Wise—US OCC denied Wise's national trust bank charter citing persistent AML/BSA compliance failures
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.
Scoring Impact
| Topic | Direction | Relevance | Contribution |
|---|---|---|---|
| Corporate Governance | -against | primary | -1.00 |
| Overall incident score = | -0.885 | ||
Score = avg(topic contributions) × significance (high ×1.5) × confidence (0.59)
Evidence (1 signal)
OCC decision letter denied Wise National Trust's charter application over AML/BSA deficiencies
The OCC's decision letter denying Wise National Trust's de novo charter application cited significant supervisory and compliance concerns, including a persistent inability to manage money-laundering and illicit-finance risk. It followed a July 2025 multistate consent order in which Wise US paid $4.2 million over AML/BSA program deficiencies.