Wise bank charter rejected as shares slide on OCC decision
Wise shares fell after the OCC denied its U.S. bank charter bid, citing a 2025 anti-money-laundering consent order.
By Sal Moretti · Money Reporter
3 min read
Wise bank charter rejected was the headline rattling fintech investors Friday, after the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency turned down the company’s bid for a U.S. national bank charter and Wise shares fell as much as 11%, according to MarketWatch.
The U.K.-headquartered fintech said the OCC pointed to a July 2025 consent order Wise reached with multiple states over weaknesses in its anti-money-laundering program. Those issues included delays in filing suspicious-activity reports, according to the company’s account of the regulator’s reasoning.
Outright denials of bank-charter applications are unusual, MarketWatch reported. One recent comparison came in 2021, when U.K. digital bank Monzo pulled its own application after a regulator indicated approval was unlikely.
Why was Wise’s bank charter rejected?
Wise said the OCC’s denial was tied to the 2025 state consent order, which centered on deficiencies in its anti-money-laundering controls. Anti-money-laundering programs are meant to help financial firms spot, investigate and report suspicious activity that could involve illicit funds.
The company said it has since made changes across its compliance work, including in the United States, the United Kingdom and Belgium.
“In response to the Consent Order, we have strengthened our local U.S. program, enhanced our investigation and reporting processes, improved the integrity of the data we collect from our customers and increased resourcing for our local compliance program,” Wise said.
A national bank charter would have moved Wise further into the regulated U.S. banking system. A charter can give a financial company a different legal footing for offering services and dealing with banking infrastructure, though approval depends on regulators being satisfied with the applicant’s controls and operations.
What happens next for Wise?
Wise said it plans to try again, but with a different route. The company is preparing a new application for a national bank trust charter under the Genius Act, which Wise described as making stablecoins more visible alongside existing payment networks.
The rejected application had relied on the idea that the Federal Reserve would give Wise a master account, which would provide access to the payment system, the company said. Wise now describes that approach as “non-viable.”
That shift puts the next phase of Wise’s U.S. push squarely in the hands of regulators again, while investors wait to see whether the revised charter strategy can get farther than the first bid.
The United States is already a meaningful market for the company. In the fiscal year that ended in March, Wise earned nearly $500 million on $2.5 billion in revenue, with about 15% of revenue coming from the U.S., according to figures reported by MarketWatch.
For now, the market reaction shows how much investors were watching the U.S. charter effort. The denial does not end Wise’s American ambitions, but it forces the fintech to redraw the map after a rare regulatory rejection.
This story draws on original reporting from MarketWatch.