Pan-European commercial bank UniCredit has joined forces with global cross-border payments company Wise to launch a new international payment service for Italian retail customers.
Through its new service, UniCredit is enabling fast and simple international transfers from euros into several foreign currencies. In most cases, it can credit funds to the recipient within seconds, with competitive pricing and a streamlined user experience.
This strategic collaboration with Wise makes UniCredit the first bank in Italy to integrate a solution for foreign-currency payments directly into its mobile banking app.
From 21 July 2025, UniCredit’s Italian customers can quickly and easily send payments to recipients in selected countries, including the UK (GBP), Switzerland (CHF), Hong Kong (HKD), Singapore (SGD) and India (INR), with more currencies in development. UniCredit also has plans to extend availability to additional countries in the near future.
The initiative builds upon UniCredit’s track record of pioneering payments solutions, including the introduction of embedded FX conversion when making or receiving payments in over 120 currencies through UC PayFX, as well as advanced FX management and transaction monitoring through UC PayFX Webservice.
“Our mission is to transform payments into an agile, borderless experience, capable of moving with the speed and transparency of a fintech,” said Raphael Barisaac, global head of payments and cash management at UniCredit. “Our customers expect simple, fast and transparent solutions at an affordable cost, even when it comes to complex transactions such as international wire transfers. This new service was created to meet exactly these needs and represents a fundamental step in this direction.”
Where traditional bank offerings for international payments rely on correspondent banking networks, which take time to process and can lead to unpredictable costs, the new solution draws on Wise’s on-the-ground presence and direct access to local payment systems to facilitate a significantly faster and more transparent process.
