Wise shares plunge on European probe
The investigation, which relates to Wise’s European operations, is centred on “indications of non-compliance with anti-money laundering legislation”
Shares in Wise dipped on Monday after it emerged the fintech is being investigated over potential money laundering failures.
According to The Bureau of Investigative Journalism, which broke the story, prosecutors in Belgium opened a probe into the London-based payments specialist last year, after noticing that Wise accounts had featured in hundreds of requests for cross-border help in criminal proceedings from more than 30 countries across Europe. The report said the transactions amount to €500 million ($582 million).
The investigation, which relates to Wise’s European operations, is centred on “indications of non-compliance with anti-money laundering legislation”.
In a statement, Wise said it was working with the Brussels prosecutor “to respond to queries about our business, as we regularly do with regulators and law-enforcement authorities.
His office’s enquiries are still incomplete, and no specific findings have been shared with us to date. As such, it would be speculative for us to comment on any allegations, it said.
But it concluded: Combating financial crime is an industry-wide challenge that Wise takes extremely seriously. Like every financial institution, we face the reality of increasingly sophisticated bad actors attempting to exploit our platform, and we continually invest in tech-enabled systems and teams to stay ahead of ever-evolving threats.
As at 08:45 GMT, the stock had dropped 14% in London to 804.86p.
Wise has grown massively since chief executive and co-founder Kristo Kaarmann launched the business as TransferWise in 2011. It debuted on the London market in 2021 but moved its primary listing to Nasdaq last month.
Net revenues came in at $2.5 billion in the year to March end, a 19% hike, and it now has around 3 million customers in the UK alone. Internationally, it has around 15.6 million active personal and business customers.