TransferWise Rules out Digital Banking License, Rolls Out Multi Currency Card Instead

UK-Based money transfer service TransferWise has confirmed that it will not be pursuing a digital banking license in Singapore.

Venkatesth Saha, Head of Asia Pacific and Middle East expansion said in an interview (paywall) that they only have one focus — cross-border payments. Instead of expanding into different verticals like mortgage and lending, he expressed that there are still many problems within the FX and cross-border payments space they can solve.

In line with that, TransferWise announced the launch of a Mastercard enabled multi-currency card. Dubbed as the “Borderless Account” it allows for individuals to hold, convert and send money in more than 40 currencies and use the debit card to make payments in more than 150 countries.

Venkatesh commented that for TransferWise it’s no longer about just sending and receiving money; their focus is also now on enabling users to spend the money conveniently.

TransferWise first began its thrust into the APAC when they selected Singapore as their hub in 2017 and as recent as June they secured their remittance license in Malaysia. Our correspondents on the ground expect that TransferWise’s services will likely be made available to Malaysians as soon as this year.