The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency denied Wise's application for a US national trust bank charter, the payments company said Friday, a rare public rejection from a regulator that has spent the past eight months approving trust charters for crypto and fintech firms.
Wise shares fell as much as 10% on Nasdaq, where the company moved its primary listing from London in May.
The OCC's decision letter said the application presented "significant supervisory and compliance concerns" and that Wise's proposed management and board had "demonstrated a persistent inability" to manage money-laundering and terrorist-financing risks, according to Law360, which reviewed the letter.
Wise said it plans to submit a new application "under a GENIUS Act framework, as we continue to maintain a positive relationship with the agency," and that the denial does not affect its US operations, which run on money transmitter licenses across 48 states and four territories.
Wise filed in June 2025 to charter Wise National Trust, N.A., a nondepository trust bank that would have given the company direct access to Federal Reserve payment rails instead of routing through partner banks. A month later, US state regulators hit Wise with a multi-state consent order over compliance failures — an action the company acknowledged in Friday's statement.
