Remittance fintech TransferWise's head of Asia-Pacific expansion leaves

TRANSFERWISE - a remittance fintech dubbed a unicorn for its billion-dollar valuation - has lost its top executive who leads international expansion in this region, The Business Times has learnt.

TransferWise's head of banking Lukas May has resigned. His role as head of banking has been to establish relationships with commercial banks and central banks as part of the fintech firm's expansion out of the UK, and into Asia.

Mr May, who relocated to Singapore in 2017 for the role, is understood to be moving back to London to work on UK-Asia trade negotiations with the UK government. He will hold the title of deputy director, Asia and Australasia negotiations, at the UK Department for International Trade, BT understands.

The startup counts Singapore as its Asia headquarters and celebrated its first anniversary in the city state last September. In October, TransferWise told BT it moved about S$1.7 billion in and out of Singapore annually.

BT understands that Mr May will be leaving this month. Part of his job responsibilities is expected to be divvied up among the rest of the team, with a replacement due to take over in time.

Prior to joining TransferWise, Mr May worked at UK's Financial Conduct Authority, where he was among the founding members of the regulator's innovation hub.

TransferWise offers international transactions based on the real, mid-market exchange rate, and can do so at lower rates, as it has in effect created its own payment network through local banks in various parts of the world, circumventing the current payment system used by banks.

This means a Singapore customer travelling to Hong Kong can move money into TransferWise's Singapore account at no charge, and get the equivalent in Hong Kong dollars via TransferWise's Hong Kong bank account quickly and for a small fee. TransferWise offers more than a thousand currency routes.

There are no clear estimates on TransferWise's market share in Asia. But in an interview with BT in October, Mr May said while growth in Asia has been quicker than the doubling in payments globally, the market share here is far from its 15 per cent in the UK.