TL; DR
Wise began trading on the Nasdaq under the ticker WSE after moving its primary listing from London. Fintech processed $243 billion in cross-border volume last year and is applying for a US bank charter and a Federal Reserve master account as the London stock market continues to shed its biggest tech companies.
Wise began trading on Nasdaq on Monday under the ticker WSE. Shares opened at $15.96. The London-founded fintech, which went public on the London Stock Exchange in July 2021 through a direct listing valued at $11 billion, has moved its primary listing to New York, retaining its secondary listing in London. About 91 percent of Class A shareholders voted in favor of the move. The company will now report in US dollars under US GAAP. It’s not just about changing exchanges. Countries change.
The Nasdaq listing is the most visible part of the broader American migration. Wise has applied for a national trust bank charter from the Comptroller of the Currency with Wise National Trust, a proposed entity based in Austin, Texas. If approved, the company intends to seek a master account at the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, which would allow Wise to clear and settle US dollar payments directly through the Fed’s rails, including FedNow. Fintech, which began by making international bank transfers cheaper, is remaking itself as an American financial institution.
Numbers
For the fiscal year ending March 31, 2026, Wise processed $243 billion in cross-border volume, up 31 percent year-over-year. Net income rose 19 percent to $2.5 billion. Transaction revenue rose 22 percent to $1.9 billion, split between $1.3 billion in cross-border revenue and $600 million in card and other revenue. Card revenues are the fastest growing segment, increasing by 34 percent.
Active customers increased by 21 percent to 18.9 million. Customer assets in Wise accounts increased by 40 percent and reached $39 billion. Seventy-five percent of payments are now delivered instantly, compared to 65 percent a year ago. The company guided its pretax margin, including Nasdaq listing costs, to the top of its target range of 13 to 16 percent. Wise saved its customers more than $3.3 billion in fees over the year, a figure the company uses to illustrate the cost difference between its service and traditional bank transfers.
The market capitalization is about 14 billion dollars. This is a premium to the direct listing price for 2021, but below the levels implied by comparable US-listed fintechs. The move to Nasdaq is, in part, a bet that American investors will pay more for a company that has grown revenue by 19 percent, processes a quarter of a trillion dollars annually and is expanding into banking.
Move
CEO and co-founder Christo Kaarmann made it clear why Wise left London. “We have existing shareholders who would like to own more but are unable to do so because there is insufficient trading volume in our shares for them.” he said.
Major investors including Peter Thiel, Andreessen Horowitz and Baillie Gifford have shown interest since the 2021 listing, but have been limited by London’s liquidity. The US has the deepest and most liquid capital markets in the world. London does not.
A national trust bank charter application filed in June 2025 is a more consistent step. The statute gives Wise a single federal regulator and federal legitimacy.
The Fed’s master account would give it direct access to the payment rails where money actually moves in the American financial system, eliminating the need for transactions to go through intermediary banks. Fed Governor Chris Waller has made it clear that he is exploring a simplified account structure for the newly regulated institutions, but no formal framework is in place. Charter is not guaranteed. The main account is less.
If both are approved, Wise would become one of the few fintechs with direct access to the Fed, a position that would fundamentally alter its cost structure for US dollar transactions and position it as a competitor not only to other fintechs, but to the network of correspondent banks that currently mediate cross-border payments. Austin is not a central regional office. This is the basis of US banking.
Immigrant
Tech companies are rejecting the London Stock Exchange years, but the pace has accelerated. Arm has chosen a New York IPO in 2023. CRH, the building materials group, has completely pulled out of London after moving its main listing to New York. Flutter moved its main roster to New York in 2024 and is now considering leaving London entirely. Darktrace has left the London market Following the £4.3bn sale to Thoma Bravo. Just eat out for Amsterdam. Tui moved to Frankfurt. Ashtead and Indivior are gone or going.
More than $100 billion in market capitalization has moved away from the LSE in the past five years. The pattern is consistent: companies list in London, grow, find London can’t provide the liquidity, analyst coverage or valuation multiples they need, and leave. Wise latest. It won’t be the last. Revolut, which is valued at $75 billion after a secondary share sale in 2025, has confirmed that its IPO will be on the Nasdaq, targeting a valuation of $150-200 billion. Klarna was listed on the NYSE last year.
McKinsey has warned that Europe’s software sector is at a critical turning pointmore than 280 software companies on the continent generate more than €100 million in annual revenue, but are struggling to keep them as public companies. Talent, capital and customers are in the US. Companies follow.
Counter argument
Monzo left the US to focus on Europe ahead of its London IPOa decision that suggests not every fintech thinks the American market is worth the price of entry. Monzo’s board calculated that European expansion offered better overall economics than competing in the US market, where customer acquisition costs are higher and regulatory complexity is deeper. The company is set to list in London rather than New York, betting that its focus on the domestic market will reward investors.
Wise bets the opposite. Its US business is its biggest growth opportunity. The US cross-border payments market is the largest in the world by volume. Bank charter and access to the Fed would give Wise structural advantages that no London liquidity could duplicate. The question is whether the regulatory path is as clear as the commercial path. In 83 days earlier this year, 11 companies applied for or received OCC national trust bank charter approval, a wave that includes Circle and Ripple in addition to Wise. The Fed’s key account process is slower, more arbitrary, and less predictable.
Position
The argument that European startups need their own Nasdaq has been developed for years. This did not happen. Instead, companies that would anchor such an exchange continue to go for the real thing. Wise is now a Nasdaq-listed, Austin-headquartered, US GAAP reporting company founded in London by two Estonians who were unhappy with the costs of sending money between the UK and Estonia.
The company processes a quarter of a trillion dollars a year. It has 18.9 million active customers. Applying for US bank charter. Its co-founder told investors that London was unable to provide enough liquidity for shareholders who wanted to buy more. The Nasdaq listing is not the story. Bank charter is not a story. The story is that London built a fintech ecosystem, celebrated it and is now watching it get listed one at a time for markets that can value it right.
