Standard Chartered said it’s teaming up with Wise to offer faster and cheaper money transfers in Asia and the Middle East, sending shares of the London-based fintech up 8.5% on a day that saw the FTSE 100 Index close 0.1% lower.
StanChart said that integrating Wise’s global payments infrastructure would allow its customers to send money in 21 different currencies in a matter of seconds.
“The partnership with Standard Chartered, one of the biggest global banks, marks a significant milestone in financial institutions investing in building better international payment experiences for customers,” Steve Naudé, managing director of Wise Platform said in a statement on Tuesday.
StanChart already has an existing partnership with Wise through its Hong Kong-based digital bank Mox, which was announced in early March this year.
Wise’s roster of banking partners has grown to more than 90 names, including the like of Monzo, Google Pay and Interactive Brokers.
The London-listed fintech has secured 65 licenses globally and six direct connections to payments systems, which allows the majority of its cross-border payments to be completed instantly.
Wise reported last month that its underlying income was £325.4 million ($424 million) in the three months ended September, a 22% jump from a year earlier.
The fintech’s active customers grew 26% in the same period to 8.4 million, driven by strong customer retention and new users joining as a result of recommendations, Wise said in its filing.
Wise is due to release its half-year earnings results on Wednesday.
Wise was established in 2011 by cofounders Kristo Kaarmann and Taavet Hinrikus because they were frustrated by the fees their banks charged when they sent money between the U.K. and their native Estonia. Their company, formerly known as TransferWise, was set up with the aim of offering faster and cheaper cross-border transfers.
Billionaires Peter Thiel and Richard Branson were early backers of Wise, followed by venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz and money manager Baillie Gifford.
When Wise went public on the London Stock Exchange in 2021, Kaarmann and Hinrikus became Estonia’s first two billionaires.
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