Welcome Zing

At Wise, we know the size of the problem we’re facing. That’s why we welcome the launch of Zing.

In a single year £180 billion was lost worldwide to hidden fees on international payments - i.e. the markup that banks hide in the exchange rate.

This figure is from research commissioned by Wise and independently conducted by Edgar, Dunn and Company. The research was undertaken in January 2021, which estimated that the amount lost to hidden fees would be £180 billion that year. These fees are either extracted through an exchange rate mark-up or a rate mark-up plus additional fees. The same research shows that only 4% of surveyed bank customers understand what they are being charged in these transactions.

We are proud to work on this problem, but know we are only scratching the surface. Last year, we saved customers £1.6bn in hidden fees. This figure is calculated using market research and quotes we have collected from other banks and payment providers.

Using this research, we then estimate the amount saved for each of our personal customers by comparing the cost of their transaction with Wise against what we would estimate a different payment provider would charge them. The amount is an accumulation of all transactions undertaken during the financial year, with a margin of error included for reasonableness. We share this figure in our Annual Report.

Fair pricing is vitally important, but it’s not the only thing. We are especially proud that Wise is faster than ever before, with 60% of transfers now arriving instantly (i.e. within 20 seconds), as per our interim results for six months prior to September 2023. We calculate this metric internally and it has increased steadily since 2020, when 26% of payments arrived instantly. This post provides more information on how we have improved speed.

So, welcome Zing. Seriously. We’re tackling a big problem, and we look forward to doing so together.

Onwards!