London-based remittance startup TransferWise is gaining access to the UK’s Fast Payments Service (FPS), through a technical partnership with Raphaels Bank.
The deal will allow the company to complete money transfers instantaneously after it receives payment from the user’s bank.
“There’s no reason why transferring money overseas should be any different from sending an email, and integration for a non-bank into the Faster Payments Scheme is a stepping stone towards making that happen,” say the company’s co-founder and CEO Kristo Käärmann.
The company says that access to the FPS will enable it to offer a 24/7 payments service that is no longer subject to bank’s downtime or delays.
Valued at more than USD1bn and having raised more than USD113m in funding to date from investors including Silicon Valley heavyweight Andreessen Horowitz, TransferWise is best known for its aggressive advertising that claims to expose banks’ hidden charges for international money transfers.
“The ‘pipes’ of money which make up the payments infrastructure used to be the monopoly of the banking system. Sharing access to this will restart competition, seeding cheaper, faster and more convenient financial products that directly benefit the consumer,” says Käärmann.
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