Understanding Banking as a Service
Airwallex’s Banking as a Service offering enables you to natively embed global banking capabilities into your products. Benefits for your customers include:
- Instantly create local currency accounts for customers that are opened in their name, with local bank codes and dedicated account numbers.
- Allow your customers to receive funds via local clearing systems or SWIFT in local currency and eliminate costly conversion fees.
- Allow customers to hold funds in 20+ currencies, convert currencies at interbank rates, and perform other financial operations.
- Allow your customers to easily send fast, cost-effective payouts to beneficiaries in 150+ countries.
- Issue branded debit cards in 36+ markets, for corporate purchases or consumer spending across 140 currencies worldwide.
- Intelligently extend lines of credit to customers, assess credit worthiness on an ongoing basis, and programmatically sweep funds for repayment.
Global Accounts
Global Accounts enable your customers to receive bank transfers into and authorize direct debit payouts from the Wallet in a region and currency of choice. You can create multiple Global Accounts programmatically without complex application processes or approval delays. After creating a Global Account, you will receive bank account information such as an account number, bank code/routing number, account name, account type, and bank name/location. Your customers can share these details with their payers so they can send bank transfers to the account, or with their recipients and authorize direct debit payouts.
Note that Global Accounts only act as conduits to receive funds or for direct debit payouts, and do not hold balances. Balances across various currencies will be held securely in the multi-currency Wallet.
In regions where we provide Global Accounts with capabilities to receive bank transfers and authorize direct debit payouts, you will be able to build an experience for your customers to operate just like a local business using a local bank account, but powered by a more automated online experience. To learn about supported regions, currencies and capabilities of our Global Accounts product, see Supported regions and currencies.
Held balances
You may either hold funds in your name, or create connected accounts in your customer's name to avoid 'touching' your customers' funds. All Airwallex accounts have an associated multi-currency Wallet (“the Wallet”) to hold funds available for use. Funds are physically held by Airwallex and safeguarded securely with our network of global banking partners.
Key features
Hold multi-currency balances
A Wallet's balance is organized by currency and balance type. A given currency’s available balance pools all the funds you have with Airwallex from different sources in that currency. For example, when funds are received in AUD via different Global Accounts; all those funds will be settled into the Wallet and added to the Wallet's AUD balance.
End-to-end fund flow support for receiving and paying out funds
The Wallet is the destination for all inbound funds flows, and the source of all outbound funds flows.
- Inbound funds can be received via Global Accounts, direct debits from Linked Accounts, Payments, transfers from other Airwallex accounts
- Outbound funds can fund payouts, direct debits from Global Accounts, and issuing multi-currency cards.
Consolidated reporting
All financial transactions are recorded and traceable in the Wallet. Using our APIs, you can retrieve balances and generate financial statements/reports for the purposes of reconciliation, proof of funds, and data analysis.
Funds movement
Orchestrate global funds movement for your customers using these options:
- Receive bank transfers to Global Accounts: Receive bank transfers via local clearing systems or SWIFT.
- Add funds via direct debits from Linked Accounts: Link verified external financial accounts to an Airwallex account, for adding funds via direct debit.
Facilitate paying out funds held in the multi-currency Wallet using these options:
- Global payouts: Programmatically make fast and cost-effective payouts across the globe to external bank accounts in 150+ countries.
- Direct debit payouts: Authorize an external party to deduct funds from your own or your customer's Wallet via direct debits.
Cards
Issue multi-currency cards to your customers for them to spend their Airwallex wallet balances. Set up card controls to limit spending or leverage remote authorization to remotely accept or decline the transaction based on your configured rules.