Manchester-based fintech startup Wire Bank has popped up in questionable fashion as it prepares to challenge the elite names in the global transaction banking (GTB) space.
Wire Bank – which also calls itself Bank Wire – reckons GTB generates annual revenues of $1 trillion (£741 billion) and is an “industry jealously guarded from the masses of retail investors by giant financial players such as Citigroup, Bank of America and JP Morgan Chase, or Goldman Sachs”.
The fintech company has an issue with this “small club” and unveiled its UKBW token last month. This is an ERC-20 coin and allows a holder to become a part of Wire Bank’s business and “profit from a direct revenue share of the GTB business”. The crypto token is designed for individual and institutional investors.
However, as new crypto firms are always worth investigating, eWeeK UK looked at Wire Bank’s website and the founders in detail, and uncovered a few issues.
Wire Bank calls itself an “official partner” of SWIFT, the executor of financial transactions between banks globally. No evidence exists of this partnership.
eWeek UK did check out the ‘business partners’ page on SWIFT’s website – and while that is certainly not a definitive list – Wire Bank is not mentioned there.
There are five founders of Wire Bank – Arthur Polio, Elisa Henry, Laetitia Bar, Philipe Gervison and André Morlaas. On the Crunchbase page for Wire Bank, Morlaas’ name is listed as Robert-Andre Moriaas.
According to three of the founders’ profiles on the French site Viadeo (they are not on LinkedIn), they all worked at SWIFT. Yet a search of their names and profile images shows no results. They have no web presence on any other site, despite the fact that the founders also worked for other notable companies – such as Barclaycard, Deutsche Bank, NTT Data, PayPal, BNP Paribas, Western Union and Societe Generale.
eWeek UK contacted SWIFT regarding this matter of the partnership and the founders’ work histories. SWIFT says it was not able to immediately confirm the partnership or that the founders worked for its organisation.
According to Wire Bank’s site, it offers a Visa card. eWeek UK contacted Visa to check whether this was a legitimate offer. Visa says Wire Bank is not listed as a card programme member.
eWeek UK also contacted the other companies above and is currently waiting for replies. Wire Bank has not responded to our query.
In terms of Wire Bank’s site, the startup offers more info on how it all works. The firm explains that 26% of Wire Bank’s revenue from its GTB activities is distributed proportionally to each UKBW token holder’s wallet in USDT every 24 hours.
USDT are coins issued by Tether – and that company name is a story in itself. To keep a long story very brief, Tether is subject to a number of class action lawsuits accusing it of falsely representing its stablecoin’s backing.
From April 2022, Wire Bank will launch its “token profit distribution” and says it is expected to process a volume of global payments generating an average of $100 million of net profit per month, leading to a payout of approximately $0.50 paid per UKBW token/month.
From 2023 onwards, “with the ramp up of commercial and operational activity”, Wire Bank reckons net profit is expected to increase gradually from $100 million to $200 million per month, to reach $2.5 billion yearly, with an average $1.08 paid per UKBW token/month.
Wire Bank adds: “With UKBW token, crypto investors have the opportunity to enter the exclusive global transaction banking industry and profit from the fiat financial system on par with its giant players, without the need to hold traditional shares of a bank, or be a Wall Street shark.”
