The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency has denied Wise’s application for a U.S. national trust bank charter, the payments company said Friday. The decision is a rare public rejection from an agency that has spent the past eight months approving trust charters for crypto and fintech firms.
Wise shares fell as much as 10% on Nasdaq after the news. The company moved its primary listing from London in May.
OCC cited supervisory and compliance concerns
According to Law360, which reviewed the OCC’s decision letter, the regulator said the application raised “significant supervisory and compliance concerns.” The letter also said Wise’s proposed management and board had “demonstrated a persistent inability” to manage money-laundering and terrorist-financing risks.
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.” The company also said the denial does not affect its U.S. operations, which run on money transmitter licenses across 48 states and four territories.
Application was overtaken by later developments
Wise filed in June 2025 to charter Wise National Trust, N.A., a nondepository trust bank. If approved, that structure would have given the company direct access to Federal Reserve payment rails rather than routing through partner banks.
A month later, U.S. state regulators imposed a multi-state consent order on Wise over compliance failures, an action the company acknowledged in its Friday statement.
The application also depended on a Federal Reserve master account. Wise said, “With the Federal Reserve generally pausing account access for an uninsured trust bank, the approach in our application became non-viable.”
Bank groups had urged the OCC to reject the bid
Lobby groups for the banking industry had argued against the charter. The Bank Policy Institute and the Independent Community Bankers of America both submitted letters opposing the application in October.
Finance Magnates reported that Belgian authorities opened a money-laundering investigation into Wise in June involving roughly $500 million in suspicious transactions.
An exception to the OCC’s recent approval streak
The denial runs against the OCC’s recent pattern under Comptroller Jonathan Gould. In December, the agency granted conditional approvals to Circle, Ripple, Paxos, BitGo, and Fidelity Digital Assets. Coinbase followed in April.
Circle received final approval to open its national trust bank on July 10.
More than a dozen applications are still pending at the OCC, including filings from Revolut, World Liberty Financial’s trust company, and Kraken parent Payward. Wise no longer appears on the pending list.
Wise points to stablecoin interoperability
Wise said its infrastructure is “well positioned to play an important interoperability role” as stablecoins gain ground alongside existing payment rails.
The company reported more than $240 billion in cross-border volume and about 19 million customers in fiscal 2026.