The firm has called on other central banks around the world to follow the move by the Bank of England.TransferWise has become the first non-bank payment services provider to hold a settlement account in the Bank of England’s Real Time Gross Settlement (RTGS) system. The new access should lower costs for Transferwise, one of the UK’s largest fintech start-ups, as TransferWise joins the Faster Payments Scheme (FPS also).
Kristo Käärmann, CEO and co-founder, TransferWise, says the move is "game changing" for firm. “The Bank of England is giving tech companies the same rights to process payments as the retail banks - enabling us to cut out the middlemen and offer people a faster, cheaper service. I truly believe that money should move around the world as quickly and as cheaply as email, and this is a vital step on that journey,” he said. “The Bank of England is world leading and other central banks should be looking to follow the UK’s example. Making it much easier for non-bank payment service providers to get direct access to settlement services enables more innovation, more competition, and should in the long term reduce systemic risk. Consumers stand to benefit significantly if this trend is magnified on a global scale,” he added.
http://www.altfi.com/article/4315_transferwise-becomes-first-non-bank-to-join-boe-payments-system
