There are limitations to using crypto rails as costs are often high: Diana Avila, Wise

Started in 2011, Wise helps people and businesses hold more than 50 currencies, move money between countries and spend money abroad.

Globally around 11 million people and businesses use Wise, which processes over £6 billion in cross-border transactions every month. London based Wise entered India in June last year and has tied up with RBL Bank enabling Indians to send money abroad through. In an e-mail interview
Diana Avila, global head of banking & expansion, Wise, discusses money transfers, cryptocurrencies and other issues. Edited excerpts:

Blockchain based cryptocurrency platforms offer a frictionless way to transfer money. Though regulation is still a challenge for them. But do you believe that traditional platforms like Wise will lose their edge if users opt for transfers via cryptocurrencies?

It’s interesting to see the different ways this technology is being deployed by different players around the world. Today, a majority of people still need to convert between fiat currencies and crypto, and these people incur unnecessary friction and fees during the process which means there are limitations to using crypto rails today as the costs are often prohibitive. This is where Wise can tackle some of those challenges and we remain laser focused on lowering fees whenever people move money around the world.

How do you see the UPI platform in India and the rise of digital payments here?

The innovation and growth that we’re seeing here, especially in payments, is very exciting. India is home to one of the most connected populations, and people are comfortable accessing digital financial services through their phone.

As a result, digital payments have really taken off, recording 30% growth in FY2021 according to the reserve Bank of India data. Clearly, consumers are driving the demand for seamless payment experiences.

Staying on this thread, India is one of the most forward thinking countries in the world when it comes to instant payments thanks to UPI, the real-time payment rails which addresses what consumers expect from their payments: fast, convenient, and at a low cost. This is in line with our mission of making cross-border payments instant, and we’re constantly on the lookout for ways to directly integrate to real-time rails like these so we can offer customers fast, cheap and convenient international transactions.

What new products and services is Wise offering to users in India? What are your expansion plans?

We first launched transfers to India in 2013 as one of our first currencies in Asia. There’s a massive Indian population overseas and we’ve since enabled US Google Pay users to send money to Google Pay users in India.

Last year, after a lot of customer demand, we launched our services from India. We plan on building out a meaningful presence in India as we expand and we want to be able to do two things: first, continue to make moving money from India even faster, easier, and cheaper, – we’ve already started to do that by dropping prices on certain routes as more and more people join Wise, allowing us to pass on those savings to customers.

The second thing we’re working on right now from a product perspective is working on bringing more of our products and services to India which include our multi-currency account and debit card, to help freelancers, international students going abroad as well as expats manage their money in a much better way.

We’re building out our team on the ground in India too and I work very closely with Rashmi Satpute who is our country manager in Mumbai.

What is Wise’s USP? What advantages does it offer over other platforms?

One of the key things that sets Wise apart from any other remittance provider in India is how transparent we are with our pricing. We don’t charge any exchange rate markups or other hidden costs so our customers only pay a single upfront fee, and the exchange rate they pay is the mid-market rate as seen on Google/Reuters.

We’re transparent because we want to make sure that customers get a fair deal. In cases where we’re not the cheapest provider, we let our customers know as well through the price comparison calculator on our homepage.

Do you host user data locally in countries you operate in? In India do you have local servers?

Data localisation is something we see from different parts of the world 一 our approach is to work with regulators to understand what is the goal of the data localisation and then to work with them to ensure we’re complying with the regulations, wherever we operate.