Wise shares bounce on ‘milestone’ Morgan Stanley payments deal
Shares in Wise have jumped this afternoon after the London-listed fintech firm announced a “milestone” deal to handle foreign exchange payments for Morgan Stanley’s corporate clients.
The money transfer firm said Morgan Stanley will become the first major investment bank to offer “high speed cross border” payments through its platform business, which provides payments infrastructure to lenders.
“This relationship marks a significant milestone in the growing number of trusted global banks that are choosing to power their cross-border payments through Wise Platform,” said Steve Naudé, managing director of Wise Platform.
The deal signals a push from the fintech to win more top financial clients alongside its traditional money transfer offer, which allows personal users and businesses to send money overseas.
Shares in Wise jumped beyond three per cent after the tie-up was revealed.
Through the partnership, Morgan Stanley will offer clients cross-border settlements through Wise Platform. The new feature will reportedly form part of Morgan Stanley’s newly launched TFX Hub, which serves foreign-exchange needs of corporate and institutional clients, Bloomberg reported.
Samer Oweida, global head of foreign exchange and emerging markets at Morgan Stanley, added the partnership would “deliver one of the fastest, operationally robust and cost-effective payment capabilities in the banking industry.”
Wise has been forging deeper into the business market in recent years and reported a 11 per cent jump in active business customers to 523,000 in the first half of the year. Personal customers rose by 25 per cent to 10.85m in the same period.
The firm struck nine new deals with banks through its platform arm in the same six-month period, including Brazilian fintech Nubank and Standard Chartered.
Shares in the company have risen around 40 per cent since the beginning of September, pushing Wise above its IPO valuation for only the second time since it listed in London in 2021.