Transferwise has marked its first integration with a major bank by forming a partnership with France’s Groupe BPCE.
The London-headquartered FinTech, which provides cross-currency money transfers at a lower cost than traditional banks, will integrate its service via the group’s banking apps next year. The service will be available 24/7 via the banks’ app with desktop to follow soon after.
By partnering with Naxtixis Payments and Banques Populaires’ and Caisses d’Epargne, the bank’s 15 million retail customers will be able to send money to over 60 countries at the real exchange rate. The service will enable BPCE customers to send money to over 60 countries at TransferWise’s usual low fee of 0.5% on most currency routes and at the mid-market exchange rate.
It marks the first time in Europe that a major bank will directly integrate TransferWise’s API into mobile banking apps.
Kristo Käärmann, co-founder and CEO, TransferWise, said: “TransferWise has a mission to make money move around the world as fast and as cheaply as email. This partnership is a momentous step on that journey – for the first time a major mainstream bank is offering its customers the chance to benefit from TransferWise’s lightning fast, low cost service. It’s proof that we can scale our technology, which will allow other big institutions to seamlessly integrate with the service.
Natixis is the international corporate and investment banking, asset management, insurance and financial services arm of Groupe BPCE, the second largest banking group in France with 31 million clients spread over two retail banking networks. Groupe BPCE has 106,500 employees, serves a total of 31 million customers and enjoys a strong local presence in France with 7,800 branches and nine million cooperative shareholders.
“Integrating fintech services in the payment journey is an integral part of Natixis Payments’ DNA and know-how, allowing us to build better payments every day, says Pierre-Antoine Vacheron, member of the senior management committee of Natixis. “We are excited to join forces with a solution as innovative as TransferWise, that meets the critical needs of consumers today when it comes to international money transfer. This integration is a concrete use case of instant payments, of which Natixis Payments and Groupe BPCE are frontrunners.”
Co-founded by Taavet Hinrikus and Kristo Käärmann, TransferWise launched in 2011 and has raised $397m from investors such as IVP, Old Mutual, Andreessen Horowitz, Sir Richard Branson, Valar Ventures and Max Levchin of PayPal.
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