Wise is listed on the London Stock Exchange, FCA authorised, and serves over 16 million customers globally. It offers the real mid-market exchange rate with completely transparent fees — a genuinely consumer-friendly product and one of the most trusted fintech companies to emerge from the UK.
Wise (formerly TransferWise) was founded in London in 2011 by Taavet Hinrikus and Kristo Käärmann, originally as a peer-to-peer international money transfer platform. It rebranded to Wise in 2021 and listed on the London Stock Exchange later that year (LON: WISE) — making it a publicly traded UK company subject to FCA disclosure requirements, quarterly reporting obligations, and all the transparency requirements of a listed financial services firm. This public company status is one of the strongest possible trust signals for a fintech.
Wise's core proposition is built on radical transparency: it charges the real mid-market exchange rate (the same rate shown on Google or XE.com) and charges a clear, percentage-based fee that is displayed in full before you commit to a transfer. There are no hidden margins built into the exchange rate — the practice that has made traditional bank international transfers so expensive for consumers and businesses for decades. Wise has brought this transparency to a global user base of over 16 million customers and processes tens of billions of pounds in transfers every year.
Beyond international transfers, Wise offers a multi-currency debit card, Wise Business accounts for companies needing to manage multiple currencies, and savings features in some markets. The Wise card is particularly useful for travellers, offering real exchange rates on card spending with low conversion fees. Customer service is generally responsive and the platform's Trustpilot reviews are overwhelmingly positive. Wise is one of the most trusted and genuinely consumer-beneficial fintech companies to have emerged from the UK — a benchmark for how financial services companies should operate.