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FX fintech Wise takes on Airwallex, Australian banks with expansion

Global cross-border payments specialist Wise sees Australia as a prime market for growth with digital and existing banks receptive to its platform.

Andrew Cornell
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Foreign exchange and cross-border payments competition in Australia is growing with fintechs Wise and Airwallex doing battle. AP/Ahn Young-joon.

Global payments fintech Wise is looking to expand faster in the Asia Pacific and notably Australia with a focus on servicing business and financial institutions.

The strategy to expand in the business-to-business market will bring Wise into more direct competition with Melbourne-founded Airwallex as well as banks and their long-standing infrastructure platforms like SWIFT.

“We definitely see Australia as a core market for growth for Wise Platform,” Samarth Bansal, APAC general manager of Wise Platform, told Capital Brief. Wise was founded just over a decade ago as TransferWise, a consumer payments provider, and Wise Platform is the fintech’s newer business platform.

Wise Platform already provides cross-border payments for Bendigo and Adelaide Bank’s Up digital brand and business management platforms Prospend and Parpera.