Bulk Settlement

Bulk settlement works by splitting the Transfer Creation/Funding and Final Settlement into two separate processes. It exists to allow Wise to start processing a transfer before receiving funds from the sending customer, based on the guarantee from the partner that the funds will be settled in a fixed future timeframe. In this way, Wise can provide a faster service to the sending customer in situations where using an existing payment network would incur a delay.

There are two options for settling a transfer at Wise:

1. Bulk Settlement - Single bank transfer for a list of transfers created
2. Transfer-by-Transfer - Individual bank transfer for each of the transfers created

Because the funds are either settled in one go by the partner, or sent as a standard bank transfer, we are able to offer the service as part of our "Low cost transfer" product, meaning it is priced with our lowest fees.

This guide will bring you through to understand the Wise Bulk Settlement, along with all the different variations and features that can be applied to Bulk Settlement.

For Bulk Settlement, there are variations to it depending on the following requirements:

1. Settlement Currency - What currency will you be settling with Wise
2. Refund Model - How should Wise perform a refund in the event of a bounce back

It is possible to settle in a different currency to the one you create transfers in. The currency which you create the transfer in is called the source currency and the currency which you settle in is called the settlement currency. You might do this if you wish to create transfers for your customers in a currency not currently supported by Wise. You would then debit those customers' accounts and convert the funds in bulk to the settlement currency before sending them to Wise to pay for the transfers.

For example, Wise does not currently support settlement in EGP, but your institution may offer banking in this currency to your customers. In this case, you would allow customers to create transfers from EGP (source currency) to other currencies (target currency) that Wise supports - which we will enable when accessing Wise from your app. You would debit the EGP from the customer accounts and, at the end of the settlement period, settle for the transfers in another currency that Wise does support, such as USD.

You can do this by setting the settlementCurrency field of the Settlement Journal including an exchange rate (from Source Currency (EGP) to Settlement Currency (USD)) with every transfer in the journal. The rate you choose here could be unique per transfer or the same for all transfers, depending on the approach agreed with Wise.

You would then calculate the amount owed to Wise in the settlement currency, by taking the total of the transfers converted at their attached exchange rate and send this amount to Wise over the agreed scheme to the details we provide.

Wise provide a couple of different Refund Model for partners to choose from, such as:

1. Direct Refund to Balance (Wise Account)
2. Direct Refund to Sending Customers Bank Account
3. Net Settlement (only available for Bulk Settlement partners)

The bulk settlement model allows refund for all models and each of the model may require additional API calls or fields during certain steps. Each of them will be marked in the different flow sections.

The transfer flow for bulk settlement is mostly similar to the standard Wise transfer flow.

1. Create a Quote
2. Select or Create a Recipient
3. Create a Refund Recipient (only for Direct Refund to Sending Customer Bank Account)
4. Get a Balance Recipient (only for Direct Refund to Balance)
5. Create a Transfer
6. Fund a Transfer
7. Send the Settlement Journal and Funds

In the settlement journal, there is a field called settlementReference.

This reference should be generated by you in the following format.

The 6 characters can be of any value as long as they are always unique.

We recommend using the settlement date (yymmdd) if it is a daily settlement, but you may suggest your custom approach as well.

Wise has attempted to guard our settlement journal API around issues that can arise from submitting multiple instances of the same transfer in different settlement days or attempting to retry the same settlement data twice. However, it is also recommended that you attempt to defend against such issues.

For example, you should track which transfers you have settled with us already and not re-submit them twice. If desired, you can settle different sets of transfers in a day using different settlementReference fields and references on your payments.

If the settlement endpoint fails, you are safe to retry it with the same dataset but please avoid retrying with a different dataset in case the original attempt actually succeeded.

Submitting invalid data, e.g. transfers with negative amounts or missing fields will result in the entire settlement request being invalidated during transfer settlement. In case Wise can't re-process the file, we will reach out to you to resolve the issue.