Brexit is zero risk to my currency transfer start-up, says founder
BRITAIN’S departure from the European Union presents zero risk to Transferwise, the financial technology start-up, according to its chairman and co-founder.
Taavet Hinrikus said: “Why should it be a risk? We are a UK company, we will stay a UK company.”
Transferwise allows the transfer of money between currencies and it helps customers move £1.5bn overseas every month. Mr Hinrikus said that he plans to open a new office in continental Europe in January to ensure the company retains its financial passporting ability after Brexit.
There has been uncertainty among financial technology companies regarding their ability to “passport” their services across Europe after Brexit.
Tom Blomfield, the chief executive of banking start-up Monzo, said in November that the situation was a big mess and that the company’s ability to continue passporting was uncertain. Monzo has also considered opening an office in Europe. Mr Hinrikus, however, was more confident about his solution.
“We’ll fix that,” he said. The company has no plans to move its headquarters away from London and instead plans to open a smaller, satellite office in Europe.
Another banking start-up with headquarters in London, Revolut, announced last week that it had been granted a full banking licence in Lithuania, which will enable it to passport its service across Europe in 2019. Transferwise’s chairman said that one area that did concern him about Brexit, however, was the ability to attract staff to work at the UK office.
He said it was a risk for Britain if businesses were unable to hire staff in the country, but added that Transferwise would instead seek to hire in other offices if it encountered any problems.
“We will hire these people anyway,” he said. “Whether we hire them in London or elsewhere, that’s a different question.”