Wise & Swift join forces. It will change the game for banks 🏦🌐; Revolut is yet to file a formal US banking license application 😬🇺🇸; Most active VC investors in August 🤑
FinTech is Eating the World, 18 September
Hey Everyone,
Happy Monday! I hope you had a restful weekend as we’re starting the new week strong. Today we’re looking at Wise and Swift partnering up (how this will change the game for banks & some deeper dives into Wise), Revolut, which is yet to file a formal US banking license application (this tells a lot about all their mess + some bonus reads on the British FinTech giant), and most active VC investors in August (who’s still writing checks + solid startup resources). Let’s jump straight into the interesting stuff 🌶
Wise & Swift join forces. It will change the game for banks 🏦🌐
The partnership 🤝 FinTech champion Wise has teamed up with global financial messaging platform Swift to expand cross-border payment options for banks and financial institutions worldwide.
This is a pretty big deal, so let’s take a look.
More on this 👉 In short, the collaboration will allow banks to route Swift payment messages directly to Wise's infrastructure platform, enabling faster settlement times for international transfers.
Currently, over 50% of Wise's cross-border payments settle instantly, while over 90% settle within an hour. That’s solid!
By leveraging Wise's global network combined with Swift's reach and transparency, banks can significantly improve the speed and reduce the costs of cross-border payments for their customers. Instead of competing, they now are working TOGETHER:
This in turn allows banks to innovate their offerings without major changes to their legacy systems. Which almost always is a pain in the 🍑
✈️ THE TAKEAWAY
Why this matters? 🤔 First and foremost, this is all about accelerating the adoption of faster cross-border payment capabilities by banks globally. Banks can now simply leverage Wise's real-time payment rails and global network to significantly improve speed and reduce costs, all without major integration work. As an effect, it also enables incumbent banks to retain customers and compete with FinTechs through accessible innovation. Banks can now effortlessly offer the convenience and transparency that customers appreciate from disruptive players like Wise. Many do so already:
Zooming out, Wise + Swift is a perfect illustration that legacy correspondent banking models are facing a huge disruption right now that continues to commoditize international money transfers, therefore, driving down margins. As/when more banks integrate Wise (or other similar platforms for that matter), it may become a baseline expectation for fast and inexpensive cross-border payments. On top of that, it also demonstrates further convergence of FinTech and traditional finance and the acceleration of bank adoption of APIs and Embedded Finance (the Wise partnership is a perfect model for banks to easily integrate third-party tech through APIs). Finally, we have to give a solid round of applause here to Team Wise as well. A long-term vision that’s coupled with solid execution and strong fundamentals is a rare gem in the land of FinTech. Wise is definitely one of those gems you just can’t stop being bullish about.
ICYMI: Wise keeps crushing it 🚀 [a brief look at their latest numbers]
Dive deeper: Wise is now about all things money 💸 [+4 more reads]
