These findings serve as a wake-up call for traditional banks to prioritise improving their international payments offerings in the years to come, or risk losing out to more specialised cross-border payment firms.

The research, conducted by Censuswide and commissioned by global technology company Wise, set out to understand whether banks’ employees are bought into their own international payment products. As it turns out, many struggle to stand by what they’re selling. Barely half believe that the fees they charge to customers sending money abroad are fair, with 19% of respondents explicitly stating that they are not proud of their international payments services. A further 32% admit that although they have recommended their bank’s services in the past, they would not do so again.

On top of the lack of confidence bank employees have in recommending their products to others, the survey revealed an even greater lack of confidence in using their own products themselves; 62% of respondents claimed that they would consider using a fintech’s card abroad this summer in favour of their own bank’s.

Steve Naudé, Head of Wise Platform, said: “This research clearly shows that those working within banks are dissatisfied with how they serve customers’ cross-border needs - a problem that will become more pronounced over time as people and businesses increasingly live and operate globally. If such a large number of banks’ own employees - those closest to their products - wouldn’t recommend their own services, and a majority prefer using fintechs, there is clearly a significant opportunity for banks to better serve this growing customer need.

“But enhancing international payment services is no easy task, and often falls outside of banks’ immediate priority list - particularly when they are working with inflexible infrastructure. At Wise Platform, we make it easy for banks to innovate by allowing them to leverage Wise’s global payments network seamlessly, without needing to implement any major changes to their systems.”

Wise Platform, Wise’s infrastructure solution for financial institutions and major enterprises, partners with over 70 banks and enterprises worldwide, including Bank Mandiri, IndusInd Bank and Groupe BPCE, to bring faster, cheaper international payments to millions of bank customers directly within their existing app.