Forkast.Focus | HKFinTechWeek: How TransferWise is Shaking up Remittances

TransferWise is designed to facilitate the growing market of global remittances by reducing costs the cost of sending money internationally. 

Instead of sending money at high transaction fees to other countries through banks or other third parties, TransferWise internally exchanges currency to be sent using real market rates from Reuters or Google exchange rates.

By allowing users to send local currency to TransferWise and recipients to pick up money in their local tender through TransferWise, two local transactions take place rather than an international one. This simple yet innovative way of sending money allows users to bypass the fees and commissions from other companies and banks. According to TechCrunch, there are now over five million people using TransferWise. Each month, the company processes over £4 billion (USD$5.1b) in payments, which would have cost customers over £1 billion (USD$1.28b) more if they had used conventional banking.