A crisis of confidence or just business as usual: what is known about the investigation into Wise and how it will affect money transfers
Wise, one of the world’s most well-known fintech giants, is under investigation. Recently, the Belgian prosecutor’s office informed French media that an investigation is underway into the British money transfer company Wise on suspicion that criminals used its accounts for money laundering. The transactions in question amount to approximately 500 million euros.
Prosecutors claim that international criminal groups may have used the platform’s accounts to launder proceeds from drug trafficking, fraud, and corruption.
Wise’s EU operations are based in Brussels, which means that regulatory reviews of its business within the bloc are conducted by Belgian authorities.
The Brussels Federal Prosecutor’s Office opened a criminal investigation back in 2025. This came after Wise “popped up” in hundreds of criminal cases across more than 30 European countries. When investigators from across the EU were trying to trace where the money of defrauded citizens or drug cartels was going, the trail regularly led to Wise accounts. The investigation is currently in its final stages.
Prosecutors accuse the company of “surprisingly lax” financial monitoring. In other words, due to the lack of proper customer identification (KYC, “Know Your Customer”) procedures and weak verification of the origin of their funds, criminals may have taken advantage of the fact that opening an account here is significantly easier than at a traditional bank.
This is reported by the Financial Times, citing law enforcement officials.
“The findings of the investigation largely concern the use of Wise accounts for criminal purposes, with indications of non-compliance with anti-money laundering legislation, in particular due to the lack of proper customer identification and verification of their activities. The question of whether Wise Europe’s services were used by international criminal organizations is being investigated,” the report states.
Wise. History
The company was founded in 2011 in London by two Estonians, Taavet Hinrikus and Kristo Kjaerman. The service was originally named TransferWise. In 2021, the company rebranded and changed its name to Wise.
In July 2021, Wise held an IPO on the London Stock Exchange. The company’s IPO was a success: the two founders became billionaires, and Wise’s market capitalization reached $11 billion on the first day of trading.
Kristo Käärmann’s net worth rose to $2 billion, and Taavet Hinrikus’s to $1.1 billion. Käärmann and Hinrikus became Estonia’s first dollar billionaires that year.
Why the service was created
The idea for the service arose from the founders’ personal financial difficulties. Taavet Hinrikus worked at Skype and was paid in euros, but lived in London, where he needed pounds sterling. Kristo Käärmann worked in London and was paid in pounds, but had to pay his mortgage in Estonia in euros.
Every month, they transferred money through traditional banks and lost significant amounts due to high fees and unfavorable exchange rates. Finally, to solve this problem, they came up with a scheme: Taavet transferred his euros to Kristo’s Estonian account. Kristo, in turn, transferred his pounds to Taavet’s British account.
This way, the money never actually crossed the border, and the friends received the currency they needed at the real market rate without bank markups. This principle of peer-to-peer exchange between users in different countries became the foundation of the Wise platform.
Today
Wise is, without exaggeration, a giant in the digital money transfer industry. The service serves nearly 19 million active users worldwide. These include both individuals (freelancers, migrants, travelers) and companies.
Over the past fiscal year, cross-border payments totaling over $243 billion were processed through the platform. The system handles approximately 4.7 million transactions daily.
The company operates in three areas: Wise Account (multi-currency accounts for individuals), Wise Business (solutions for corporate clients), and Wise Platform (integration of the company’s payment infrastructure into other major banks and services). Moreover, Wise recently made a high-profile announcement about its listing on the Nasdaq stock exchange.
As stated on the service’s website: “We transfer billions for millions of people around the world every year.”
What Wise Says About the Investigation
Wise stated that the investigation is a routine legal matter and that no formal charges have been filed against them yet. The company also emphasizes that a third of its staff (thousands of people) is dedicated specifically to combating financial crime.
“The investigation is not yet complete, and as of today, we have not been provided with any specific findings, so it would be unwise for us to comment on any allegations. We will continue to cooperate with the Brussels prosecutor’s office if and when we are provided with any specific findings,” the company said in a statement.
Reputational blow
News of the investigation has already sent the company’s shares on the London Stock Exchange tumbling by nearly 20%. Even if Wise gets off with a fine (as was the case in the U.S., where they already paid $4.2 million for similar lapses), the impression of a “platform for shady money” won’t be easy to shake off anytime soon.
It is expected that this incident will force Wise to invest millions in strict verification algorithms. This will make the platform safer, though it will deprive it of its former “super-speed.”
The consequences of the investigation will also complicate life for the platform’s users: financial monitoring for ordinary people, migrants, and Ukrainian volunteers or refugees will become significantly stricter. Frozen accounts and demands to provide a mountain of income statements are the reality awaiting European fintech.
This case once again highlights the main challenge for modern fintech: rapid business scaling must be accompanied by equally rapid development of financial monitoring and compliance systems.
For the market, this is yet another reminder that AML today is not just a regulatory requirement, but a factor in building trust among investors, clients, and partners.
