TransferWise Will Support Apple Pay In The US, Other Countries

TransferWise, the FinTech that allows its users to send money internationally, will soon support Apple Pay.

According to a report in Reuters, which cited TransferWire, the payments company is supporting Apple Pay in an effort to make international money transfers simpler and more secure. TransferWise is enabling the payment service in the USA as well as other countries. In fact, it has been supporting Apple Pay in the U.K. since 2015, according to Reuters.

Users who own Apple devices will not need to input a payment card or personal bank account details into the TransferWise platform. Instead, they will be able to transfer money via their Apple Pay account, shortening the time it takes to transfer money. The aim is to grow transaction volumes by utilizing the technology TransferWise customers are already using.

“It’s much more convenient to do it this way,” said Gregory Talon, consumer product lead at TransferWise, in an interview with Reuters. “Because you don’t have to type any of your card details, it limits the risk of having somebody watching what you are doing.”

Since using Apple Pay in the U.K., the company told Reuters, more than 10 percent of all transactions to or from the British pound have been made on Apple devices using Apple Pay.

Reuters noted TransferWise is among the most funded FinTech startups in Europe. Investors include British billionaire Sir Richard Branson, venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz and PayPal founder Max Levchin. TransferWise processes approximately $1.2 billion transactions each month, spanning 750 currency routes.

The Apple Pay integration on TransferWise will also be available in Australia, France, Ireland, Italy, Spain and Switzerland, reported Reuters.

The move to accept Apple Pay comes just a week after the company made other news announcing its two co-founders have swapped their roles as CEO and chairman. According to a blog post from co-founder Taavet Hinrikus, Kristo Kaarmann, the other founder, is taking over as CEO of the money transfer startup, and Hinrikus will serve as chairman.