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Payment company Wise aims to establish a primary stock listing in the U.S. amid signs that the American fintech IPO market is perking up. The move would relegate its London home base to secondary status.
Wise plans to call a shareholder meeting in the coming weeks to vote on the proposal, which would be followed by a more formal registration if the vote succeeds.
The plans come as stablecoin issuer
U.S. markets have since stabilized, and investors in London cheered Wise’s plans, with
Not worried about tariffs
Wise, which did not respond to a request for comment, has largely brushed off
Wise initially went public in the U.K. in 2021. The company said in a press release that it expects changing its classification with the London Stock Exchange to enable a dual listing would enhance its brand in the U.S. among institutional investors.
“We believe the addition of a primary U.S. listing would help us accelerate our mission and bring substantial strategic and capital market benefits to Wise,” co-founder and CEO Kristo Käärmann said Thursday in the statement that accompanied the company’s earnings report for the fiscal year ended March 31.
The U.S. is the “biggest market opportunity in the world for our products today, and would enable better access to the world’s deepest and most liquid capital market,” Käärmann said.
Wise has also received a recent regulatory boost from the Trump administration. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau in May
The CFPB initially entered into a $2.5 million consent order with Wise over illegal remittance practices. Wise allegedly misled customers about ATM fees and failed to disclose other fees. Wise also allegedly failed to refund remittance fees when funds did not arrive on time.
The CFPB estimated at least 16,000 consumers were overcharged. Wise was ordered to pay $450,000 to resolve claims and just over $2 million to the CFPB’s victims relief fund.
Under the amended order, Wise paid $450,000 for consumer redress and was expected to pay a $44,955 civil penalty.
Wise’s growth
While the U.S. would be Wise’s primary listing, Käärmann said the company is not de-emphasizing the U.K. as a market.
“The U.K. is home to some of the best talent in the world in financial services and technology, and we will continue to invest in our presence here to fuel our U.K. and global growth,” he said.
Wise hopes a U.S. listing could lead to inclusion in major American stock indexes. Analysts were generally optimistic.
“Given the extra liquidity and visibility this will give, we expect this to be seen as a positive,” Morgan Stanley analysts wrote in a note. Analysts from Jeffries said the dual listing will be Wise “on the map” with U.S. companies.
For the fiscal year 2024, Wise reported underlying income of about $1.9 billion, up 16% from the prior year, and revenue of $1.6 billion, up 15%. After accounting for costs and reinvestment, underlying pretax profit was about $383 million, up 17%. Reported profit before tax was about $767 million, up 17%, and earnings per share were about $55, up 18%.
Wise also reported cross-border payments volume of $197 million, up 23%, and 15.6 million active users, up 21%, with consumer accounts growing 22% and business clients increasing 11%. The company’s recent moves include connecting to InstaPay, the Philippines domestic payment system; obtaining a new license in India that removes caps on outbound transfers; and a new product in Australia that enables consumers to earn interest by holding their money in government-guaranteed assets.
“Management sounded confident on current trading, Wise Platform’s runway for growth, and further production cost improvement in FY26,” BNP Paribas said in a research note, adding that volume growth picked up in the first two weeks of April and slowed in the back-half of that month. Overall volume growth in April and May was consistent with prior months, the analysts wrote.
