Wise (formerly TransferWise) is a UK-based money transfer service launched in January 2011 by Kristo Käärmann and Taavet Hinrikus with headquarters in London and offices in a number of cities including Tallinn, New York and Singapore. The company supports more than 750 currency routes across the world including GBP, USD, EUR, AUD and CAD, and provides multi-currency accounts. In 2018 TransferWise’s net profit reached $8 million and its customer-base reached 4 million, who collectively transfer around $4 billion per month.
The concept was to match transfers with other people and then have a small commission while using the inter-bank mid exchange rate, unlike traditional currency transfers where there are buy and sell rates and the broker takes the difference between the two.
While the sum involved in this sanction violation might appear insignificant, it highlights the industry’s ongoing struggle to prevent breaches following global geopolitical events.
