Money transfer platform Wise has been hit with a $2.025 million penalty from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) for misleading customers about fees and charges.
London-headquartered Wise illegally advertised inaccurate fees and failed to properly disclose exchange rates and other costs, says the CFPB.
In multiple emails and blogs to its customers around the globe, Wise announced lower ATM fees, free withdrawals, and other customer perks. "Wise led customers in the US to believe these perks applied to them, when they, in fact, did not," according to the CFPB.
In addition, the firm failed to disclose accurate fees to consumers who funded prepaid accounts using a credit card through Apple Pay or Google Pay; failed to properly disclose exchange rates; and failed to refund fees when funds were not available to the recipient by the date of availability.
The CFPB has ordered Wise to pay $450,000 to harmed customers and another $2.025 million to the regulator's victims relief fund.
“By deceiving customers, Wise gave itself an unfair advantage over other competitors in the remittances market,” says CFPB Director Rohit Chopra. “New technology can help make money transfers cheaper and more convenient, but companies must be truthful and live up to longstanding law.”
In response, a Wise spokesperson says: "Wise is a customer-first company and we are committed to providing the best customer experience possible. Between June 2020 and May 2021, the US Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) conducted a routine examination of Wise US Inc. for compliance with various US laws pertaining to financial providers. In February 2022, the CFPB highlighted certain issues where Wise had inadvertently been operating in ways the Bureau deemed necessary to address. These were mainly technical issues such as having certain materials downloadable as PDFs, updating wording choices like “Amount We’ll Convert” to “Transfer Amount”, displaying exchange rates rounded up to 4 decimal points instead of 6 decimal points (which was more accurate), and having full disclaimer text available in-page rather than through a hyperlink. In limited cases, some US customers saw slightly incorrect fees, which, upon receiving the findings in February 2022, Wise proactively and voluntarily compensated in full, totaling $450,000 across the affected customers.
"Wise cooperated fully with the CFPB and immediately worked to address all identified issues, with the majority resolved by November 2022.
"On January 30, 2025, Wise reached an agreement with the CFPB to bring the matter to a close. While Wise strongly disagrees with the CFPB’s characterization of Wise’s conduct, including that Wise's mid-market exchange rate with no hidden fees was somehow 'misleading' by disclosing a more accurate rate of 6 decimal places instead of 4 decimal places, we worked with the CFPB in good faith to conclude the matter and enable Wise to continue focusing on saving customers money. In 2024, Wise saved the almost 13 million customers it served, nearly $2.2 billion (c.£1.8 billion) compared to banks.
"At Wise, we continuously invest in our compliance program and processes to ensure we maintain a robust framework, including in the US, where we have strengthened our teams and built substantial tooling. We remain laser focused on ensuring the best customer outcomes and delivering an unparalleled customer experience."