Wise, the London-founded cross-border payments giant, saw its US banking ambitions stall on July 24 after the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) rejected its application for a national trust bank charter — a decision the company says was driven as much by a changing regulatory landscape as by its own compliance history.
Shares in Wise, which recently shifted its primary listing to Nasdaq, fell as much as 10-11% in London trading following the announcement, before paring some of the losses.
A Payment-Access Framework That Moved Beneath It
Wise filed its application to charter “Wise National Trust” with the OCC in June 2025, seeking not just a federal charter but, critically, membership with the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas to secure a master account — a direct line into the Fed’s payment rails that would have let Wise move US dollars without routing through third-party banks.
That plan, the company said, has since become unworkable. “With the Federal Reserve generally pausing account access for an uninsured trust bank, the approach in our application became non-viable,” Wise said in its statement. As an uninsured institution, a national trust bank charter would have subjected Wise to a heightened “Tier 2” or “Tier 3” review for master account access, with the Fed retaining broad discretion to approve or deny such requests — discretion that Wise says has hardened materially into a general pause over the past year.
Compounding the shift, Wise pointed to the passage of the GENIUS Act, which established a new federal framework for stablecoin issuers and other fintechs to obtain limited bank charters, alongside what it called “rapidly evolving Federal Reserve policy on how financial institutions can directly access the federal payments network.” Together, the company said, these changes reshaped the regulatory environment its original application was built around.
Compliance Concerns Also Cited
The OCC’s rejection wasn’t solely about policy shifts, however. The regulator flagged a US consent order Wise entered into last year over Bank Secrecy Act and anti-money-laundering deficiencies across several states, and reportedly found that Wise’s proposed management and board had struggled to demonstrate the ability to manage money-laundering and terrorist-financing risks. The OCC also cited a lack of experience in fiduciary duties within the proposed leadership team. These activities are now central to how national trust banks are meant to operate.
Wise said it has since strengthened its US compliance programme, improved customer data quality, and boosted resources dedicated to preventing financial crime.
No Immediate Impact on US Operations
Wise stressed that the rejection does not affect its existing US business, which runs on money transmitter licences across 48 states and four territories, part of more than 80 licences the company holds globally.
Looking ahead, Wise said it plans to submit a fresh trust bank application built around the GENIUS Act framework, positioning its infrastructure as an interoperability bridge between traditional payment rails and digital assets such as stablecoins. The company’s rejection is notable as the first high-profile denial of a fintech trust bank application under the current administration, which had previously taken a comparatively light regulatory touch. This is a signal other fintechs pursuing similar charters, including Revolut, are likely to be watching closely.
