Wise to resubmit US charter application under GENIUS ActThe OCC denied the UK company’s application this week citing AML/CFT risks, despite approving similar charters for digital asset companies in the last year.
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Wise, a payments company, plans to resubmit its application for a national trust bank charter with the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) under the regulatory framework established by the recently enacted GENIUS Act. This decision follows the OCC’s denial of Wise’s initial application earlier in the week, citing concerns that Wise did not demonstrate an effective Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and Countering the Financing of Terrorism (CFT) compliance program and highlighting other risks related to illicit finance activity.
The GENIUS Act, which was signed into law in July 2025, provides a regulatory structure for payment stablecoin providers in the United States, although key regulatory guidance remains pending as federal agencies missed a deadline to issue implementation rules ahead of the law’s January 2027 effective date. Despite these regulatory uncertainties, the OCC has recently granted national trust bank charters to several digital asset companies such as Circle, Ripple Labs, Crypto.com, and Coinbase.
Investment banking group William Blair commented that while Wise intends to reapply under the GENIUS Act framework, it will likely maintain its original position of focusing on reducing the costs of cross-border transactions without preference toward any particular payment infrastructure. Wise has not publicly detailed what changes it plans to make to address the OCC’s concerns in its new submission.
This development is significant as it reflects ongoing regulatory challenges faced by digital payments firms in securing trust charters from U.S. regulators, especially in the evolving environment shaped by the GENIUS Act. The OCC’s standardized framework for stablecoin-related entities could provide clearer pathways for compliance and licensing, but outstanding implementation guidance and unresolved compliance questions continue to complicate the application process for companies like Wise.