Money management company Wise has officially obtained a Capital Markets Services (CMS) licence from the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS).
Now Wise has received its CMS license from MAS, it can now offer its latest investment product to Singapore. The licence news was announced at the 2022 Singapore Fintech Festival. The news is significant as the company looks to expand its global offerings.
The news comes one week after Wise gained a similar investment licence. The previous licence obtained came from the Estonian Financial Supervision and Resolution Authority (Finantsinspektsioon).
Wise’s new investment product ‘Assets’ aims to give its customers more choices about how their money is held. Assets, which is currently available for UK customers, can potentially offer a return on customers’ money in over 50 currencies.
The investment account has attempted to differentiate itself from those offered by traditional banks. This has been done by offering access to the majority of the money to spend and send. This means that customers who may be deterred from traditional investment accounts can still access investment options.
Nilan Peiris, chief product officer at Wise, spoke on the significance of obtaining the license. He said: “We’re excited to have secured the licence as our first step towards bringing Assets to Wise customers in Singapore, making this the first location outside Europe where we’ll be offering this product.
“Assets is something new we’ve built to give our customers more ways to manage their money, and we look forward to rolling this out to customers here. This also reflects Wise’s continued commitment to Singapore, our APAC hub, by [the end of the year] we will have doubled in size to hit over 400 employees.”
Economic issues cause Wise to raise fees
Following September’s mini-budget introduced by the now ex-chancellor of the exchequer Kwasi Kwarteng, the pound has seen significant turmoil. The strength of the pound weakened to a record low of $1.035 to the dollar. Although it has since reached levels consistently over $1.10 to the dollar since the end of October, Rise was required to rise its prices.
Wise explained in October that the high volatility for foreign exchange led to higher costs. Because of this, the company said that the average charge for customers to move money had risen to 0.64 per cent.
People and businesses hold £6.8billion in Wise account balances globally. Wise explained it aims to create a more convenient experience for all who send, hold and receive money in multiple currencies. It also plans to potentially offer a return on customers’ funds, to be found all in one place.
