An update on all things Asia at Wise

The Asia team is one of Wise’s largest regional tribes. We look after 15 currencies and focus on making sending money to and from Asia as cheap, fast, and convenient as possible.

We’ve been working on a number of projects this quarter to deliver on our mission of money without borders for all our customers in Asia and we wanted to share with you a few updates about what we’ve been up to.

Our Singapore office has been open just over a year and there’s now more than 80 people - with plans to be over 100 by next year! We’re always looking for more people to help us so if you’re interested to join our revolution, check out our open roles in Singapore.

Onboarding easier than ever in Singapore

In October, we launched an integration with the Singapore Government’s MyInfo program, which lets us instantly verify local customers. MyInfo is a service that reduces the need for citizens and residents to provide verifying documentation during online transactions.

The majority of customers in Singapore can now enjoy the seamless onboarding experience with secure verification. It will also help us improve authentication accuracy, security and efficiency, and - in the long run - help reduce fees due to decreased on-boarding costs.

We’ve made big improvements in verification since we started our office in Singapore over a year ago. From the need for mandatory face-to-face verification when we first launched, to the introduction of selfie and document uploads earlier this year, and now to instant verification that can be made with the MyInfo integration today, we have successfully cut down the required lengthy verification wait time in the span of a year.

Faster payments in Hong Kong

Earlier this year, we became the first non-bank company to directly access the UK’s Faster Payments Scheme. This direct link has meant significantly faster transfers for our UK customers and lower fees.

We are now working to deliver the same improvements in Asia so that our customers can get their transfers faster and cheaper.

In Hong Kong, we have made transfers much faster after connecting to Hong Kong’s instant payments infrastructure - Faster Payments System (FPS) - through our local partner.

As a result, customers should already be seeing significant speed improvements. Previously it used to take a day or more to send money to or from Hong Kong; with this integration, transfers are now within a few minutes.

Long-term, we’re also working to connect directly to Hong Kong’s instant payments infrastructure - Faster Payments System (FPS) - to speed up the remaining transfers that aren’t already instant.

Bringing Wise to businesses in Japan

Earlier this year, we launched Wise Business in Japan. This allows businesses in Japan to send and receive money much cheaper and faster than previously possible through their banks.

We rolled this out to full availability at the start of the quarter, and since then we’ve seen a big uptake amongst businesses in Japan using Wise to pay invoices, process batch payments, and more.

Opened the ability to send from Japan to China

Customers in Japan have been asking us for some time to help them send money to China. We heard you and we’ve opened this route! For customers sending money from Japan to China the cost is ¥160, plus a 1.5% fee.

Celebrating Diwali with our Indian customers

Diwali marks the celebration of light over darkness and we wanted to help our Indian customers celebrate the holiday.

For our customers sending money to friends and family in India, we made sure to share some well wishes every time money arrived instantly during the festival.

Our hope was that these fun new animations made our customers’ holidays a little bit brighter when they sent money home.

We’re excited about the future for our customers sending money to and from Asia and we’re working hard to make transfers instant, convenient, transparent, and eventually free.

We’re always looking for help - if you want to join our revolution, check out our jobs page.

The Wise Asia Team