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TransferWise has launched TransferWise for Banks in the U.S. This allows banks, credit unions and other financial institutions to integrate TransferWise's API directly into their infrastructure, so customers can make international payments from within their banking app.

TransferWise is the first firm to pilot the Visa Cloud Connect platform, which provides a secure cloud-based connection to VisaNet, including a unified certification and testing framework, Visa-hosted security services such as transaction encryption and PIN key management, and simplified settlement in local markets. This will enable TransferWise to expand its debit card program that accompanies its multi-currency account.

This partnership follows a succession of bank partnerships across the world for TransferWise for Banks, including Bank Novo and Stanford Federal Credit Union in the United States and Up! in Australia this year alone and signifies the entry into the Canadian market. TransferWise has also announced numerous European partnerships with Monzo in the UK, Bunq in the Netherlands, N26 in Germany, LHV in Estonia and BPCE, France's second largest bank.

Australia's Prudential Regulatory Authority granted UK-based currency transfer company TransferWise a "limited authorised deposit-taking institution" licence to gain direct access to Australia's real-time payment system. They are the second nonbank to obtain such a license, after PayPal. TransferWise now intends to apply for a settlement account with the Reserve Bank of Australia. https://www.apra.gov.au/node/2048

British online money transfer service TransferWise is partnering with Alipay to enable instant transfers to China using 17 currencies.

Money transfer service Transferwise posted strong growth, continued profit and new customer records in the fiscal year ending in March. Revenue was up 70% from fiscal 2019 at £302.6 million, and it managed a fourth year of consecutive profitability, generating £21.3 million in net profit after tax. Transferwise now has 8 million worldwide customers versus 6 million in the preceding fiscal year. The annual numbers exclude much of this year's performance, and therefore wouldn't truly convey the COVID-19 impact on its business, but CFO Matt Briers said that the crisis has been "financially positive" for the firm due to the shift to online services.

32% of Transferwise cross-border payments now take less than 20 seconds, and half of all payments arrive within an hour. They significantly sped up Automated Clearing House (ACH) payments from the U.S. by starting ACH transfers immediately after user authorisation, and now 17% of ACH transfers from the U.S. are instant. They also completed an integration with the Malaysiaon Financial Process Exchange which speeds up payments from Malaysia. They also integrated directly with Magyar Nemzeti Bank, the second such central bank integration. The average price for using TransferWise decreased this quarter from 0.75% to 0.74%.

In Q2, 28% of transfers with TransferWise arrived instantly - i.e., money left one bank and arrived in the recipient's bank account, in a different country, and a different currency in less than 20 seconds.

TransferWise obtained a license as a Money Services Provider in Abu Dhabi. The license will allow users in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to transfer funds in the local dirham currency into accounts around the world through TransferWise's platform.

TransferWise will launch the Visa Direct-powered service in Spain, with plans to follow up in Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Hungary, and Romania and then scale it throughout Europe and worldwide in 2020.

Santander has launched PagoFX, a standalone fintech designed to take on money transfer businesses such as TransferWise, offering the service free for two months to attract customers, including those affected by the coronavirus.

As it grew and layered on more currency routes, the company couldn't always marshal sufficient liquidity among its customers to support matching. It was forced to take principal risk, acquiring currency in the market to meet customer demand. Kristo said later, "Our peer-to-peer model was an innovative solution at the time, but as we scaled, the original model wasn't scaling with us." By 2016, Transferwise found true peer-to-peer matches on only 60% of its transaction volume on 20 currency routes.

Southeast Asia's digital economy has remained strong and, adding 40 million people into the online space this year, as usage of digital financial services has jumped significantly, according to the e-Conomy SEA 2020 report by Google, Temasek and Bain & Company. Usage of mobile banking apps rose across all Southeast Asian markets with Vietnam, the Philippines and Indonesia recording the strongest growth rates in monthly active users. Online remittances jumped by nearly 2x, and digital remittances app downloads players such as TransferWise surged 1.3x. https://economysea.withgoogle.com/

"Your own personal estimation for whether to go with a traditional remittance or stablecoins will differ from mine, of course, depending on how cheap your local cryptocurrency exchange is (as well as that of your counterparty), and the availability and price of options like Wise or Western Union. Just make sure you include all stablecoin-related fees so that you're not mistakenly comparing apples to oranges. Stablecoins don't work for me, but they might for you."