Wise interview: Taavet Hinrikus on regulation, products, SEPA Instant and the B2B fintech roadmap
Summary — Company, products, history and future
Wise (formerly TransferWise) is a global payments fintech built around cross-border money movement, multi-currency accounts, card issuance and developer-first APIs. Founded to fix opaque FX and high cross-border fees, Wise operates as an electronic money institution and regulated payments group across multiple jurisdictions, supplying IBANs, multi-currency wallets, FX conversion, card issuing and mass-payout tools. The business focuses on transparency and low-cost foreign exchange, embedded finance via platform APIs and partnerships rather than full retail banking in most markets. Regulatory compliance, risk controls and orchestration with licensed bank and card partners underpin its product delivery. Over the next 12–24 months Wise plans deeper SEPA Instant coverage and routing enhancements, richer embedded finance primitives for platforms, broader card issuing and wallets functionality, continued investment in KYC/KYB automation and operational scaling to support enterprise clients and marketplaces.
Interview with Taavet Hinrikus, Chairman of the Board, Wise
Q1: Can you summarise your current role and how it connects to product and compliance strategy?
A1: As Chairman of the Board I oversee strategic direction, governance and regulatory posture while working closely with the CEO and product leadership on long-term product strategy. My role is to ensure product decisions align with sustainable risk appetite and capital allocation, and that the compliance framework scales as we enter new markets and verticals. I maintain a hands-on relationship with product leads to prioritise features that are legal-first — for example, the way we design IBAN issuance, card programmes and onboarding workflows to meet local regulator expectations.
Q2: What is Wise’s current regulatory setup — what licenses and models do you operate under?
A2: Wise operates primarily as an Electronic Money Institution (EMI) and payments group across multiple jurisdictions. We hold payments and e-money authorisations in key regions and run local regulated entities where required. We also rely on partnerships with licensed banks and card processors for specific rails like card acquiring and local clearing in select markets. Where permissible we utilise agent and partner models to extend capabilities while keeping regulatory segregation and safeguarding obligations clear. We do not market ourselves as a universal retail bank; instead we combine EMI licences, payments permissions and partner bank relationships to deliver financial services.
Q3: How does Wise approach MiCA and the emerging EU crypto framework?
A3: Wise monitors MiCA closely and evaluates it through the lens of our product strategy. Our primary focus remains on fiat cross-border payments, FX and platform payments. If Wise were to engage with tokenised-assets or custody, we would ensure any offering fits within MiCA and supporting AML/CFT frameworks and that appropriate licences or partnerships are in place. Today our product set remains non-custodial for crypto and oriented to fiat rails; any change would be subject to rigorous regulatory and compliance approvals.
Q4: Describe Wise’s core products relevant to platforms and marketplaces.
A4: Core products include multi-currency wallets with local IBANs, global FX with tight spreads, mass payouts and batch transfers for marketplaces and payroll, card issuance (physical and virtual) via partner programmes, and a developer API suite for account opening, payments initiation, real-time FX quotes and reconciliation webhooks. We also provide KYB/KYC onboarding flows, sanctions screening, transaction monitoring, and dashboards for reconciliation and dispute handling. For platforms, our focus is deterministic settlement, currency conversion options and predictable fees.
Q5: What is Wise Platform and how does it differ from the retail product?
A5: Wise Platform is the B2B offering that exposes Wise’s rails, multi-currency accounts and FX capabilities through APIs and partner arrangements. It allows other businesses — fintechs, marketplaces and banks — to embed Wise-powered accounts, IBAN issuance, outbound FX and payouts within their own UX under white-label or co-branded arrangements. Compared to the retail product, Platform emphasizes integration features (webhooks, reconciliation endpoints), different SLAs, volume-based pricing and bespoke compliance onboarding for partners.
Q6: How does Wise issue IBANs and what regulatory/partner model supports that?
A6: IBAN issuance is delivered through Wise’s regulated entities and local banking partnerships. In jurisdictions where Wise is authorised to issue IBANs, they are delivered directly from our e-money or payment licence. In markets requiring bank-issued IBANs to access specific local clearing, we partner with licensed banks who provide the underlying clearing and deposit capabilities. All IBAN issuance is tied to KYC-verified accounts and subject to transaction monitoring and sanctions screening.
Q7: Does Wise support SEPA Instant credit transfers and how is coverage determined?
A7: Yes. Wise supports SEPA Instant (SCT Inst) where both sending and receiving legs and local clearing infrastructure permit it. Coverage is determined by membership of the sending/receiving institution in the SCT Inst scheme, domestic clearing capabilities and practical routing constraints. Where SCT Inst isn’t available, Wise will route via standard SEPA rails or via internal netting and FX settlement logic to prioritise speed and cost. Our routing engine dynamically chooses the fastest, cheapest compliant path for each transfer.
Q8: Explain Wise’s routing logic for SEPA and cross-border payments.
A8: Routing is rule-based and dynamic, evaluating: rail availability, cost, speed, counterparty restrictions (sanctions, PEPs, high-risk sectors), and customer preference (e.g., slower cheaper vs faster). For EUR flows, the engine checks whether a transfer can remain on SEPA rails, go via SCT Inst, or be settled via internal offsetting with upstream FX settlement. For cross-currency payments it optimises FX venue and settlement path, sometimes splitting transfers to combine low-cost rails with faster legs while ensuring compliance checks execute on each relevant leg.
Q9: What Open Banking capabilities does Wise offer?
A9: Wise offers Open Banking integrations for account verification, payment initiation, and consented account data retrieval where regulation and market access permit. This is used for rapid account validation during onboarding, instant payouts from local accounts and improved reconciliation. For partners wishing to leverage Open Banking as a channel, Wise supports both AIS and PIS flows through secure OAuth-based consent mechanisms and maintains robust logging and consent revocation workflows.
Q10: Does Wise act as an acquirer or hold acquiring licenses?
A10: Wise does not operate as a merchant acquirer in the traditional sense. Card acceptance and merchant acquiring are provided through partner processors and acquiring banks. Wise focuses on card issuance and routing for card-based payouts and customer cards, while merchant acquiring for platform merchants is handled via third-party acquiring partners integrated into our solutions when needed.
Q11: What is the onboarding timeline and what documentation is required for enterprise clients?
A11: Onboarding timelines vary by risk profile. For individual retail customers identity verification typically completes within minutes to 48 hours with standard ID documents and proof of address. For businesses, basic onboarding can complete in 2–7 business days if documents are standard and KYB checks pass. More complex cases, high-risk verticals (crypto-related services, adult, affiliate marketing) or entities with complex ownership structures may take 2–6 weeks due to enhanced due diligence, source-of-funds review and beneficial ownership verification. Required documents include certified company incorporation documents, ownership structure, director IDs, recent bank statements, proof of business activity and platform flow diagrams for marketplaces.
Q12: How does Wise approach high-risk verticals such as crypto VASPs, adult content platforms or affiliates?
A12: Wise evaluates high-risk verticals through a strict risk-based approach. We require enhanced due diligence, transaction monitoring tailored to the vertical, stricter KYC/KYB, and sometimes additional contractual and operational controls. For certain categories like crypto VASPs, Wise typically requires clear regulatory permissions, AML/CFT programmes consistent with local rules, and strong transaction traceability before engaging. In some cases we decline or route away from activities that we cannot monitor or which exceed our risk appetite.
Q13: What fraud and AML tools does Wise use to protect rails and clients?
A13: Wise combines deterministic rules, machine learning models and third-party screening suppliers. Core elements include sanctions and PEP screening at onboarding and in-transaction, behavioural analytics for velocity/fraud detection, device and session risk scoring, transaction monitoring with configurable thresholds, automated case management, and manual review teams for escalations. We also run transaction risk classification to detect structuring, layering or unusual routing that could indicate financial crime.
Q14: Describe the technical stack for integrations — APIs, webhooks, sandbox and dashboards.
A14: Wise exposes a RESTful API with JSON payloads, SDKs for common languages, real-time webhooks for status updates, and a developer sandbox for testing. The merchant and partner dashboard provides onboarding workflows, KYC/KYB document upload, transaction reconciliation, dispute handling and reporting. The stack emphasises idempotency, robust error codes and observability; performance SLAs and regional endpoints reduce latency for global clients.
Q15: How is pricing structured at a high level for platform customers?
A15: Pricing is modular and volume-aware. Components include a per-transaction fee, a small percentage-based FX margin (typically lower than incumbent bank spreads but higher than interbank for low-volume trades), and separate fees for card issuance, card transactions and mass-payout volume tiers. Enterprise partners often get customised volume discounts and multiyear commercial terms. We publish transparent headline fees for retail customers, while B2B contracts reflect negotiated rates tied to volumes, complexity and integration scope.
Q16: How do you position Wise versus Stripe and Adyen for platforms?
A16: Stripe and Adyen are strong at global acquiring, merchant payments and unified merchant experiences. Wise’s competitive advantage is in transparent cross-border FX, multi-currency accounts, low-cost international payouts, and developer-friendly APIs for embedded accounts and payouts. For global commerce requiring complex acquiring and card processing at scale, Stripe/Adyen may lead; for platforms prioritising low-cost cross-border settlement, multi-currency liquidity and IBAN/FX at scale, Wise is often the preferred partner or complementary provider.
Q17: Where does Wise sit compared with Banking Circle, Swan or Lemonway?
A17: Banking Circle and Swan offer banking infrastructure and banking-as-a-service with a focus on fast clearing and specialized banking services, while Lemonway is specialist in marketplace payments and escrow. Wise differentiates through global FX competence, a strong multi-currency wallet and developer platform for embedded accounts. We partner with banking infrastructure providers where beneficial; our value proposition is combining settlement efficiency, FX and developer experience into a single API layer rather than providing full balance-sheet banking for third parties in every market.
Q18: What is Wise’s risk appetite and how do you maintain compliance while scaling?
A18: Our risk appetite is moderate-to-conservative: we seek scalable, auditable flows and decline exposure where detection or controls are insufficient. Maintaining compliance while scaling requires investment in automated KYC/KYB, transaction monitoring, human review capacity, compliance engineering and strong legal governance. We also maintain regulatory engagement with authorities in key jurisdictions and conduct regular independent audits and control testing.
Q19: What recent company developments should partners be aware of?
A19: Recently Wise accelerated investments in platform capabilities and expanded localisation of IBANs and card issuance in additional European markets, while continuing to harden onboarding automation. Operationally we have increased focus on SEPA Instant coverage and routing efficiencies to reduce settlement times for EUR transactions. We are also strengthening AML tooling and expanding reseller and partner programmes to enable faster market entry for fintechs and marketplaces.
Q20: How does Wise handle reconciliation and reporting for high-volume customers?
A20: We provide detailed transaction-level webhooks, downloadable settlement files, and reconciliation reports in the partner dashboard with filtering by date, currency and status. For high-volume customers we offer custom reporting feeds (SFTP/API) and dedicated account operations support to configure matching rules and exception handling processes. We also provide enriched metadata on transfers to aid downstream accounting and compliance workflows.
Q21: What is the technical SLA and uptime expectation for API partners?
A21: We publish API status and aim for high availability consistent with enterprise expectations. Standard SLA targets include 99.9%+ platform availability for core APIs, with regional redundancy, retries, and backpressure controls. For critical clearing and settlement flows we agree operational runbooks with enterprise customers including fallback routing, error handling patterns and incident communications.
Q22: How does Wise support card issuing — virtual vs physical — and dispute handling?
A22: Wise issues both virtual and physical cards through card programme partners. The issuing stack provides BIN-level controls, spend controls, and programmatic card lifecycle APIs (create, suspend, cancel). For disputes and chargebacks we integrate with acquiring partners’ dispute flows, and provide merchants and partners with APIs and dashboards to track chargebacks, submit evidence and reconcile outcomes.
Q23: What measures are in place for sandbox-to-production onboarding for developers?
A23: Developers start in a sandbox environment with test data and simulated rails. To move to production, we require completed KYC/KYB, signed commercial agreements for certain volumes, production API keys, and acceptance testing in a staging environment for complex flows. We provide integration guides, SDKs and dedicated technical onboarding support for enterprise partners to ensure production readiness and compliance gating is met.
Q24: What specific enterprise features are on Wise’s 12–24 month roadmap?
A24: Roadmap priorities include expanded SEPA Instant coverage and faster EUR routing, richer embedded finance primitives (balance sweeps, interest-bearing multi-currency features where regulation permits), expanded card issuance and BIN sponsorship in more markets, deeper KYB automation and enhanced AML analytics, more granular reconciliation endpoints and improved SLAs for enterprise customers. We’re also investing in partnerships that enable local acquiring and settlement capabilities for platforms.
Q25: Looking further out, what is Wise’s long-term vision for embedded finance?
A25: Long-term, Wise aims to be the preferred rails-and-API layer for platforms that require transparent FX, multi-currency accounts and seamless payouts — effectively the infrastructure layer for cross-border value transfer. We see embedded finance as a continuum: enabling marketplaces, SaaS platforms and banks to embed cross-border and multi-currency functionality within their products while preserving regulatory compliance and capital separations through licensed entities and partner banks. We will expand primitives that let partners move money with minimal friction and maximum transparency.
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FAQ
Q: Is Wise a bank?
A: No. Wise operates as an Electronic Money Institution and regulated payments group in multiple jurisdictions; it is not a universal retail bank. It partners with licensed banks for certain banking rails where required.
Q: Can Wise issue IBANs in multiple European countries?
A: Yes. Wise issues IBANs through its regulated entities and partner banks where required. Availability varies by country and product type and is subject to KYC verification.
Q: Does Wise support SEPA Instant?
A: Wise supports SEPA Instant where the rails, counterparty membership and local rules allow it. If Instant is unavailable, Wise will route via standard SEPA or other optimised settlement paths.
Q: How long does business onboarding take?
A: Typical business onboarding ranges from 2–7 business days for straightforward cases. Complex ownership or high-risk sectors can take several weeks due to enhanced due diligence.
Q: Does Wise support crypto exchanges or VASPs?
A: Wise maintains a cautious approach to crypto VASPs. Engagement requires robust regulatory authorisations, AML programs and traceability. Each case is assessed on risk and compliance readiness.
Q: Can I integrate Wise via API for mass payouts?
A: Yes. Wise offers APIs for mass payouts, batch transfers and programmatic FX. The APIs include webhooks for status updates and developer sandbox access for testing.
Q: Does Wise provide merchant acquiring services?
A: Not as a core in-house acquirer. Wise partners with acquiring banks and processors to support merchant acceptance where required, focusing its product on card issuance and payout capabilities.
