an article written by Kristo Käärmann – CoFounder & CEO of TransferWise
Today, we’re changing our name from TransferWise to Wise.
Our customers now need us for more than money transfers. Sending, spending, and receiving money internationally is too expensive, slow, and inconvenient. We’re fixing that for people and businesses.
Ten years ago, Taavet and I set out to fix international money transfers for all of us who’d been overcharged and underserved by banks. We named our idea ‘TransferWise’ — because our early customers were ‘wise’ to know their banks were charging hidden fees in exchange rate markups.
We set ourselves a mission to make money work without borders — to make money move instantly, transparently, conveniently, and — eventually — for free.
Now, we’re a community of 10 million like-minded people and businesses managing money all over the world, saving billions and fighting as hard as ever against hidden fees.
Our multi-currency account and the clever debit card is replacing international banking for many of you. By building this infrastructure for you, we’ve created a platform that more than a dozen banks use today.
You’ve told us for years the problem is bigger than money transfers. Any time money moves into another currency, it’s still a maze of hidden exchange rate markups, high fees, delays, and small print.
Sending, spending, receiving, and holding money internationally doesn’t work like it should, because the international banking system was built for the past.
For generations, banks have been defined by borders. Traditional bank accounts trap our money in one country, making international lives more difficult and expensive than they need to be. We shouldn’t have to accept this status quo.
Today, we don’t. We’ll fix it with Wise — the world’s most international account. It makes your money borderless — with instant, super-cheap money transfers, a debit card to spend in any currency, account details to get paid in 30+ countries, balances to hold your money safely in 50+ different currencies, multi-currency direct debits, and other revolutionary features.
Today our name catches up with who we’re already building for — a community of people and businesses with multi-currency lives. Wise is for all of us who live, work, travel, or support family around the world. It’s for those of us who want to cut out the middlemen that hold us back from being truly borderless.
For customers, not too much will change right away. We become “Wise” or “Wise Business” — depending how you use us. You can access your exact same account via wise.com, using your current email and password. You won’t need a new account. In a few weeks we will start to redirect transferwise.com to wise.com.
Our logo has changed, and our apps will be renamed. But our icon — the fast flag — remains as a symbol for money without borders. Beyond that, you’ll notice some new colours, words, and designs.
The core experience of using Wise will remain faster, cheaper, and more convenient than anything else. Our mission remains the same. We’re still making — and always will be making — money work without borders.
We’re humbled that 10 million of you already rely on us to help you lead your international lives. We can’t wait to bring the next 100 million of you with us as we continue to build a new, fair, and transparent world of money.
Onwards.
Banking 4.0 – „how was the experience for you”
„So many people are coming here to Bucharest, people that I see and interact on linkedin and now I get the change to meet them in person. It was like being to the Football World Cup but this was the World Cup on linkedin in payments and open banking.”
Many more interesting quotes in the video below:
