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Fintech start-ups are finally getting traction in their mission to disrupt banking. Remittances — defined as smaller cross-border payments between individuals — have been an excellent entry point to financial services for many of them. The steep charges of banks and traditional money agents have encouraged tech-conscious customers to shop around. Convoluted legacy systems are ripe for disruption by app-based services.
Like any comic book hero, a would-be consumer champion needs a good back-story. The tale told and retold by Kristo Kaarmann is of self-help that turned into Wise, the money transfer business he co-founded. Kaarmann, an Estonian, was working in London for Deloitte. Taavet Hinrikus, a UK-based friend, was toiling in Estonia as a financial consultant. “I was sending money to Estonia and he was sending money to the UK. We were both losing thousands in hidden foreign exchange mark-ups,” Kaarmann says. “So we set out to do transfers without banks. Every month we looked up the exchange rate. I topped up Taavet’s UK bank account and he topped up my Estonian account by the equivalent amount.”
https://www.ft.com/content/1f11b38b-54d6-451c-ba4b-48843efa329d
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