Global technology company Wise announced Tuesday it has expanded its holding and spending limits for the Wise Account in Singapore.

This comes as Wise celebrates a 30 percent year-over-year growth in its local customer base, driven by increased demand for faster, low-cost and more transparent international payments, Wise said in a statement.

According to the statement, personal customers can now hold up to S$20,000 ($15,112) in their Wise Account by the end of the day, quadrupling the previous limit of S$5,000 ($3778).

In addition, customers can also send or spend up to S$100,000 ($75,563) annually from their Wise account balances, up from S$30,000 ($22,669).

There are no changes for Wise business customers — they can continue to hold and transact without limits.

It is noted that in FY24, Wise saw robust growth in Singapore with the local personal and business customer base increasing by 30 percent year-over-year, demonstrating consistent growth since launching in the country seven years ago.

This growth was fueled by more customers than ever adopting a broader range of features in the Wise account to spend, receive, hold and manage money in multiple currencies.

For Wise card adoption, cards issued to Singapore personal and business customers grew 31 percent.

For Wise account, over £340 million ($435 million) are held in personal and business Wise accounts in Singapore.

According to the statement, the increased limits will enable Wise to better support customers’ needs, helping them save more without the frustrations of switching providers that could come with high fees and hidden exchange rate markups once they hit the previous limit.

“With the higher limits, more people in Singapore can benefit from Wise’s low-cost, convenient and transparent experience, saving more on unnecessary transaction fees and inflated exchange rates,

“The previous limits have been a pain point for many customers who rely on Wise to send and receive living expenses from abroad as well as make large purchases,” said Shrawan (SK) Saraogi, Asia Pacific (APAC) Head of Expansion said:

“When customers reach these limits, they are often forced to switch to other providers to complete the rest of their transactions, which can be more costly and less transparent,

“By expanding the limits, we’re able to empower consumers with more choices, fostering a more competitive and innovative payments landscape,” he added.

In line with Wise’s commitment to keeping customers and their money safe, Wise is also rolling out new security controls.

This includes additional authentication when customers perform high risk activities when customers perform high risk activities.

This also includes a 12-hour cooling-off period when customers log into a new device, during which they won’t be able to complete any high risk activity such as increasing their transaction limit.

Besides, it offers one-click log-out setting for customers to instantly sign out of their Wise account from all devices and block their account, cards and cancel any pending transactions.

It also lowered default daily limit of S$1,000 ($756) for card spending and ATM withdrawals respectively, and customers can adjust the limit according to their preference.

For phishing protection, emails from Wise will display the entire URL in plain text, which cannot be clicked. This will allow customers to check that the URL leads to a legitimate Wise website before visiting.

These updates complement Wise’s existing robust security measures and warning mechanisms such as two-factor authentication, real-time card transaction notifications and instant card freezing and blocking, said the statement.

Co-founded by Kristo Käärmann and Taavet Hinrikus, Wise launched in 2011 under its original name TransferWise. The firm is listed on the London Stock Exchange.

In fiscal year 2024, Wise supported around 12.8 million people and businesses, processing approximately £118.5 billion ($152 billion) in cross-border transactions, and saving customers over £1.8 billion ($2.3 billion).

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