On the 5th November, the European Parliament votes on a new law that could put an end to misleading currency conversion charges in the EU. The proposed law, the Cross-border Payments Regulation, would force banks, brokers and currency exchange providers to be more transparent about their charges, putting money back into consumers’ pockets.
Under current EU legislation, banks and other foreign currency providers can hide the bulk of the cost of a transaction in a bad exchange rate. This means that banks can advertise holiday money and international payments as ‘free’ or as just costing a small upfront fee, but make most of their money by offering customers a bad exchange rate.
In 2017 alone, Europeans paid more than €18 billion in fees when exchanging currency, €12.49 billion of which were ‘hidden’ fees in marked-up exchange rates. This means that over two-thirds of fees are never clearly communicated.
The Nothing to Hide campaign, led by Wise, has been raising awareness of the issue ahead of this crucial vote. As you can see above, local Brussels icon, Manneken Pis, plays a lead role in a punchy statement by Belgium’s most famous political cartoonist, Lectrr. We've got more planned, so stay tuned. It's time to #knowwhatyoupay.
About Wise
Wise is a global technology company, building the best way to move and manage the world's money. With Wise Account and Wise Business, people and businesses can hold 40 currencies, move money between countries and spend money abroad. Large companies and banks use Wise technology too; an entirely new network for the world's money.
One of the world’s fastest growing, profitable tech companies, Wise launched in 2011 and is listed on the London Stock Exchange under the ticker, WISE.
In fiscal year 2024, Wise supported around 12.8 million people and businesses, processing approximately £118.5 billion in cross-border transactions, and saving customers over £1.8 billion.
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