Money
transfer firm Wise is under investigation by prosecutors in Belgium over
concerns that its accounts were used to launder the proceeds of fraud,
corruption and drug trafficking, the company confirmed today (Monday) after the
inquiry was first reported
by The Bureau of Investigative Journalism.
The case
centers on about €500 million in suspicious transactions. Wise accounts had
turned up in hundreds of requests for cross-border judicial assistance from
more than 30 European countries, according to the report.
It is the
latest in a run of compliance episodes for the company since its 2021 London
listing.
Half a Billion Euros in
Flagged Transfers
Brussels
prosecutors opened the investigation last year after noticing how often Wise
accounts appeared in criminal proceedings across the continent, the report
said. They are now examining “indications of non-compliance with
anti-money laundering” rules by the company, according to the prosecutor’s
office.
Anti-money
laundering rules require payment firms to verify customers, watch for unusual
activity and report it to authorities. The half-billion-euro figure and the
spread across more than 30 countries reflect how widely Wise is used, and why
investigators have taken an interest in its anti-money laundering controls.
Wise, the
London-listed firm once known as TransferWise, says it holds more than 80
regulatory licenses and serves over 19 million active customers, processing
around 4.7 million transactions a day.
Wise
reported more than $243 billion in cross-border transactions for its 2026
financial year and said it saved customers over $3.3 billion, figures drawn
from its own disclosures.
Wise Says the Inquiries
Are Incomplete
In its
response, Wise said it is working with the Brussels prosecutor and that no
specific findings have been shared with it so far. It said “it would be
speculative for us to comment on any allegations.”
Wise also pointed to its corporate structure as the
reason so many requests funnel into Belgium.
Its
European business is based there and serves the rest of the region through the
EU passporting system, so law-enforcement requests from across the bloc are
routed to Belgium rather than to local offices in each country, the company
said.
Filing
suspicious-activity reports and answering law-enforcement requests are a normal
part of operations and do not by themselves signal wrongdoing, Wise said.
The company
added that around a third of its global staff works on protecting customers
from financial crime.
A Familiar Pattern of
Compliance Scrutiny
This is not
the first time Wise’s controls have drawn official attention. The National Bank
of Belgium, which supervises the firm in Europe, forced it into a formal
remediation plan after a 2021 review found it lacked proof of address for
hundreds of thousands of customers.
The plan required Wise to chase those
customers for documents within weeks and freeze accounts that did not comply.
In July
2025, several US state regulators fined Wise $4.2 million over anti-money
laundering shortcomings and ordered it to review previously closed accounts.
Years earlier, Abu Dhabi’s market regulator fined Wise $360,000 for gaps in its AML systems, though
it found no evidence that laundering had actually taken place.
The UK’s
Financial Conduct Authority has separately opened an investigation into Chief
Executive Kristo Käärmann after a personal tax fine.
Missing or
outdated customer records are a recurring theme, with one analysis finding data
gaps behind about two-thirds of UK AML penalties over five years.
Rivals Have Drawn Their
Own Penalties
Wise is not
the only fast-growing fintech facing money-laundering questions as it scales
across borders.
Revolut, a
London-based rival, was fined €3.5 million by Lithuania’s
central bank in
April 2025 for weak transaction monitoring that let suspicious activity slip
through.
Months
later, Australia’s financial-crime agency penalized Revolut’s local unit for filing reports late under
anti-money laundering laws. In Belgium itself, ING agreed in May to a €1.6
million settlement over its failure to flag suspicious transactions tied to a
former EU commissioner.
Belgian
authorities have been tightening financial-crime enforcement, with plans for a
dedicated national financial prosecutor and a new criminal code that took
effect in April.
Wise said
it would keep its shareholders and the market informed at the appropriate time.
The company has not been charged, and prosecutors have not published any
findings.
This article was written by Damian Chmiel at www.financemagnates.com.
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