Multi Currency Banking Report for 2024

This is the latest instalment of TopMoneyCompare’s Multi Currency Banking Report (2025, v6.0). It combines the most recent published data with forward-looking estimates to show how multi currency banking is used today. We bring together statistics on multi currency balances, where individuals and businesses hold their funds, how many card payments trigger currency exchange, and what share of retail sales now takes place across borders.

Intro to the Multi Currency Banking Report 2025

We bring together statistics on multi currency balances, where individuals and businesses hold their funds, how many card payments trigger currency exchange, and what share of retail sales now takes place across borders.

The Expanding Reach of Multi Currency Banking

Multi currency banking has gone from a niche treasury tool to everyday infrastructure.

What was once reserved for corporates hedging FX risk is now standard kit for travellers, remote workers, SMEs, and online sellers.

On TopMoneyCompare, our guides to the best multi-currency accounts and best offshore banks are among the most-read pages on the site.

That mirrors what's happening in the market. More balances held in multiple currencies, more providers, and more card transactions triggering FX in the background.

The latest snapshot of figures includes:

Multi-currency deposits were estimated at around $4.7 trillion in 2025
Fintech platforms (like Wise, Revolut, Airwallex etc.) account for an estimated 30-40% of new multi-currency account sign-ups.
Around 6-8% of global card payments now trigger a currency exchange, rising to 12-15% in major tourism markets.
Cross-border e-commerce accounts for roughly 21% of global online retail today.
Corporate and SME usage is growing at roughly 10-12% per year.

Where we quote specific provider results (Wise, Revolut, Airwallex, etc.) we use their latest published numbers. Where only 2024 financials are available, we say so explicitly and treat later years as estimates.

TopMoneyCompare 's Multi Currency Banking Report 2025 (v6.0)

TopMoneyCompare's Data and Sources

To highlight just a few, this report consolidates data from:

BIS and IMF (banking statistics, cross-border payments).
Capgemini World Payments Report / Accenture (payments and multi-currency provider counts).
Wise FY2025 results and half-year results for FY2026 (15.6m active customers, customer balances, growing from £17bn to £21bn).
Revolut 2024 annual results (52.5m customers, £30bn in customer balances at the end of FY2024).
Card and e-commerce data (via RBR, Nilson, eMarketer and related industry summaries).

We continue to treat global multi-currency deposits as an estimate, because no single dataset cleanly breaks them out.

Our figures are modelled from BIS bank statistics, cross-border flow estimates and disclosed balances at major providers.

A full list of sources is available at the end.

Defining Multi Currency Accounts

A multi currency account (MCA) lets an individual or business hold, send and receive multiple currencies under one roof. The key distinction from traditional banking is that you don't need separate local accounts in each country.

Typical features:

Multiple balances (USD, EUR, GBP, JPY and others) in a single interface.
On-demand FX at close-to-real-time rates.
Unified transaction history across currencies.
Optional debit or prepaid cards that spend from the relevant balance automatically.

For UK users, this might be a Wise, Revolut, or specialist broker account, or a bank product like HSBC Global Money. All of these are built around the same core idea.

Global Multi Currency Deposits

Our central estimate is that global multi-currency deposits sat in a $3.8-$4.2 trillion range in 2024 and are heading towards $4.6-$4.8 trillion for 2025. These numbers remain estimates, not official totals, but they are consistent with BIS banking aggregates and the rapid growth in balances at large fintechs and global transaction banks.

Multi currency balances are still a small slice of overall bank deposits, but they're growing faster than domestic-only deposits. Drivers:

Cross-border e-commerce and marketplaces paying sellers in multiple currencies.
Global payroll and contractor payments for remote teams.
SMEs and mid-caps hedging naturally by holding funds in the currencies they invoice in.
Retail users holding "strong" currencies as a hedge or for yield, rather than converting back immediately.

Given the scale of cross-border payments (the IMF puts the traditional + crypto market near one quadrillion dollars as of 2024) the current multi-currency deposit pool still looks modest. There is a lot of room to grow.

Multi Currency Deposit Growth (2022–2025)

Currency Usage and Popularity

The currency mix inside multi-currency accounts hasn't radically changed, but some trends are clear:

USD still dominates, present in roughly 90% of accounts and around half of all balances, in line with its share of cross-border payments.
EUR remains the clear runner-up, included in around 70% of accounts and roughly 20-25% of balances.
GBP / JPY / CHF together represent about 10-15% of holdings.
Emerging market currencies (CNY, INR, BRL and others) make up the remaining estimated 15%, used heavily in trade corridors and corporate flows.

Fintech data continues to show many users actively hold three or more currencies at any one time. For corporates and SMEs, that's often a direct reflection of where their customers and suppliers are.

Multi Currency Account Balances by Currency (2025 Estimates)

Cross Border Transactions, POS FX, and Global Card Dynamics

The overall cross-border payment market has expanded sharply. IMF analysis suggests traditional plus crypto cross-border payments approached $1 quadrillion in 2024, underscoring how central FX has become to the financial system.

Our read of RBR/Nilson-style data and card-network disclosures is:

Roughly 6-8% of global card payments now involve a currency conversion, once you include both e-commerce and in-person travel spending.
In tourism-heavy regions (Europe, Southeast Asia), the share remains closer to 12-15%.

Most card networks reported cross-border volumes growing faster than domestic volumes again through 2024-2025. That lines up with travel rebounding fully and cross-border online shopping continuing to rise.

On the retail e-commerce side, around one-fifth of global online sales are cross-border, with forecasts still pointing to roughly a quarter of online retail being "international" by the mid-2020s.

Multi-currency cards and wallets quietly sit behind these trends:

They undercut traditional 3-5% FX mark-ups and dynamic currency conversion (DCC) at POS.
They plug straight into online checkout rather than forcing separate bank transfers.
They give both sides (buyer and merchant) clarity on which currency is being used.

Growth of Multi Currency Card Usage at POS (2019–2025)

These are estimates but directionally consistent with publicly available cross-border card growth data.

Retail Adoption and Consumer Behaviour

By the end of 2025 we estimate well over 200 million people globally held some form of multi-currency account or wallet, up from our 160-180 million estimate for 2024. That's an indicative figure, built from provider disclosures and market coverage rather than a single official count.

Two key players include:

Wise served 15.6m active customers in FY2025. Their half-year FY2026 update indicates a growth in multi currency holdings of 37% to £25.3bn as at 30 September 2025.
Revolut reported 52.5m customers and £30bn in customer balances as of end-2024 (a 66% jump in balances year-on-year). As of January 2026, these remain the latest full-year figures, but Revolut's own updates suggest user numbers have continued to climb beyond 60m.

In other words, people are no longer using these apps just to send a one-off transfer. Large chunks of day-to-day cash now sit in multi-currency wallets, with cards attached.

The retail use-cases haven't changed (travel, cross-border shopping, expat life, and remote work) but the scale has. For UK customers, Wise and Revolut in particular now look like genuine alternatives to a traditional current account for international money.

Corporate Usage and Hedging Strategies

Corporate usage has kept pace. The IMF now frames cross-border payments as a central plumbing issue, and the G20's roadmap for cheaper, faster payments is struggling to hit its 2027 targets. A sign that demand is still outstripping infrastructure upgrades.

On the ground:

SMEs and mid-caps increasingly settle invoices in the buyer's or supplier's currency, then hold balances rather than converting immediately.
Multi-currency accounts have become entry-level treasury tools, avoiding the overhead of complex hedging programmes.
Firms with distributed teams use multi-currency platforms for payroll and contractor payments, especially in tech and services.

Provider snapshots:

Wise Business represents a sizable share of Wise's balances; independent analysis puts business holdings at around 40% of customer balances, implying £10.1bn of business funds in FY2026 half-year results.
Airwallex reported annualised transaction volume over $100-$130bn by 2025, with 100,000+ business customers using its multi-currency accounts and collections.

Large multinationals still work mainly with global banks, but even they are using fintech rails for specific corridors or payout models. For SMEs, fintech is often the default rather than the exception.

Providers and Competitive Landscape

Capgemini's payments work and bank/fintech disclosures still point to 5,000+ providers offering some form of multi-currency capability – from global banks to niche fintechs and FX brokers.

Broadly:

Traditional banks remain dominant for large corporate flows and trade finance but have had to launch app-based multi-currency products to defend their retail and SME base.
Fintechs and neobanks (Wise, Revolut, N26, Payoneer, Airwallex, regional players) win on UX, pricing transparency and speed.
Specialist brokers still serve high-value corridors and complex hedging but are increasingly wrapping those services in more modern, app-driven front ends.

For UK customers, the standout story is still home-grown fintech competition: Wise and Revolut have global scale, while banks like HSBC and Barclays have responded with their own multi-currency and "global money" offerings.

Fees, FX Spreads, and POS Markups

The price gap between traditional banks and fintechs has not closed.

High-street banks still often charge 2-3% above interbank on retail FX, sometimes more on exotic currencies.
Major fintechs commonly sit in the 0.3-1% range on the big pairs, with transparent fees and live rate previews.

At the point of sale:

Dynamic currency conversion (DCC) is still widely offered and still poor value in most cases.
A multi-currency card that spends from a local-currency balance (or converts at a mid-market rate) can easily save several percentage points per transaction versus DCC or old-school debit cards.

This cost differential is a big reason why younger, globally mobile customers are happy to move balances into fintech wallets.

Forecasts and Future Outlook

Looking ahead into 2026 and beyond, our central view is:

Global multi-currency deposits are still on track to pass $5 trillion by 2026-2027, based on current growth rates in disclosed balances and BIS aggregates.
Fintechs already account for an estimated 30-40% of new multi-currency account sign-ups and a rising share of total balances. That share could hit the low-40s by the latter half of the decade.
Real-time payment systems (FedNow in the US, SEPA Instant in Europe, UK Faster Payments upgrades) plus API-driven "embedded" solutions will keep making multi-currency functionality feel more like infrastructure than a specialist add-on.
Regulatory focus will intensify as more fintechs (including Wise) look at full UK banking licences and as CBDC pilots expand. That should increase protections, but may also add compliance friction.

Multi-currency banking is no longer a curiosity. It's becoming a default expectation for anyone with international income, spending or investment plans.

Multi Currency Banking: Projected Deposits & Fintech Share (2024–2027)

Conclusions

Key takeaways from the 2025 edition:

Scale. Global multi-currency deposits likely sit at nearly $5 trillion today and are heading over $5 trillion in the next couple of years.
Fintech muscle. UK-rooted players like Wise and Revolut now hold tens of billions of pounds in customer balances and serve tens of millions of users worldwide, with business usage rising strongly.
Cards and retail. Around 6-8% of global card transactions now involve FX, with a much higher share in travel markets, and roughly one in five online purchases crosses at least one border.
Pricing. Fintech spreads and fees remain structurally lower than those of traditional banks, especially on everyday corridors, and multi-currency cards continue to beat DCC at POS.
Geography. The UK punches above its weight, with local fintechs shaping global trends and UK consumers and SMEs among the earliest and heaviest adopters of multi-currency tools.

As domestic and international transactions merge into a single experience, the ability to hold, send and spend in multiple currencies is becoming part of basic financial hygiene. From our vantage point at the start of 2026, the multi-currency story still feels early.

Sources and Further Reading:

WRITTEN BY

Matt Lewis

I'm Matt, the founder and primary editor at TopMoneyCompare. I previously held a management position at a notable UK currency brokerage, where I learnt that helping people navigate the complex world of finances is in my DNA.

FACT CHECKED BY

Russell Gous

I'm Russ, Editor-in-Chief of TopMoneyCompare. I have a decade-long industry experience, having worked at money transfer service providers and banks. I am a data-driven writer and editor and my goal is to make sure our articles are correct and up-to-date.