Wise Refiles US Bank Charter Bid Under GENIUS Act After OCC Denial

UK payments firm Wise plans to refile its bid for a US national trust bank charter, this time framing the application around the GENIUS Act’s stablecoin rules, after the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency denied its original request on Tuesday. In its rejection, the OCC cited gaps in Wise’s Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism compliance program and flagged unspecified “other illicit finance activity risks.”

Wise disclosed the pivot in a notice on Thursday, saying it will submit a new charter application built on a GENIUS Act framework rather than pursue the original structure the OCC turned down. The move puts Wise in the same regulatory lane as Circle, Ripple Labs, Crypto.com and Coinbase, all of which have secured conditional national trust charter approvals from the OCC since last December.

A denial despite a pattern of approvals

The rejection stands out because it comes after roughly seven months of the OCC clearing similar charters for digital-asset-native firms. Wise’s case differs in that regulators pointed specifically to compliance shortfalls rather than the underlying business model, suggesting the resubmission will need to demonstrate a stronger AML/CFT program rather than a change in strategy.

Investment bank William Blair, commenting on the refiling, said Wise is unlikely to alter its core business approach even as it adopts the GENIUS Act framing for its second attempt. “Wise is focused on lowering the cost of cross-border transactions, agnostic of the rail,” the bank said, framing the new filing as a technical repositioning rather than a strategic pivot toward stablecoins as a primary product.

GENIUS Act timeline adds pressure

The GENIUS Act, signed into law in July 2025, establishes the first federal framework for payment stablecoin issuers in the United States, but it does not take effect until January 2027. Regulators missed a key deadline last week to publish implementation guidance for the law, leaving companies like Wise to prepare charter applications without finalized rules to follow.

That gap matters for any firm racing to secure a national trust charter ahead of the law’s effective date: applicants are effectively building compliance programs against a moving regulatory target. Wise’s denial over AML/CFT documentation, rather than over its business model, signals that the OCC is applying scrutiny at the level of operational compliance detail even as it opens the door to stablecoin-linked charters more broadly.

Why it matters for the market

For crypto-adjacent payments firms, Wise’s experience is a live case study in how the OCC is drawing the line between approving digital-asset charters in principle and enforcing compliance standards in practice. Circle, Ripple, Crypto.com and Coinbase have already cleared that bar since December, giving Wise a template — and a warning — as it prepares its second application under the GENIUS Act banner.

Read more: Goldman’s Solomon Backs Clarity Act as Six Bank Groups Fight Stablecoin Yield Rule

Sources

• cointelegraph.com
• theblock.co