Wise shares plummet as money transfer firm faces fraud investigation
Shares in money transfer firm Wise have plummeted this morning as the fintech faces an investigation over allegations its accounts have been used for criminal activity.
Prosecutors in Belgium opened an investigation last year after discovering Wise accounts had been flagged in hundreds of international criminal requests that spanned over 30 European countries.
The transactions within the scope are said to amount to roughly €500m (£432m) with investigators specifically looking at whether Wise failed to comply with anti-money laundering (AML) laws.
Investigators are checking whether illicit proceeds from fraud, corruption, and drug smuggling were funnelled through Wise accounts
Wise shares dropped 15 per cent on the news to 796.00p.
The probe – first reported by The Bureau of Investigative Journalism – centres on Wise’s European operations, which are managed out of its Brussels office, and does not directly target its 3m UK users.
The Financial Conduct Authority has not confirmed whether it is also looking into Wise or providing assistance to European investigators.
Wise has said it is “currently working with the Brussels prosecutor to respond to queries about our business, as we routinely do with regulators and law-enforcement authorities”.
It added around a third of its staff were “dedicated to fighting financial crime”.
New investigation hits Wise
The new investigation follows Wise’s US subsidiary being slapped with a $4.2m penalty in July 2025 to settle investigations with six state financial regulators over compliance deficiencies.
The multi-state investigation drew on failures in investigating and reporting suspicious activity and issues with transaction monitoring data integrity.
Founded in 2011, Wise switched its primary listing to the US this year after laying out plans to downgrade its London listing last June.
The plans triggered a major rift between founders Kristo Käärmann and Taavet Hinrikus, with the latter saying he was “deeply troubled” over plans to change voting rights as part of a vote on the listing change.
He accused Käärmann of a “lack of transparency,” adding it was “entirely inappropriate and unfair to wrap these distinct issues together,” referring to combining an extension on shares voting rights with the listing change.
But Käärmann was able to curb a rebellion, as more than 90 per cent of Class A shareholders and 84.6 per cent of Class B shareholders approved the deal, which also permitted a ten-year extension of the super-voting shares held by only a handful of inside investors.