Wise makes more interest rate hay as income surges 66 per cent
Wise, the money transfer firm, said the amount of interest income it was raking in on customer balances has continued to rise after it made hay from rising rates last year.
In a trading update today, Wise said balances in its customers’ accounts had grown to £11.5bn in the first three months of its financial year while the gross interest income yield it was making on that money had topped 3.4 per cent, up from 2.8 per cent in the previous quarter.
Income for the firm rocketed 66 per cent in the period to £310.9m while revenues jumped by nearly a third to £239.5m.
Wise has felt the lift of rapid rate hikes over the past 12 months as the Bank of England has hiked rates to cool rampant inflation.
In its full year results at the end of June, the London-listed fintech firm said profits had surged from £43.9m in 2022 year to £146.5m in 2023 on the back of an interest income surge.
Wise also said it had notched a 33 per cent uptick in customers to 6.7m in the first quarter of the year as it continues an aggressive growth push globally.
“This quarter we continued building our infrastructure and rolling out the account features that our customers need to live, work or manage their businesses across borders,” boss Kristo Kaarmann said in a statement.
“We made our payments faster in Brazil, Australia and across a number of routes in Asia. Now 57 per cent of payments on Wise are delivered in under 20 seconds.”
The firm doubled down on its 2024 outlook with a predicted income growth of 28-33 per cent, and adjusted EBITDA margin remaining wide on the back of still lofty levels of interest income.
Wise, which floated in London in 2021, has seen its shares rise more than 11 per cent in the past month. However, it is still trading down over 30 per cent below its initial IPO price.