TransferWise extending services to South Korea
Previously, it was only possible to send money to South Korea via banks or other traditional currency exchange providers. Following a change in South Korean regulations, however, TransferWise, an Estonian-developed peer-to-peer (P2P) international money transfer service, announced on Tuesday that it had partnered with local Korean firm PayGate in order to extend its money transfer service to the country.
Currently, instead of sending money in Korean Won (KRW), banks and currency exchange providers, or brokers, have been sending customers’ money in British Pounds (GBP) or American dollars (USD), with the bank at the receiving end then converting the amounts into the local currency. In this situation, customers have been unknowingly paying two rounds of fees on each transfer.
TransferWise, in contrast, will be sending the money in Korean Won, which means that the clients will not be hit with a bank markup for the currency exchange.
The P2P money transfer service will be charging a fee of 1.5% of the total sum per transfer to South Korea, and transfers are expected to be delivered on the same or following day.
TransferWise currently transferring upwards of €700 million per month, saving its clients more than €30 million per month in the process.
Editor: Editor: Aili Sarapik