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OCC Denies Wise Charter
Wise Plc shares fell as much as 10% in London on Friday after the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency formally rejected its application to establish a national trust bank, a move that delays the fintech’s plan to directly access the American payments system.
“Dive Brief: - The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency has denied London-based Wise’s application to establish a national trust bank”
The OCC’s rejection, detailed in a July 21 letter, rested on two pillars, including that Wise’s original strategy depended on obtaining a Federal Reserve Master Account that became impractical after the central bank paused access for uninsured trust banks and revised its payment system guidelines.
Wise said in a statement, "With the Federal Reserve generally pausing account access for an uninsured trust bank, the approach in our application became non-viable," and the company said it plans to submit a new application under the GENIUS Act framework.
Wise reported it continues to serve 18.9 million active users globally and holds money transmitter licenses across 48 U.S. states and four territories, even as the charter bid was rejected.
Over fiscal 2026, Wise processed $243.5 billion in cross-border payment volume and reported $2.5 billion in net revenue, while it seeks a new path to the U.S. payments network.
GENIUS Act Resubmission
Wise said it will change its strategy for applying for a charter license with the OCC to one "under a GENIUS Act framework," and plans to submit a new application for a national trust bank charter under that framework.
Investment banking group William Blair said Wise is focused on lowering the cost of cross-border transactions, "agnostic of the rail," even after the OCC denied its earlier bid.
The OCC said in its rejection that the company could not show it had an effective Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and Countering the Financing of Terrorism (CFT) compliance program and had "other illicit finance activity risks."
The GENIUS Act was signed into law in July 2025, but regulators missed a crucial deadline to provide guidance on implementation before the law’s effective date in January 2027.
Wise’s pivot is tied to the Federal Reserve’s evolving access rules, since the original plan depended on Fed master accounts while the central bank developed a separate framework for "payment accounts."
Compliance and Market Stakes
The OCC’s denial was linked to compliance history and supervisory concerns, with Banking Dive reporting that Stephen Lybarger said Wise’s application "presents significant supervisory and compliance concerns."
“Wise to resubmit US charter application under GENIUS Act The OCC denied the UK company’s application this week citing AML/CFT risks, despite approving similar charters for digital asset companies in the last year”
Banking Dive also reported that the OCC expected any subsequent application would "satisfactorily address the reasons for this action," after a July 2025 multi-state consent order over deficiencies in Wise US’s Bank Secrecy Act, anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism programs.
Wise told regulators it has strengthened its U.S. program, enhanced investigation and reporting processes, improved data integrity and increased compliance resourcing, while it said its business and compliance maturity have evolved since the original filing.
The stakes for Wise are tied to direct access to U.S. payment infrastructure, because the national trust bank charter was meant to unlock a route that would reduce reliance on intermediaries and potentially improve costs and speed.
William Blair maintained its Outperform rating and said its discounted cash flow valuation supports a stock price of at least $19, but the timeline for operational certainty under the GENIUS Act remains unclear as agencies missed the implementation guidance deadline.
