How mobile payments platform, Wirex, continues to lead the future of digital banking
Pavel Matveev, co-founder and CEO of Wirex, spoke with Morning Wire’s James Bowater, to discuss how their unique fintech business is leading the future of digital banking and explains why they are here to stay.
Despite the uncertain financial climate and the scepticism that many have around cryptocurrency, we at Wirex are continuing to work hard to make digital banking more convenient and versatile than ever before.
We founded Wirex in 2014, after identifying the need for a simple answer to the often-confusing world of cryptocurrencies. To make digital money more accessible to everyone, we developed a mobile payments platform that allows customers to buy, store, exchange and spend digital and traditional currencies.
As we move towards a cashless society, our aim is to support and promote the adoption of digital currencies and to provide a low-cost, efficient and secure transactional environment for individuals. We are proud to say that the following year, Wirex was the first company in the world to issue a contactless Wirex Visa card. This has given our users the ability to seamlessly convert and spend cryptocurrencies in day-to-day life, at more than 46 million outlets where Visa is accepted, to purchase everything from a loaf of bread, to a shirt from their favourite clothes store.
Wirex has gone from strength to strength, and both the company and its product have changed to accommodate industry trends, regulatory requirements and market demand.
Despite these difficult times, Wirex is one of the companies who are here to stay, as we continue to serve our customers throughout the incipient financial crisis. Complying with government and WHO guidelines on self-isolation, our 200-strong team are working diligently from their homes in London, Singapore, Kiev, Tokyo, Toronto, Dallas and Atlanta to ensure the platform continues to operate as usual.
At a time when digital payments are increasingly pertinent and businesses are moving to operate solely online, our entirely cashless and contactless payments system enables funds to be moved worldwide quickly and securely, giving people the opportunity to experience the future of finance today.
The Wirex business model was built to withstand situations like this. Already profitable, we are growing fast but sensibly for both users and investors. Many other fintech businesses are not set up in the same way and will unfortunately take a hit during times of crisis. By highlighting the need for a new way of thinking about money that can withstand these situations, Wirex is paving the way for a dramatic shift in the fintech and wider finance industry.
This month, we celebrated reaching 3 million registered customers on our platform. Spread across more than 130 countries around the globe with transaction volumes exceeding $2 billion, our users continue to recognise the benefits of managing both crypto and fiat currencies on one, centralised mobile app. Our success shows that we’ve made huge progress in democratising access to cryptocurrencies, by removing key barriers to usage and pushing the world ever closer to mass adoption.
The acquisition of an Financial Conduct Authority e-money licence in 2018 opened new paths for growth and development. The licence gives us the freedom to optimise our e-money offering which has led to lower costs and fees for our users. Meeting the criteria for an FCA e-money licence was just the first part of creating a much broader, value-added offering, which will more effectively cater to our customers’ needs.
We’re constantly looking to expand and are currently in the process of obtaining licences in Singapore, Japan and North America.
Following successful operations across Europe and Asia, we will be entering the US market in April. The expansion is led by experienced payments executive, Harold Montgomery. Having led 6 other payment companies through high-growth experiences, he is committed to ensuring customers experience the same ease-of-use and benefits that customers around the world already have access to.
With several hundred thousand people already on the waiting list, we expect a strong launch in the US and will initiate a full roll-out of exciting new features throughout the rest of the year.
Our plans don’t stop there. Later this year, we will launch the Wirex Business platform – a much-needed corporate solution to handling and transacting crypto and traditional currencies.
With businesses increasingly incorporating digital money, the traditional banking system is ill-equipped to support this. Wirex aims to offer a secure, regulated and cost-efficient environment that integrates all assets into a unified blockchain ecosystem, combining the speed and flexibility of cryptocurrencies with the acceptance of traditional currency. Thanks to a lack of artificial limits or huge fees, combined with near-instant settlement times on blockchain, we believe this will be particularly beneficial for businesses of all sizes.
Although the political, social and financial situation around the world remains uncertain, we are constantly striving to stay on top of market developments by continuing to develop new features and products that will allow us to help shape the future of digital payments.
Read more at wirexapp.com