Wise Launches SMB Bank Services Via BBVA Partnership

Digital small business banking technology firm Wise is collaborating with BBVA Open Platform to launch a new small business banking product.

In a press release Thursday (Aug. 1), Wise said that it has launched its small business banking solution for web and mobile platforms. The solution includes an FDIC insured checking account and Visa debit card, both offered through its partnership with BBVA USA. Future product rollouts will include payments, invoicing, point of sale and credit card offerings, Wise said.

“Never before has there been an easier way for a business to pay and get paid,” said Wise Co-Founder and CEO Arjun Thyagarajan in a statement. “Payments are faster and fee-free, in most cases, which means flexibility and cost savings to owners. This is the way small businesses will bank in the future. We’re thrilled about our partnership with BBVA because it allows us to bring the Wise Banking experience to millions of small businesses in America.”

Wise is using BBVA’s Open Platform solution, a suite of application programming interfaces (APIs) and Banking as a Service products that BBVA Open Platform CEO Abhishek Gupta said enables a “fully-compliant small business banking experience.”

Small business banking is now a hot focus for FinTechs as service providers aim to inject competition in the market and address what many consider to be an underserved customer base.

In the U.K., the rise of challenger banks and regulatory efforts to promote better treatment of small businesses, industry competition, and the ability for SMBs to more easily switch banks has accelerated competition in the market.

In the U.S., pressure to inject competition in the market has led to a surge in collaborations between traditional financial institutions and FinTechs.

Earlier this year Axos Bank President and CEO Gregory Garrabrants told PYMNTS about the biggest challenges of small business banking today.

“Small businesses pay higher fees, and there is less competition in small business banking — and more profitability, right now, than there is in consumer banking,” he said in June. “Consumer banking has become very commoditized, but small businesses are still very underserved.”