Wise becomes first foreign firm to gain direct access to Japan's payment clearing network
42 comments · 99% upvoted · source · other discussions
comments
pomido
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SpeesRotorSeeps
They don't have a BANK license so they really cannot offer interest bearing savings accounts,
SouthwestBLT
Most Japanese chequing accounts do not earn interest. Have you seen what the central bank rate is here? lol
2railsgood4wheelsbad
The JCB’s interest rate affects the yen, not the US dollar.
ikalwewe
You know I wonder why wise is so fast and PayPal takes days ..
Gumbode345
Paypal is pathetic. I only use it if I absolutely have to.
Wise however is phenomenal, and not only for transfers.
agirlthatfits
Been with them since the TransferWise days. Glad to see them come so far!
jamar030303
They're the first? Don't other foreign banks with branches in Tokyo already have access to Zengin? For example, Citibank (from way back in the day).
alien4649
Citibank sold their retail banking business here many years ago
jamar030303
They did, but they still have their own bank and branch codes, and corporations are still able to bank with them, so presumably they still have a direct link to the system.
alien4649
Commercial banking and investment banking are still here.
jamar030303
And with it, their direct link to the Japanese banking network. Thus, Wise isn't the first.
Few-Body-6227
Key word being foreign firm not bank. Wise isn’t a bank.
drinkintokyo
Specifically, Wise is registered as a 資金移動業者 with FSA. Definitely not the first foreign-headquartered company to be registered as such. https://www.fsa.go.jp/menkyo/menkyoj/shikin_idou.pdf
What is the first time is the connection to Zengin. In October 2022 Zengin relaxed the requirements to join the network: it previously only allowed banks/other companies that handled deposits, but now 資金移動業者 are also allowed to join.
Arael15th
The nuance probably doesn't make much difference to the average retail bank/money transmitter customer, but from a regulatory perspective there's a significant difference between a domestically-domiciled subsidiary of a foreign bank (e.g. Citigroup Japan Holdings Corp.) and a company like Wise which is entirely foreign-domiciled. I can't imagine what kind of compliance/regulatory hoops the mad scientists at Wise had to jump through to get plugged into Zengin.
SpeesRotorSeeps
BANKS do yes. Wise is not a BANK.
jamar030303
Last I checked, banks were firms, though.
SpeesRotorSeeps
What you want me to do about it I’m not the English editor for Japan Times.
I mean the article says “the first foreign financial company to do so” which is accurate because by definition any foreign financial company that gets a Japanese banking license is now a Japanese Bank. It might be owned by or be a branch of a foreign financial company but in Japan it’s a bank.
The implication being that WISE, being a foreign financial company in Japan, aka, a firm, isn’t a bank.
Or I dunno maybe the Japan Times doesn’t give a shit all that much?
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jamar030303
I can’t wait for the U.S. to claim that now that a foreign company is touching the Zengin, it must conform to all American laws and regulations because they need to protect a western company from whatever boogeyman.
If they had that much power then before that they would've forced the Japanese regulators to offer Zengin access to the on-base credit unions/banks the same way on-base credit unions in Germany will give you German IBANs and are fully linked into the local banking network.
SpeesRotorSeeps
What do you even mean? America doesn't care how Japan moves yen internally in Japan. They care how they participate in international payments (via the global swift network for example). USA cares WAY more about Japan's atrociously bad KYC and AML.
Unlikely-Sympathy626
Pretty sure the locals won’t budge on that. It is just a matter of a Hanko stamped or a bigger deal in return.
TofuTofu
Anyone found a way to do more than 1M at once on Wise? They talk about Type 2 transfers but I haven't found a way to do Type 1 or whatever allows larger ones.
frozenpandaman
what are people's use cases for wise?
Gumbode345
Very efficient and low cost international transfers, in some countries (not Japan), possibility to have accounts linked between countries meaning zero transfer cost, debit cards that work everywhere and can be managed in the app, virtual cards which are handy for online transactions etc etc etc. I absolutely love them, they beat any traditional high street bank that I've come across in terms of convenience.
TokyoBaguette
Have they stopped the "volatility surcharge" on JPY xccy?
upachimneydown
Not sure (and that surcharge sucks) , but on the positive side maybe this will help with that.
ikalwewe
I love Wise.
Does it mean we can use the debit card here and withdraw money in the atm ? I've used it in the US .
I just hope they'd let us increase the limit , instead of just 1million ..
Gumbode345
You already can/could.
ikalwewe
What really I tried it only once with aeon ATM and it didn't work... Let me try again ...
Gumbode345
You need the ATMs in konbinis or in subway stations. Bank ATMs usually don't work.
The relevant point:
Wise said access to the “Zengin” system will allow it to bypass intermediary banks that process and settle funds in Japan, lowering fees and processing times.
jb_in_jpn 9 points · Oct 2024
So is this mostly relevant for things like international transfers, or will it impact day to day stuff (buying stuff in stores using Wise etc.)?
SpeesRotorSeeps 24 points · Oct 2024
It could theoretically impact every transaction that requires the movement of yen. WISE is currently focused on international transactions but they don't ACTUALLY wire the money internationally; they have USD in their American account and JPY in their Japanese account, and when you request to "send" money from Japan to USA, you send them JPY to their Japan account and they take USD out of their American account and just cross the risk internally.
Cheaper yen transfers mean they could theoretically get into Japan domestic payments as well, if they wanted to. Not sure if that makes sense for them, but for now it certainly makes the JPY leg of their international transfer service even cheaper than it is to use intermediary Japanese banks.
jb_in_jpn 3 points · Oct 2024
Thanks! That was very helpful