggle to provide this level of visibility? The reason is simple: the more parties involved in processing a transaction, the more unexpected costs are picked up along the way. Traditional cross-border payment processing is innately opaque when it comes to how much will actually land with the recipient.

However, there is a solution. Banks can greatly reduce these fees by limiting intermediaries and building direct connections into instant local payment systems - such as UPI in India or Pix in Brazil - or partnering with correspondent service providers who possess direct access.

Monzo is a prime example of a business that has prioritised fee clarity - and partnership. Partnering with Wise Platform since 2018, the UK challenger revamped its app to make fees and exchange rates bold and transparent.

By showing the full calculation upfront and offering features like reverse calculation - where a user enters the exact amount they want the recipient to receive - they have built a cross-border experience that fosters deep customer loyalty.

Tracking the payment journey: "Where's my payment?"

While clarity in fees and exchange rates are important, they aren't the only areas banks need to look out for when it comes to transparency. In an era where customers can track everything from their food delivery to immigration applications, the inability to follow payments in real-time leaves financial providers at a significant competitive disadvantage.

With 64% of consumers and 66% of SMEs saying they would refuse to return to a provider that fails to offer payment tracking capabilities, the pressure continues to mount as customer expectations for tech-driven payment experiences increase.

Banks can achieve payment tracking by:

• Modernising the backend: Investing in automated compliance and real-time treasury management ensures that payments don't just move fast - they stay visible. This automation allows for customer-facing tracking, significantly reducing the burden on support teams.
• Adopting ISO 20022: This global standard for cross-border messaging acts as a common language. By handling richer data formats, banks can improve automated reconciliation and drastically reduce the manual checks that lead to compliance and processing delays.
• Leveraging API-enabled partnerships: Instead of building from scratch, banks can use API integrations to connect directly to providers who have already established connections to domestic rails (like GBP, EUR, and AUD). This provides end-to-end visibility over the entire transaction lifecycle, from the moment the sender hits "send" to the moment the funds reach the recipient.

These modernisations will enable banks to access the right information to tell their customers precisely where a payment is on its journey - and whether or not it's encountered any problems on its way to the recipient.

On the front-end, banks can also work on their in-app user experience, delivering accessible visual representations of where a payment is on its journey, so customers don't need to reach out for help.

The benefits of real-time tracking extend far beyond improved NPS or Trustpilot scores; they drive significant operational efficiency.

For example, Indonesian payment provider Flip saw a 40% reduction in support tickets within just three months of our February 2025 launch. By providing customers with full visibility into their payment status directly within the app, Flip eliminated the need for manual status inquiries - saving the business money and resources.

The growth opportunity: Increasing customer retention and lifetime value

For financial institutions like Monzo and Flip that enable transparency for their end-customers, it's clear that the rewards are substantial. Looking at the industry at large, clear pricing, visibility, and control can improve customer retention by up to 60%, helping banks keep customers within their product ecosystem, enabling growth across their products and services.

What's more, the growth potential of transparency is proven.

In the first year of partnering with Wise Platform, Bank Mandiri saw the value of foreign currency transfers through its app soar to $93.3 million. This shift delivered tangible value to its customers, saving over 20,000 active users a combined $2.3 million in fees.

The bottom line for banks: by enabling payment fee and journey clarity, banks are delivering the payment experiences their customers demand. They're also increasing the likelihood that customers will adopt additional financial products like mortgages, loans, and savings accounts.

Photo caption: clear pricing, visibility, and control can improve customer retention.

Achieving transparency through partnership

The evidence paints a clear picture: transparency is essential for growth, retention, and staying relevant. While most banks want to provide a transparent, customer-first experience, the technical reality of cross-border payment processing makes this a significant challenge.

The real hurdle? Many banks possess infrastructure intended for domestic use cases only - like savings accounts - and don't have the ability to provide transparency over global transactions. Building these networks from the ground up - developing local regulatory relationships and direct connections to domestic networks - is often too costly and complex for a bank focusing on a broad suite of products and services.

The good news is that banks don't need to do this alone. The solution lies in partnering with infrastructure providers like Wise Platform that have already built these networks. By reducing the number of intermediaries, we empower our partners with visibility over the entire transaction lifecycle. This ensures both the bank and its customers have enhanced clarity on fees, status, and delivery timelines.

In a time where transparency is the new gold standard, the question for banks is no longer 'if' they should transform their cross-border experience, but how quickly. Partnering with established, tech-driven correspondent service providers allows banks to bypass years of development and start delivering an enhanced customer experience at speed.

Discover how we can help your bank lead the charge for transparency: www.wise.com/platform

*Delivery accuracy not available for all transactions. Accurate as of the date of publication and subject to change.