Can’t keep up: Wise halts new UK and EU business customers amid capacity strains
London-listed fintech firm Wise has been forced to freeze onboarding all new business clients across the UK and Europe due to “high demand”, City A.M. can reveal, in the latest hiccup to face the firm after it “deactivated” all US business cards last week.
Wise, which provides money transfer services and accounts to people and companies, has posted an update on its website saying it has “temporarily paused onboarding” for new businesses across the EU and UK, where it makes over half of its revenues.
The pause comes after it said last week it was “deactivating” its business cards in the US due to “operational changes” which had impacted the account details customers use to receive dollars. The two incidents are unrelated.
“We’re temporarily pausing onboarding new Wise Business customers in a few markets due to high demand,” the firm told Morning Wire in a statement.
“This temporary decision ensures that all businesses joining us get the support and experience they expect and deserve from us.”
Firms already using Wise Business are not impacted by the blockage, Wise said. Launched as TransferWise in 2011 for consumers to send money overseas, the firm rolled out its business offering to customers in 2016 and has grown the division rapidly since then.
Business accounts made up £190m of its £846m revenue last year. Revenues from the business unit jumped 50 per cent on the previous year.
Bosses hiked its profit guidance for the year last month after a boom in customer numbers and bumper income from interest rates.
Income for the firm grew 51 per cent to £345m in the three months to the end of September while active customers jumped 32 per cent to 7.2m. Revenues rose 22 per cent to £258.7m.
However, the firm has been hit by a slew of regulatory issues in the past year.
Regulators in the UAE also slapped the firm’s subsidiary with a £308,000 fine earlier this year over its money laundering controls, while chief and founder Kaarmann was probed over his personal tax affairs after failing to pay a £720,495 bill for the 2017-18 tax year.