The fine follows the CFPB’s findings into Wise, with the agency discovering a series of illegal actions conducted by the company, including advertising inaccurate fees and failing to disclose exchange rates and other additional costs. As part of its offering, Wise enables customers to send, receive, and store remittances via a mobile app and prepaid accounts and debit cards.
The CPFB is not the first regulator to keep an eye on the London-listed payments firm, with the National Bank of Belgium (NBB), Wise’s supervisory authority in Europe, conducting a review of the company and finding deficiencies in its AML controls. The 2022 assessment identified gaps in Wise’s compliance practices, including missing proof-of-address documentation for hundreds of thousands of customers. Following the NBB’s review, Wise submitted a remediation plan that was approved by the authority.
The CFPB uncovered that Wise misled customers across the US about its ATM fees, as well as did not properly disclose other charges. When individuals sent funds that did not arrive on time, the company failed to refund the remittance fees in the timeframe required by regulations. The company’s practices led to hundreds of thousands of dollars in harm to consumers. Due to its improper actions, Wise now must pay nearly USD 450,000 in redress to affected consumers and a USD 2.025 million civil money penalty.
Furthermore, the CFPB discovered that Wise violated the Consumer Financial Protection Act of 2010 by advertising inaccurate ATM fees to US customers, as well as the company breached the Electronic Fund Transfer Act in several ways, including failing to disclose exchange rates and to refund charges when money was not available to the recipient on time.
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