Airwallex Leveraged Australian Interbank Rails

This was the shortcut that let Airwallex act like a bank before it had built a bank sized network. In practice, it could plug into Australian domestic payment rails through partner banks, collect Australian dollars cheaply, match that flow against Chinese yuan demand, and only charge a thin spread. That removed layers of correspondent banks and FX middlemen, which is why Airwallex could win SMB importers and exporters on price from the start.

• The early product was not a full global money movement network yet. It was a routing and FX layer on top of banks. Airwallex used interbank access to reach near mid market FX pricing in Australia, then wrapped that in software for businesses paying suppliers and collecting overseas revenue.
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• This is the same playbook later used by other cross border leaders. Wise built around direct connections to local payment systems to avoid the old correspondent banking chain, while Airwallex’s report shows it is now shifting more volume onto its own network of accounts as scale improves unit economics.
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• The customer base this creates looks very different from Payoneer or Wise Business. Airwallex handled about $1M in volume per customer at $100B TPV and 100,000 customers in July 2024, versus roughly $66K for Wise Business and $15K for Payoneer, showing a focus on heavier operating businesses, not long tail payouts.
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The next phase is less about finding bank partners and more about owning the network edge in every major corridor. As Airwallex adds accounts, licenses, cards, and API distribution across more countries, each new local rail connection makes the product cheaper, faster, and harder for bank dependent rivals to match.