Tech Snippets: Wise US national trust bank charter application denied; dent to sentiment but not to forecasts

Research evidence excerpt

Tech Snippets: Wise US national trust bank charter application denied; dent to sentiment but not to forecasts

J P M O R G A N Europe Equity Research

24 July 2026

Tech Snippets

Wise US national trust bank charter application denied;

dent to sentiment but not to forecasts

After US close on Thursday, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (‘OCC’) European Tech Hardware &

published its decision letter to Wise’s application to establish a new national trust Payments

bank (here), with Wise also publishing a press release in response. The OCC has Craig A McDowell AC

denied Wise’s application to establish a national trust bank which was submitted (44-20) 7742-4576

in June 2025. The decision to deny Wise’s application centers on the OCC’s view craig.mcdowell@jpmorgan.com

of weaknesses in Wise’s anti-money laundering controls, while the decision also Sandeep Deshpande

refers to a lack of management/director experience in US banking law and (44-20) 7134-5276

regulation. The denial by the OCC does not preclude future applications, and sandeep.s.deshpande@jpmorgan.com

Wise’s press release states that it has already communicated its intention to submit Anthony Girard

(44-20) 3493-6469

a new application for a national trust bank charter under a GENIUS Act framework, anthony.girard@jpmorgan.com

which was not an available framework at the time of the initial application. The J.P. Morgan Securities plc

decision does not impact Wise’s existing US operations where it has money

transmitter licenses and relies upon partner banks for integration into the US Specialist Sales contact details:

payments network. Scott Silver - Specialist Sales -

European TMT

Our view: The denial of the application is primarily a negative impact on sentiment (44-20) 7134-0412

scott.silver@jpmorgan.com