UK-based fintech firm Wise is set to foray into wealth management space in tie-up with US investment manager BlackRock.
The firm launched a new offering called Wise Assets, which will allow its customers to invest in stocks across different currencies.
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Customers can opt to use the money from their Wise bank accounts or other wallets to invest in iShares World Equity Index Fund, managed by BlackRock.
It is said to be a £40 trillion portfolio of stocks including Apple, Amazon, and Google.
Wise Assets is currently being offered to retail and business banking customers in the UK.
While traditional investing platform doesn’t allow instant access to money held in stocks, Wise will provide its users’ immediate access to their money.
According to the firm, up to 97% of the money held in stocks will be available instantly to the users, while 3% will be held back to cover any big market fluctuations.
The service fee for the new offering is 0.55% annually. The fund fee, which will be paid to BlackRock, is 0.15% annually.
This money will be debited monthly from the balance or jar customers hold as stocks, Wise said.
Moves by fintech firms in the wealth space
Last month, Australian fintech Douugh launched an integrated robo-advice service, called Douugh Wealth, as for its customers in the US.
The same month, American e-commerce giant Amazon forayed into the Indian wealth management market by making an investment in fintech starup smallcase Technologies.
In July this year, global investment firm Fidelity International became the first asset manager to commit to the Fintech Pledge, an initiative supported by HM Treasury and Tech Nation.
The pledge aims to provide clear guidelines for collaboration between financial institutions and tech startups to accelerate growth in the fintech sector.
In April, Chinese fintech firm Pintec Technology agreed to buy Shenzhen Jishengtai Technology, which designs and implements an end-to-end Broker Supplied System for automatic order matching and execution of securities trading.
