Are interest income rises here to stay? Insights from Revolut, Wise and Payoneer
A rise in multicurrency accounts and related products is helping to drive ever-greater customer balances at multiple players. But how much is it driving a growth in interest income? We look at data from Payoneer, Revolut and Wise to find out.
For many players across the cross-border payments space, the amount of money being held on behalf of customers has risen significantly, in many cases aided by the addition of either B2B or consumer multicurrency accounts. Payoneer, Revolut and Wise are among those who offer such accounts to businesses, alongside players including Equals Money, HSBC and Airwallex, while Revolut and Wise also provide consumer multicurrency account services, as do Zing and HSBC.
This service is driving significant growth in customer balances. Payoneer saw balances increase 9% YoY in H1 2024 and 10% YoY in FY 2023, while Revolut, which does not report half-yearly results, grew its FY 2023 balances by 38% YoY. Wise also saw similar growth, with its calendar H1 results (equivalent to Wise’s reported Q4 2024 and Q1 2025) seeing a 23% rise in customer balances overall, with consumer increasing 31% and its business increasing 12%. Its calendar FY 2023 numbers were also strong, with balances increasing 28% overall, while consumer grew 39% and business 15%.
At the same time, companies have been reporting sharply increasing rates of interest income over the past few years. 2023 saw Revolut’s interest income grow by 502%, while Wise’s increased by 83% and Payoneer’s by 320%. The trend was even more pronounced in 2022, when both Revolut and Payoneer saw rises of more than 1000%.
Will interest income keep driving revenue?
While customer balances undoubtedly contribute to these interest rate rises – more than 80% of Payoneer’s customer funds, for example, are interest-bearing – there is another arguably more important factor at play: interest rates. Sustained, historically high interest rates have been a significant boon for players with large customer account holdings, providing significant additional interest income that in some cases has become a major contributor to the company’s bottom line.
In FY 2023, for example, Revolut reported that interest income accounted for 28% of the company’s revenue – the biggest single contributor. Payoneer also reported 28% for 2023, while Wise reported a 7% share for the same period.
However, the era of significant interest income may be beginning to wane. At the start of August the Bank of England made its first reduction to interest rates since March 2020, while last Friday the US Federal Reserve Chair Jay Powell said that the “time has come” for US interest rate cuts.
Early indicators suggest that customer balances are only going to continue to grow at Payoneer, Revolut and Wise, however interest income may see much more modest growth – and there are already signs that this is starting. Both Payoneer and Wise saw slowing interest income growth in calendar H1 2024, with Payoneer reporting a 5% YoY increase while Wise saw a 27% increase. Payoneer has also provided a rare full-year projection on this metric, forecasting $240m interest income in FY 2024 – a rise of just 4% YoY.
While interest income is not going away, it’s unlikely we will see such strong growth going forward – and it may ultimately decline as a contributor of revenue for some players.
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