Airwallex NZ: Guide to business accounts, fees & global payments

Expanding overseas is more lucrative than ever in today’s globalised world. But sending and receiving money abroad can cause issues, including eye-wateringly high foreign exchange fees. Airwallex is one of several fintech companies helping Kiwi businesses reduce expenses and enhance efficiency when trading across borders.

This post covers the need-to-know info about Airwallex in New Zealand.

What is Airwallex?

Airwallex is a fintech platform specialising in global payment solutions. The company exclusively caters to businesses, helping them solve complex, cross-border financial challenges.

Founded in Melbourne in 2015, the Australian brand has expanded into the Asia-Pacific, Europe, and North America regions. Airwallex entered the New Zealand market in 2022.¹ Airwallex could appeal to any business seeking to streamline payments and reduce international transfer fees.

What products does Airwallex offer in New Zealand?

Airwallex offers numerous solutions for New Zealand-based businesses with complex financial needs. The company has split products into four categories: business accounts, spend management, payments, and platform APIs.

Business accounts

Airwallex offers an all-in-one Business Account³ with high-speed international transfers and competitive exchange rates. The product challenges banks by reducing queues, paperwork, and fees.

A business account allows you to quickly accept payments from numerous international and domestic customers without needing to set up multiple accounts. As they use the interbank exchange rate, users may experience lower international transfer costs compared to banks.

The business account integrates with popular online platforms to automate manual tasks, such as bookkeeping and invoicing. Integrations include Amazon, Xero, Shopify, and QuickBooks, among others.

Airwallex holds funds within leading financial institutions. The platform complies with strict local financial regulations and has a New Zealand Financial Service Provider Register (FSP No. 1001602) accreditation. Airwallex has over 60 financial licenses and permits globally, including compliance with AIPCA SOC, PSD2, and PCI DSS Level 1.

• Open local currency accounts in 60+ countries
• Accept payments from 180+ countries
• Make transfers to 200+ countries
• Send money within the same day for 95% of transfers

Air Wallex Spend

Airwallex provides an AI-powered spend management solution known as Airwallex Spend⁴. The product monitors all global expenditure in one place, helping users control, approve, and reconcile domestic and international expenses.

Airwallex offers multi-currency company and employee Corporate Cards with adjustable control limits. Users can track expenses and reimburse employees anywhere in the world. Fast report submissions and approval processes streamline the process.

The Bill Pay feature lets users upload, manage, approve, and pay international and domestic bills. Batch Transfers enable payments to multiple vendors in various currencies and feature an error-detection mechanism to identify failed transactions.

Airwallex Spend integrates accounting data with leading third-party platforms, including NetSuite, Xero, QuickBooks, and others.

• AI-powered receipt/bill extraction and auto-categorisation systems
• Spending and payment tracking tools to manage funds across multiple currencies
• Expense control solutions, card limits and freezes, and multi-conditional approvals
• Multi-currency and employee Corporate Cards with customisable spend limits
• Security features like transaction monitoring, 2FA, and bulk card freeze-cancellations

Airwallex Payments

Airwallex Payments⁵ lets New Zealand businesses collect money from multiple currencies worldwide, including NZD from domestic customers. The product may improve global payment acceptance rates and reduce transaction costs through favourable FOREX rates.

Airwallex Payments can collect money from customers in 180+ countries. By pricing products in the local currency and offering multiple payment methods, online businesses can potentially increase checkout rates.

Like-for-like settlements reduce foreign exchange conversion fees by collecting and settling funds in one currency. This process also saves time as there is no need to set up multiple entities.

Airwallex Payments uses a machine learning-powered optimisation engine called 3DS logic to improve acceptance rates. Built-in fraud protection software is designed to reduce chargeback frequency, using an AI-powered fraud detection engine to identify suspicious transactions.

Popular global payment methods include Visa, Mastercard, American Express, Apple Pay, Google Pay, Klarna, Union Pay, and Skrill, among others.

• Low-code checkout features you can embed into your website
• Create, customise, and share payment links via email or social media
• Payment plug-in integrations with Shopify, WooCommerce, Magento, and more
• Build a customised Payments API

While any business can use the service, Airwallex Payments may prove particularly beneficial for e-commerce stores, subscription-based businesses, and online marketplaces.

Platform APIs

Airwallex offers a suite of Application Programming Interfaces (API)⁷ to simplify global payments and financial operations.

If you’re unfamiliar with the term, an API is an intermediary interface that establishes protocols between different software. These protocols let one connected program access the data and functionality of another.

In practical terms, APIs can allow businesses to embed financial services. Examples include global treasury to collect and disperse funds, banking-as-a-service, and advanced payment solutions for platforms.

API-based products can also help businesses grow by improving functionality in accounts, connections, payments, transactional foreign exchange, bulk payments, and card issuing.

Airwallex promises integratable developer tools and cloud-native solutions, accompanied by clear documentation. Pre-built components and low-code APIs cater to customers with limited requirements and technical expertise.

Airwallex handles Know Your Customer (KYC) and Anti-Money Laundering (AML) compliance when embedding finances.

• Embedded financial services
• Enhance functionality for global financial services
• Pre-built integrations, clear documentation, and low-code APIs
• KYC and AML compliance

Airwallex fees

Airwallex pricing⁷ splits into three tiers with distinct features.

Wise Business: Where simplified global payments meets transparency

For Kiwi businesses that prioritize straightforward, low-cost international money management, Wise Business offers a simple, user-friendly, yet transparent solution. Centered on providing the mid-market exchange rate for all conversions, Wise Business ensures there are no hidden markups on currency exchange. Businesses can get local account details in over 8+ major currencies (like NZD, AUD, USD, and EUR) for a small, one-time setup fee, allowing them to receive payments from overseas fee-free, just like a local company.

A fair, transparent pricing policy lets you know the exact cost of every transfer upfront.

A Wise Business account allows users to can send, receive, and hold in multiple currencies. Experience hassle-free global transactions by transacting like a local business. Here's what you get with a Wise Business account:

• Free to register — Hold and convert between 40+ currencies. Send to 140+ countries
• Debit cards for you and your team, which you can use in 150+ countries
• Multi-user access for team members, with ways to control and manage permissions
• Pay up to 1,000 recipients at once with the Wise batch payments feature
• Integrate with your favourite cloud accounting solutions like Xero, QuickBooks, and more
• Get account details to receive in 8+ currencies for a one-time fee of 40 NZD

Sign up for the Wise Business account! 🚀

This general advice does not take into account your objectives, financial circumstances or needs and you should consider if it is appropriate for you.

Sources

1. Airwallex Global Payment Services Launches in New Zealand
2. Airwallex New Zealand
3. Airwallex Business Account
4. Airwallex Spend
5. Airwallex Payments
6. Airwallex APIs
7. Airwallex Pricing