Wise

A third-party software defect caused Wise's UK 'Wise Assets' investment product (Wise Interest and Stocks) to issue incorrect capital-gains and income figures on tax statements to roughly 4,000 UK customers for self-assessment returns covering 2021-2025, with some customers overpaying and others underpaying tax. Wise discovered the error through internal quality controls, fixed the underlying issue, reissued corrected statements, and is negotiating a bulk settlement with HMRC to cover shortfalls while committing to redress customers who overpaid.

The National Bank of Belgium (NBB) publicly announced on August 25, 2026 that Wise Europe SA had failed to comply, by a March 31, 2026 deadline, with a formal order the NBB issued on July 8, 2025 requiring remediation of anti-money-laundering and counter-terrorist-financing deficiencies. The original order cited failures including inadequate information-sharing between group entities for AML/CFT purposes (Article 13 Section 1), deficiencies in customer identification and beneficial-owner verification (Articles 23, 26, 27), inadequate due diligence on customer relationships and occasional transactions (Article 35 Section 1), and failure to properly analyze atypical transactions (Article 45) under Belgium's Anti-Money Laundering Act. The publication, made under Article 93 Section 2(1) of that Act, was the first such public identification under Belgium's strengthened AML enforcement-disclosure policy. It is a separate NBB supervisory action from the Belgian federal prosecutors' criminal investigation into ~EUR500M in suspicious Wise Europe transactions reported in June 2026. Wise said it has implemented the required changes.

The US Office of the Comptroller of the Currency denied Wise National Trust's application to establish a national trust bank in Austin, Texas, citing 'significant supervisory and compliance concerns.' The OCC found the proposed organizers demonstrated a 'persistent inability to sufficiently manage' money-laundering and illicit-finance risk, lacked sufficient familiarity with federal banking law, and had no historical experience with fiduciary activities. The denial followed a July 2025 multistate consent order in which Wise US paid $4.2 million over deficiencies in suspicious-activity investigation and reporting, transaction-monitoring data integrity, and untimely correction of prior AML/BSA deficiencies. Wise said it has since strengthened its US compliance program and plans to reapply.

Belgium's federal organized-crime police unit (DJSOC) and the Brussels prosecutor's office investigated Wise Europe SA after the company's accounts appeared repeatedly in hundreds of criminal files tied to fraud, corruption, and drug trafficking. The probe, opened in 2025 and nearing a decision by mid-2026, stemmed from European Investigation Orders and international letters rogatory submitted by more than 30 European countries. Prosecutors were finalizing a 'direct summons' that would send the case to criminal court without an investigating judge, citing indications of non-compliance with anti-money-laundering legislation including inadequate customer identification, activity verification, and monitoring for unusual transactions. The investigation covers Wise's Belgian-licensed European operations, not its UK-regulated business. Results were to be shared with the National Bank of Belgium, which supervises Wise Europe.

Wise US, Inc. agreed to pay $4.2 million under a multistate settlement with California, Minnesota, Nebraska, New York, Texas, and one other state for serious shortcomings in Bank Secrecy Act and anti-money laundering compliance. The Multi-State MSB Examination Taskforce found suspicious activity reporting deficiencies, transaction monitoring data integrity issues, and failure to timely correct past deficiencies detected in prior examinations.

While many tech companies rolled back DEI under Trump pressure, Wise implemented stronger governance structure across all 13 global DEI communities in 2025. Programs include Women Circles (speaker-led networking), Women in Product events, and investment in senior women and non-binary external community. Gender pay gap reduced from 19.54% to 14.54% mean, 18.4% to 12.67% median.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau ordered Wise to pay approximately $2.5 million for alleged illegal remittance practices, including advertising inaccurate fees and failing to properly disclose exchange rates. The consent order requires approximately $450,000 for consumer redress and a $44,955 civil penalty.

UK FCA fined Wise CEO Kristo Käärmann £350,000 for failing to disclose his inclusion on HMRC's deliberate tax defaulters list. Käärmann failed to pay £720,495 in capital gains tax from a 2017 share sale and was separately fined £365,651 by HMRC. The FCA found his approach 'careless rather than deliberate' but his failure to disclose prevented assessment of his fitness for senior management roles.

On 31 August 2023, UK's Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation (OFSI) issued a disclosure against Wise Payments Limited for breaching Russia sanctions regulations. On 30 June 2022, the day after a person was added to the UK Sanctions List, a company employee made a £250 cash withdrawal from a Wise business account using a company debit card in the Designated Person's name. This was the first instance of OFSI using its disclosure powers. Wise self-reported the breach on 20 July 2022 but no fine was imposed due to the moderate severity.