Literature Review on Transfer Wise: SWOT Analysis and Porter's Five Forces Model

This literature review analyzes Transfer Wise, a leading financial technology company, using SWOT analysis and Porter's Five Forces Model. It discusses the internal and external environment, identifies problems, and presents useful and critical analysis of the models used.

LITERATURE REVIEW

TABLE OF CONTENT
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY..................................................................................................................................4
Presentation of data.....................................................................................................................4
Identification of problems on the basis of internal and external or competitive environment....6
Presentation of Usefulness and criticism of model used.............................................................7
Analysis of Transfer Wise Reports..............................................................................................8
Discussion........................................................................................................................................9
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................9

INTRODUCTION
Financial technology means the technology that provides financial services in modern
and easy way. This industry helps in improving the ways of providing financial services by using
smartphones. The organizations under this sector covers startups and established companies
providing services(Kulkarni and Parekh, 2020). The newly setup organizations try to suggest
new ideas and strategies to improve and enhance the use of financial services in a better and easy
way.
Financial Technology covers many areas such as investments, banking services,
insurance and risk management (Tepe, Geyikci and Sancak, 2022). Among the various financial
service providing companies,'WISE' formerly called 'Transfer-wise' is a leading fin tech
company in this sector. IT has its headquarters in London, UK and a range of 8 offices. It is
available in 34 countries.
The company providing financial services to the customers. It provides the facility of
money transfer from one country to other countries with the exact exchange rate and minimum
transaction cost than the cost charged by the banks or other payment applications.
Various services are offered by the company such as Debit card facilities, credit cards,
transfer through mobile application or accepting, sending and holding several currencies in
accounts, transfer calculator to calculate the fees charged of transactions, monthly statements,
etc.(Wise Review (formerly TransferWise) – Apr 2022 – Pros vs Cons & Wise’s Top 3
Features .2022).WISE helps many businesses and organisation, for business accounts it receives
payments from clients of other countries, help freelancers, family members or students studying
or leaving abroad, etc.
WISE has a strategy of locking the exchange rate for an amount of time, so that the
variations in exchange rate of the currencies doesn't affect much.
Wise provides a debit card facility for the users with personal account. It can be used by
users anywhere for anything. There are zero transactions costs and very low conversion rates.
Transactions from the WISE app or cards are safe due to D Dos protection security and hardened
servers. For safe and secure transactions, it provides two-step verification for login and strong
passwords.

MAIN BODY
Presentation of data
SWOT analysis
To analyses the internal and external environment of an organization, SWOT analysis is
used, it specifies the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of an organization.
Transfer wise, provides it customers, clients and users a transparency in money transfer
services. It is more preferred by the users because it charges very low costs for transferring of
payments from one country to other(Benzaghta and et.al., 2021). Transfer wise offers speedy
transfers within 24 to 48 hours. The transactions of transfer wise are safe and secure, thus
making it the top ranking fin-tech company.
On the contrary, there are certain weaknesses inherent in internal environment of
Transfer Wise such as, safety concerns of the users regarding their personal information,
accounts information, card details, etc. Transfer wise offers a wide range of services with the
help of franchisees, lack of cooperation among them affect the conduct of operations in the
organization. The business need to invest funds in updating the technology to meet up its
business vision.
To overcome above weaknesses, there are certain opportunities available to Transfer-
wise and by exploiting them they can become the top leading money transfer services
organization in near future by improving its policies and updating with the current environment.
The company can expand it reaches to the whole world market by setting up offices (Quezada
and et.al., 2019). By offering number of benefits to customers such a free transfer, referral codes,
discounts or vouchers while making payments or opening of accounts will lead to increase in
number of customers. Transfer- Wise can attract more investors through attractive interest rates
and investment benefits.
Transfer wise is even facing certain threats such as competition which is the main threat
to the organization. Various competitors in the market lead to direct competition for the
Transfer-wise in expanding its services. The reforms, policies, legislation or laws by the
government affect the operational activities of the company.
Porter's Five Forces Model
This model is the competitive strategy used for the analysis of market forces of the
organization. The five forces of Michael Porter are ;threats of New Entrants, bargaining power

of suppliers, bargaining power of buyers, threat from Substitute Products, rivalry among the
existing players.
Analysis of Porter's five forces Model of Transfer-wise:
Threat of New Entrants in this sector include, entry of new entrants is easy with
innovative ideas and methods of money transfer and financing. The new entrants can hold
position through low cost strategies and offering benefits to the customer. Transfer-Wise need to
manage its holdings and maintain its position by constant research on methods of the
competitors.
Another force is bargaining power of Suppliers from whom the companies in the
financial sector purchase the materials , assets from various suppliers. The suppliers with wide
range of products and services can lower the margins to help companies earn. Many suppliers
negotiate the price to charge high prices from the companies in financial sector. If the suppliers
have higher bargaining power, it impacts the profitability level of financial services (Jung and
Jeong, 2022).
Further, bargaining Power of Buyers that is, the customers of the credit services demand
of many offers, discounts from the companies. The clients and customers demands minimum
pricing of all the activities. If the customer base is large and powerful, it will create higher
bargaining power to the customers thus seeking more benefits and offers.
Threat of Substitute Products or Services is another external force where the customer
get more attracted to the substitute products or services if accompanied by more benefits and
offers (Hole, Snehal and Bhaskar, 2019). The threat of substitute products affect the Transfer
Wise when the substitute product provides innovative ideas and techniques for existing services
and fulfill the needs of customers in a different way.
Competition in the industry is the last force of this model presenting external
environment of the Fin Tech industry where the competitive rivalry depends on the number and
abilities of the competitors in the industry (Min, Liangwen and Yue, 2018). Intense rivalry will
arise if the competitors of Transfer Wise reduces the prices of the products and services thus
reducing the profit levels. The customers will shift to the competitors providing more beneficial
services and offering discounts. There are various competitors of Transfer-wise in the industry
such as Remitly, mPayX , FINSYNC, etc.

Identification of problems on the basis of internal and external or competitive environment
Problems within the internal environment of Transfer Wise
Follow Up with the Safety Standards within the industry: Safety and security of the account
details and personal data of the users getting tampered, shared or hacked by the outsiders or staff
of the company may lead to failure and thus considered to be one of the greatest challenge faced
by TransferWise (Al-Ajlouni, Al-Hakim and Suliaman, 2018). However, company has a unique
software system through which they can encrypt all sensitive information that leaves their
network. Also, the system provides for tracking what data has been accessed or downloaded
which helps in avoiding any kind of security issues arising on the part of employees. The
solution is best because the company need not to depends upon their employees for higher
security instead just by keeping an appropriate system in place, they can ensure required level of
security (Al Nawayseh, 2020).
Growing competition: The new entrants in the Fin tech sector will threaten the Transfer Wise
by offering new products and services. With the help of building trust among customers, Fin-
tech organizations can ensure customer loyalty so that their performance would not get affected
by new entrants (Manaf and binti Amiruddin, 2019). Building of customer trust could be done
by becoming upfront and transparent with customers in all aspects related to their transactions.
This is the best solution to keep up with the competition because, only way for retaining existing
customer base is to retain them through establishing trust.
Reduction in transaction costs and charges by other competitors will lead to reduction in
numbers of customers: Another challenge that Transfer Wise is facing is the lower take rate as
compared to its competitors such as WorldRemit, MoneyGram and Western Union and reason
behind this scenario is service offering by other players at lower transaction cost (Lee and Shin,
2018).

In the above figure, it can be seen that Transfer Wise has less than one take rate against
higher take rates of its close competitors.
To resolve the issues related to higher transaction costs, TransferWise optimization of
channels through which they could provide their customer services such as managing customer
contacts through effective presence on social media (Tidjani, 2020). The solution is best in terms
of reducing fees and commission that company needs to pay to their staff along with getting
rapid feedback from their customers on their respective pages and can immediate action to
resolve their queries. In this way, enough amount of transaction cost could be reduced.
Poor marketing tactics to get new customers: Transfer Wise is not having effective marketing
tactics to acquire new customers in the industry they are operating. To overcome this problem
and able to expand their business through effective strategies, they must keep a close look to
their competitors in terms of how they are targeting and succeeding in the market as operating in
isolation never provide for scope to grow customer base (Mention, 2019). It is suggested that
Transfer wise should go for tying up with banks and other financial institutions to offer their
services. This solution is best for the company because, Transfer Wise will get ready made
customer base that the banks or financial institution have by offering additional transfer services
to them (Di Castri and Plaitakis, 2018).
Presentation of Usefulness and criticism of model used
SWOT analysis is the analysis of internal environment of the company, which affects its
profitability. This model helps in identifying the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats
from internal and external factors, so that management can take necessary actions to overcome
the threats.
The five force model focuses on the main three units of the market that is supplier, buyer
and competitor(Zhao, Tsai and Wang, 2019). Through the model, it can be analyses that what is
the bargaining power of suppliers and the buyers, thus making it easier for the firm to take
decisions and frame strategies. The model identifies and assess the corporate risk to the industry
from the suppliers, competitors and buyers.
As per the views of (Kabeyi, 2018), the model of Porter is not appropriate for large
companies with a wide range of products due to diversified market area, it is suitable only for
small and individual industry. The model does not consider factors like FOREX instability,

variations in technologies, changes in interest rates of the NBFCs or banks, environmental
changes, etc. The companies like NPOs, charity institutions or Research & Development
companies cannot use the five forces model for analysis of market. It doesn't analyse the
quantitative data and information of the industry. It is concerned with the competition and its
effects in the industry.
Analysis of Transfer Wise Reports
Transfer-Wise has showed a gradual increase in the revenue of the business from year
2018 to 2020 because of its lower takes rates, but the reports suggest that much lower take rates
will affect the long term productivity of the business. It will be difficult for the company to
continue growing and retain its market position. From year 2017 to year 2020, there was
approximately, Compound Annual Growth Rate of 60%to 70% (Annual report and consolidated
financial statements for the year ended 31 March 2020 of Transfer-wise. 2020).

The reports of Transfer Wise also specifies that it started with wide range of products and
services such as Border-less Account, a multi-currency account to increase its customer support
and revenue from the Europe and other established markets. In year 2020,Europe contributed
55% of the overall revenue of Transfer wise and US business started contributing 25% to the
revenue and the remaining revenue of 20% it receives from rest of the world. It improved the
revenue growth by instant transfers all over the world.
Discussion
From report, it is decided that using the SWOT analysis will be more beneficial than Porter's five
forces model. As SWOT analysis will help the Transfer -Wise in analyzing the internal and
external environment both, whereas in Porter's Five forces model only market research and the
effect of competitors, suppliers and buyers is considered. SWOT analysis helps in identifying the
threats that can affect the brand image and the profitability levels of business and it also
identifies the opportunities which will help the business in earning more and becoming a leading
organisation.
REFERENCES
Books and Journals

Al Nawayseh, M. K., 2020. Fintech in COVID-19 and beyond: what factors are affecting
customers’ choice of fintech applications?. Journal of Open Innovation: Technology,
Market, and Complexity, 6(4), p.153.
Al-Ajlouni, A., Al-Hakim, D. and Suliaman, M., 2018, April. Financial technology in banking
industry: Challenges and opportunities. In e International Conference on Economics
and Administrative Sciences ICEAS2018.
Benzaghta, M. A. And et.al., 2021. SWOT analysis applications: An integrative literature
review. Journal of Global Business Insights. 6(1). pp.55-73.
Di Castri, S. and Plaitakis, A., 2018. Going beyond regulatory sandboxes to enable FinTech
innovation in emerging markets. Available at SSRN 3059309.
Hole, Y., Snehal, P. and Bhaskar, M., 2019. Porter's five forces model: gives you a competitive
advantage. Journal of Advanced Research in Dynamical and Control System.11(4).
pp.1436-1448.
Jung, S. H. and Jeong, Y. J., 2022. A quantitative perspective of Porter's industry forces
framework for investment analysis. Managerial and Decision Economics. 43(1). pp.48-
64.
Kabeyi, M. J. B., 2018. Michael porter’s five competitive forces and generetic strategies, market
segmentation strategy and case study of competition in global smartphone
manufacturing industry. IJAR. 4(10). pp.39-45.
Kagan, J., 2020. Financial technology–fintech. Datum pristupa dokumentu. 13(6). p.2020.
Kulkarni, N. and Parekh, K., 2020. A study on identifying opinion of customers regarding the
switching cost of financial service companies in pune and Nagpur. TRANS Asian
Journal of Marketing & Management Research (TAJMMR). 9(7and8). pp.25-33.
Lee, I. and Shin, Y. J., 2018. Fintech: Ecosystem, business models, investment decisions, and
challenges. Business horizons, 61(1), pp.35-46.
Manaf, A. W. A. and binti Amiruddin, N., 2019. Fintech and the challenge of digital disruption
in takaful operation. Asia Proceedings of Social Sciences, 4(1), pp.1-3.
Mention, A. L., 2019. The future of fintech. Research-Technology Management, 62(4), pp.59-
63.

Min, C., Liangwen, L. and Yue, X. G., 2018. New Thoughts on Porter's" Five Forces Model"
from the Perspective of Innovation. IETI Transactions on Social Sciences and
Humanities.1. pp.105-113.
Quezada, L. E. and et.al., 2019. Measuring performance using SWOT analysis and balanced
scorecard. Procedia Manufacturing. 39. pp.786-793.Wise Review (formerly
TransferWise) – Apr 2022 – Pros vs Cons & Wise’s Top 3 Features .2022.
Tepe, G., Geyikci, U. B. and Sancak, F. M., 2022. FinTech Companies: A Bibliometric
AnalyWise Review (formerly TransferWise) – Apr 2022 – Pros vs Cons & Wise’s Top 3
Features .2022.sis. International Journal of Financial Studies. 10(1). p.2.
Tidjani, C., 2020. Readiness to the FinTech industry in developing countries: an overview of
prospective factors impacts. Handbook on Ethics in Finance, pp.1-32.
Zhao, Q., Tsai, P. H. and Wang, J. L., 2019. Improving financial service innovation strategies for
enhancing china’s banking industry competitive advantage during the fintech
revolution: A Hybrid MCDM model. Sustainability. 11(5). p.1419.
Online
Wise Review (formerly TransferWise) – Apr 2022 – Pros vs Cons & Wise’s Top 3
Features .2022. [Online] Available through
<https://ecommerce-platforms.com/ecommerce-reviews/transferwise-review>
Annual report and consolidated financial statements for the year ended 31 March 2020 of
Transfer-wise. 2020. [Online]. Available Through
<https://lienzo.s3.amazonaws.com/images/0eb40d20f95a8c25592d9269ee924e53-
TransferWise-Ltd-Group-annual-report-2020.pdf>