Fintech Impact

Host Jason Pereira talks to Nick Catino, Head of Policy and Campaigns with Wise. It is a London-based financial technology company founded in January 2011 by Estonians Kristo Käärmann and Taavet Hinrikus. In today’s episode, Nick talks about consumer-facing products used by banks and businesses.

Episode Highlights:

• 0.38: Nick says Wise is a global payment technology company giving the best way to move money worldwide used by people who travel, live, and work internationally. 
• 3.08: Jason asks Nick about the origin of the company, how it came to be? Nick points out Wise was founded in 2011 as Transfer wise in London. 
• 3.10: It has two co-founders Kristo Kaamann and Taavet Hinrikus. 
• 4.01: The company’s idea came from the analysis that consumers are getting ripped off to send abroad, and it is so central to our mission today trying the payments more transparent.
• 5.30: Nick says living and leisure is focused on pricing across portal payments. When he travels, he keeps records of his credit card transaction receipts. When he gets back, he calculates how much he has spent, he does this for a living, and it is a complicated calculation.
• 7.17: Jason points out, “If you are running a company and you have to buy from overseas vendors regularly, you will probably speak to your bank about what can be done, and they will graduate you up to the next level.” 
• 8.33: Nick states, “When you are a multinational corporation or large business, you have a finance desk that is negotiating these rates in the wholesale market. 
• 8.40: As per Mckenzie’s study report, hundred or billion dollars in fees consumers pay in small business pay per year.
• 12.53: Jason asks Nick as a consumer, “If I have to send money somewhere in the world how can he utilize your platform?”
• 13.08: Nick says Wise allows to send money to friends and family members on platform using their name or FI. During traveling, you can use your debit card. It is integrated with apple pay. In small businesses, you can use it for goods and services import and exports, paying workers and freelancers internationally, and combined with several accounting platforms to make easy payments.
• 14.48: Jason asks how you enable business and how is that service different?
• 15.14: Nick says we are making it easy for our customers to move money abroad in the business side. Small businesses are joining our services every month, and not only banks some tech companies are launching platforms that users in the US can pay directly in India or Singapore.
• 16.45: Nick says we tried to make it easier for businesses to use our service. We started a consumer-facing brand, and there are end number of features and excited about market growth in the future by integration between business and banks. 
• 18.15: Jason inquires, “What happens if I transact in Euros, but I don’t want Euros? Nick answers then it will automatically transact the lowest cost conversion related to the product.
• 20.10: Nick says payments amortization has been a huge focus in many countries because it benefits consumers, and the ecosystem is very clear.
• 23.00: Jason asks from an end-user perspective, “Why is payment amortization important?” Nick says it’s about the cost. In the UK, on average, fees are 0.4%, and money is moving instantly, but if you are Canadian or American, it is 1% or more, and money can take days to receive on the other side. 
• 24.52: Jason says friction is in two ways one is speed, and two is basically cost, and both are impactful on the economy.
• 26.35: Nick reiterates that a global payment company being new in the market is certainly difficult, and lack of consumer awareness about how much you are being charged while sending money abroad is a challenge we have to overcome.
• 27.49: Jason asks Nick, “What excites him most about every day when he wakes up in the morning and keeps doing what he is doing?”
• 27.55: Nick replies that so many smart, driven diverse people, 2400 wiser from more than 70 countries, still continue to learn about different markets in culture and take ownership with projects they are working on is the best part of working with Wise.

3 Key Points: 

1. Nick talks about the consumer-facing products used by banks and businesses to integrate APIs directly with their platforms.
2. Nick says, “We pay fees to transfer money abroad, but we don’t realize how much we are overcharged, and many consumers and small-scale businesses are unaware of exchange rate markups.”
3. Jason mentions like western union, you need a massive global network of fixed locations that will allocate money on one side of the border to move it to the other side of the border.

Tweetable Quotes:

• “Business doesn’t impact revenue on the way it’s all about living methods of transparency” – Nick Catino
• “In 2021, sending money is like sending email” - Nick Catino
• “Many smart-driven diverse people, 2400 wiser from more than 70 countries continues to learn about different markets in culture and take ownership with projects they are working on.” - Nick Catino

Resources Mentioned:

• https://wise.com/in/
• https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicholascatino/
• https://wise.com/us/blog/author/nicholas-catino/
• https://www.linkedin.com/in/kkaarmann/?originalSubdomain=uk
• https://www.linkedin.com/in/taavethinrikus/?originalSubdomain=uk
• Podcast Editing