Wise shares came under significant pressure on Monday after the fintech firm confirmed it was responding to questions from Belgian authorities, following reports of a money laundering investigation. The stock plummeted by nearly a fifth at one stage before settling about 14% lower in trading.
Belgian Authorities Question Wise
The group said prosecutors in Brussels had lodged queries over its business, following a report by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism. The report claimed that authorities in Belgium launched an investigation last year over concerns that Wise accounts may have been used to launder the proceeds of crime, with transactions worth about 500 million euros (£432.8 million).
Wise stated: “We are currently working with the Brussels prosecutor to respond to queries about our business, as we routinely do with regulators and law-enforcement authorities. His office’s inquiries 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. We will continue to engage with the Brussels’ prosecutor’s office if and when any specific findings are made available to us.”
Wise's Response and Operations
The company emphasised that requests for information from authorities were “a normal part of operations and are not, in themselves, indicative of non-compliance with anti-money laundering requirements or of any wrongdoing.” Its European business is based in Belgium, from where it serves the rest of Europe and the EU.
Wise has grown significantly in recent years, having started as a pure money transfer firm. It now boasts more than 19 million customers worldwide and handles 4.7 million transactions a day. The group, launched in 2011 under the name TransferWise, was fined 360,000 US dollars (£267,471) in 2022 by Abu Dhabi’s financial services regulator for breaching anti-money laundering (AML) requirements.
On Monday, Wise said that about a third of its workforce was “dedicated to protecting our customers from financial crime and this focus is shared across all of our teams.” The firm verifies customers before they open an account, reviews transactions, and monitors “hundreds of data points in real time as customers use our products.”
“Combating financial crime is an industry-wide challenge that Wise takes extremely seriously,” the company added.
The news comes as Wise recently switched its primary listing to New York from London to take advantage of a larger stock market and attract new investors. It has a secondary listing on the London market.
