The international remittances company Wise has landed under the microscope of Belgian authorities, and not the first time, as the opening of its stock performance took a hit today.
Wise is under investigation in Belgium over money laundering and fraud money movement from criminals using its accounts.
The investigation into potential breaches of Belgian money laundering rules started last year, claiming Wise accounts had been used by criminals to send up to €500m ($582m) of illicit funds in cross-border transactions to 30 European countries.
Belgian authorities had noticed Wise accounts received hundreds of requests for cross-border help when attempting to send illicit funds to-and-from European countries.
In a Bureau of Investigative Journalism report, authorities are investigating “indications of non-compliance with anti-money laundering (AML) legislation” against Wise accounts used by criminals.
The investigation only concerns Wise’s European operations and not its UK arm, nor its US operations where it moved its primary stock listing to New York from London.
Wise said in a statement it received requests for information regarding Belgian authorities’ investigation and does not involve any wrongdoing.
“Requests for information from law enforcement agencies are a normal part of operations and are not, in themselves, indicative of non-compliance with anti-money laundering requirements or of any wrongdoing,” said Wise in a statement.
Wise’s Belgian office operates its entire European Economic Area (EEA) operations and also handles its law enforcement requests.
Wise stock takes a hit
Following the announcement of the investigation into the company in Europe, Wise’s stock price declined on Nasdaq.
Wise (trading as WSE) closed on Friday 29 May with a stock price of $962. But as reports of its money laundering began to release on the morning of 1 June, the stock price opened at $890, a 7.4% decrease.
WSE stock then declined further, hitting as low as $765, which would be a 20.4% decrease from its closing price on 29 May.
As of the time of writing, WSE stock is currently trading at $806, according to Google Finance.
Past Wise regulatory action
The Belgian investigation is not the first time Wise has landed within the remit of regulatory and law enforcement in the past.
Wise was fined $4.2m in the US in July 2025 after it had breached the Bank Secrecy Act and anti-money laundering rules for failing to independently review its programs and accounts, which delayed its Suspicious Activity Reports submission.
Earlier in 2025, Wise had been issued a $2.5m penalty in the US from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) for illegal remittance practices and deceptive advertisements.
The CFPB found Wise had misled US consumers by advertising free withdrawals and low ATM fees which did not apply to select consumers. The company also was found to have not disclosed exchange rates or third party funding fees, which broke federal laws.
The most recent Belgian investigation is not the first time Wise has been in the crosshairs of authorities in the country.
The National Bank of Belgium found Wise had proof of address deficiencies in late 2024 by not maintaining European customer addresses for hundreds of thousands of users.
No fine was handed out, but Wise had to undergo a new remediation plan to retrieve missing documents and also block non-compliant accounts.
