▼ Summary
– Wise shares fell about 10% after the US Office of the Comptroller of the Currency denied its application for a national trust bank charter, which would have allowed direct settlement with the Federal Reserve.
– The rejection blocks Wise’s most ambitious US strategy, as the charter would have eliminated its reliance on partner banks and state money transmitter licences.
– The OCC did not detail its rationale, but Wise cited “historical issues” with its application and a shifting regulatory backdrop, including a Fed pause on account access for uninsured trust banks.
– Wise’s day-to-day US operations are unaffected, as it continues using money transmitter licences across 48 states, and it plans to reapply under the GENIUS Act for stablecoins.
– The US is Wise’s largest growth market, accounting for nearly half of its $243bn cross-border volume, and direct Fed access would have matched its connections in other regions.
Shares in Wise dropped roughly 10% on Friday after the US Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) rejected the money-transfer firm’s bid for a national trust bank charter, a license that would have given it direct access to the Federal Reserve’s payment systems.
The London-based fintech, which went public on Nasdaq in May, had pursued the approval for over a year. The denial effectively blocks, at least for now, the most ambitious element of Wise’s US expansion plan. A national trust charter would have allowed the company to settle dollar payments directly with the Fed, bypassing partner banks,a coveted infrastructure advantage that rivals like Klarna have also sought in the American market.
Wise submitted its application to the OCC in June 2025 to establish Wise National Trust, a non-depository bank headquartered in Austin, Texas. The strategy involved pairing the charter with a master account at the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, enabling direct clearing of US dollars, including through real-time payment systems like FedNow.
Such a combination is uncommon. An OCC charter merely qualifies a firm to apply for a Fed account, and the central bank subjects uninsured trust banks to its most rigorous review, a process that often exceeds two years and weeds out most applicants. The most scrutinized tier of applicants has waited an average of about 823 days for a decision, and only one crypto-linked company has succeeded so far.
Together, the charter and master account would have done more than accelerate settlement. Wise could have held its own dollar assets instead of relying on third-party banks and, over time, reduced the patchwork of state money transmitter licenses that fintechs operating nationwide must maintain.
The regulator did not issue a detailed explanation, though Law360 reported that the OCC cited compliance gaps. In its own statement, Wise acknowledged “historical issues” with its original application and a shifting regulatory environment, noting that the Fed had been “generally pausing account access for an uninsured trust bank.” The approach it had pursued, the company said, had become “non-viable.”
Wise was also operating under a multi-state consent order from July 2025, an enforcement settlement tied to compliance shortcomings that cast a shadow over the application. The firm said it continues to work with the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority and the National Bank of Belgium on its risk and compliance systems.
The setback is narrower than the share price drop might suggest. Wise emphasized that its daily operations remain unaffected, running in the US under money transmitter licenses across 48 states and four territories, part of a global portfolio of more than 80 licenses.
Rather than abandoning the effort, the company plans to try again under a different regulatory framework. According to Reuters, Wise intends to file a fresh application for a national trust charter under the structure created by the GENIUS Act, the recent US law governing stablecoins and other digital assets.
The US remains central to Wise’s growth story. Chair David Wells has described it as “the biggest market opportunity for our products in the world today,” and the country accounts for nearly half of the group’s cross-border volume, which reached $243 billion in its 2026 financial year, up 31% year-over-year.
Direct Fed access would have aligned Wise with the connections it already holds in the UK, the EU, Singapore, and Australia, cutting out intermediary banks and the associated costs. That is the prize the OCC has now paused.
Wise is hardly the only European fintech to see a US charter as a gateway to scale, and these licenses have become coveted milestones on both sides of the Atlantic. Revolut spent years securing its own UK banking license, a reminder that even at home, approvals rarely come quickly.
For a company built on removing middlemen from cross-border transfers, being told to keep routing its dollars through other banks is an awkward outcome. Not every fintech has found America hospitable either: Monzo exited the market last year. Wise, however, is staying,and reapplying.
(Source: The Next Web)