Wise, Harsh Sinha & Steve Naudé - Building a leading cross-border payments network

Wharton FinTech Podcast

Kailee Costello hosts Harsh Sinha and Steve Naudé from Wise. Harsh is the Chief Technology Officer, and Steve is Head of Wise Platform. Wise has built a leading cross-border payments network and processes £9B in cross-border payments every month on behalf of over 16 million customers. Wise’s IPO on the London Stock Exchange took place in 2021. In this episode you will hear about: - Wise’s journey from money transfer service to leading cross-border payments network - How Wise have put an API around their cross-border payment infrastructure so that they can offer it to banks and non-banks via Wise Platform - How Wise is able to achieve such low transaction costs - Whether Wise will be able to push prices lower in the future - The friction that still exists in cross-border payments - The role that crypto solutions will play in the future. - How Wise deploys cross-functional teams that operate as a small startup within Wise and are fully equipped as a vertical unit to solve the problem for the customer - Challenges faced in building and growing Wise Platform - Growth opportunities for Wise Platform, and why Wise is expecting Platform to represent the majority of FX volume in the long-term About Wise Wise is a global technology company building the best way to move and manage money around the world. Wise processes £9bn in cross-border payments every month on behalf of over 16 million customers, saving them £1.5bn a year in bank fees. Wise’s IPO took place in July 2021. About Harsh Sinha and Steve Naudé Harsh Sinha is the Chief Technology Officer at Wise. Prior to Wise, Harsh was the director of product at PayPal. He led product strategy and development of PayPal's mobile apps and software. Previously, Harsh led various technology functions at eBay. Harsh is also an angel investor, an advisor to early stage start-ups and venture capital firms. Steve Naudé is Head of Wise Platform, Wise’s cross-border payments infrastructure offer for banks and non-banks alike. Wise Platform allows financial institutions and major enterprises to leverage the power of Wise’s technology and embed solutions that make sending, receiving, and managing money internationally easier than ever for their customers directly into their existing infrastructure. Today, Wise Platform is live with more than 60 banks and financial institutions across the world, including Monzo, Google Pay, Ramp and Bank Mandiri, one of Indonesia's largest banks. For more FinTech insights, follow us on WFT Medium: medium.com/wharton-fintech WFT Twitter: twitter.com/whartonfintech WFT Instagram: instagram.com/whartonfintech Kailee’s Twitter: @KaileeCostello_ Kailee’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kaileecostello/