Sending Money Overseas From Singapore: A Business Guide

You probably know what your bank charges to send a telegraphic transfer, and you probably don't know what you pay on the exchange rate, even though that second number is usually the bigger one. An SGD 30 transfer fee is easy to see on a statement, whereas a margin baked into the rate never shows up as a line at all, so it quietly comes out of every supplier payment you make.

That gap has become easier to close. Singapore now has several licensed payment providers that convert closer to the mid-market rate and route payments through local networks abroad, which tends to make them cheaper and faster than a SWIFT wire, and for a company paying suppliers in China or Europe every month the difference adds up to real money over a year.

This guide is for Singapore company owners who pay suppliers or overseas teams and want to see what each option costs before choosing one. I'll compare a bank telegraphic transfer with three specialist providers using their own published Singapore pricing and explain where the money actually goes, so you can pick with real numbers. I run Statrys, which offers business accounts to Singapore companies, so I'll keep it out of the comparison table and tell you plainly at the end where it fits and where it doesn't.

The Short Version

If you pay overseas suppliers regularly, a specialist account such as Wise Business or Airwallex will usually cost you less than a bank telegraphic transfer, because the exchange rate sits closer to mid-market and many payments avoid SWIFT altogether. A bank is still the simplest route if you value having everything in one place, but a waived cable charge doesn't make the payment cheap once the conversion is priced in.

Fees are taken from each provider's published Singapore pricing as of November 2026 and can change. What you pay depends on your plan and the currency you send.

How Singapore Companies Send Money Overseas

There are two routes, and choosing between them matters more than choosing between brands.

The first is a telegraphic transfer from your Singapore business bank account, which travels over the SWIFT network (the messaging system banks use to pass international payments to each other). It's familiar and already set up, and OCBC, for example, charges SGD 30 for an online telegraphic transfer from an SGD account with the commission-in-lieu and cable charge waived. What the bank doesn't publish is its FX margin, and because a SWIFT payment can pass through intermediary banks on the way, how long a wire transfer takes and how much arrives at the other end can both vary.

The second route is a licensed payment provider or business account built for cross-border payments. These providers usually convert close to the mid-market rate (the midpoint you see on Google) and show their fee separately, and many of them pay out through the local network in the destination country, so a payment to a supplier in Malaysia or the UK lands as a domestic transfer rather than an international wire.

Where the Money Actually Goes

Every international business payment can carry up to four costs, and most providers only advertise one or two:

• The transfer fee: the flat charge for sending, such as an SGD 30 telegraphic transfer fee.
• The FX margin: the gap between your rate and the mid-market rate, which is usually the largest cost and the least visible one.
• Intermediary bank fees: deductions made by banks along the SWIFT chain, which can leave your supplier short unless you choose to pay all charges yourself.
• Receiving fees: charges the supplier's own bank may take, which no Singapore provider controls.

The FX margin deserves the arithmetic. If you pay SGD 40,000 a month to overseas suppliers, every 1% of margin costs SGD 400 a month and SGD 4,800 a year, so a 0.5% margin against a 2.5% one is an SGD 9,600 difference every year on exactly the same payments. Before you choose a provider, ask for the rate on a real payment and compare it with the mid-market rate at that moment, because that one comparison tells you more than any fee table.

The Main Options Compared

None of these is cheapest for every payment, so what follows is what each one does well and where it falls short.

Your Bank (OCBC as an Example)

A telegraphic transfer from your existing bank needs no new account and no new login, and your payments sit alongside the rest of your banking. OCBC's business pricing guide lists SGD 30 for an online telegraphic transfer debited from an SGD account, with the commission-in-lieu of exchange and cable charge both waived, and USD 30 when you pay from a foreign currency account. Branch or manual instructions cost more.

What the guide doesn't show is the FX margin built into the bank's exchange rate. If you send more than a few payments a month, I'd price one of them with a specialist before assuming the bank is close enough.

Wise Business

Wise Business converts at the mid-market rate and charges a visible fee from 0.19% depending on the currency, with a volume discount once you convert more than SGD 30,000 in a month. You pay a one-off SGD 99 to unlock every business feature, including account details to receive money in 22 currencies, and there's no monthly fee after that.

It suits a company that makes frequent payments and values transparency over relationship banking.

Airwallex

Airwallex suits a business that holds and receives foreign currency as well as paying it out, since you can keep balances in several currencies and pay suppliers from them without converting each time. Its Singapore pricing puts FX at 0.4% to 0.6% above interbank. Payments through local rails to more than 120 countries are free, and a payment that has to go by SWIFT costs SGD 20 to SGD 35. The Explore plan starts at SGD 0 a month with no minimum balance.

Aspire

Aspire is built around Singapore SMEs that want payments and spend cards in one place. The account is free to open, local transfers carry no fee, and you get multi-currency accounts in eight currencies including SGD, USD, EUR and GBP, with payments possible in more than 30 currencies. FX on the free Basic plan starts from 0.46%, and the SGD 15-a-month Premium plan waives the FX fee on the first SGD 13,000 you convert each month.

How to Choose the Right Option for Your Business

The right provider depends less on who's cheapest in general and more on how your business pays, and these questions usually settle it:

1. How much do you send, and how often? For a handful of small payments a transparent per-transfer fee wins, but once you're sending tens of thousands a month the FX margin matters far more and a negotiated rate starts to pay off.
2. Do you also get paid in foreign currency? If clients pay you in USD or EUR, a multi-currency account lets you pay suppliers from those balances instead of converting twice.
3. Where are your suppliers? Local payment coverage differs by corridor, so check that the countries you pay most often are reached without SWIFT.
4. Is the provider licensed by MAS? Any provider you use should hold a licence under Singapore's Payment Services Act, and you can check its status in the MAS Financial Institutions Directory in under a minute.
5. Will it connect to your accounting? Most specialists sync with Xero, which can cut down the time you spend on reconciliation.

For options aimed at personal transfers, see our roundup of the best international money transfer apps, and if China is your main corridor, our guide on how to send money to China covers the rules on the receiving side.

Where Statrys Fits

I'm not a neutral party here, so I'll keep this short. If your company is registered in Singapore and pays or gets paid across borders, Statrys is built for exactly that, and it's licensed by the Monetary Authority of Singapore as a Major Payment Institution.

A Statrys business account for Singapore companies is free to open and holds 11 currencies, and Statrys doesn’t charge a monthly fee. On the published Singapore pricing:

• SWIFT payments: SGD 20 each, to more than 120 countries
• Local payments: from SGD 4, in currencies such as USD, EUR, GBP, AUD and INR
• FAST transfers in Singapore: SGD 1.50
• FX fees: from 0.1% on major currencies and 0.15% on others

SWIFT payments come with an MT103 confirmation, the standard SWIFT record that proves a payment was sent, which helps when a supplier says the money hasn’t arrived.

Statrys business accounts are open to companies registered in Singapore, Hong Kong or the BVI, subject to approval, and Statrys isn’t a bank.