(Bloomberg) -- Morgan Stanley has teamed up with cross-border money transmitter Wise to settle foreign-exchange payments for the investment bank’s corporate clients, a service traditionally led by money-center banks.
Using the Wise platform, Morgan Stanley can settle payments for corporate clients buying goods priced in a local currency from international vendors or suppliers, among other uses, according to Samer Oweida, the firm’s global head of foreign exchange and emerging markets.
The new feature is part of Morgan Stanley’s newly launched TFX Hub, which serves foreign-exchange needs of corporate and institutional clients. The FX payment settlement function went live earlier this month with an initial focus on US corporates that have commercial needs in international markets, Oweida said in an interview.
“It is a natural strategic step forward, as we think about how we grow to serve this client base,” he said.
The firms declined to say how fees are structured. But Oweida said fees generated from the service are expected to be more stable than traditional trading revenue, which can be volatile depending on market moves.
By adding new features to the TFX Hub, the New York-based firm is looking to deepen the client relationships formed from its investment-banking and capital-markets expertise, Oweida said.
Morgan Stanley is the first investment bank that partnered with Wise for FX payment settlement, according to Steve Naudé, a managing director at Wise who oversees its enterprise offerings for banks and fintechs.
Wise, which partners with more than 90 banks globally, announced a partnership in November with Standard Chartered Plc to facilitate multi-currency money transfers in Asia and the Middle East.
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