Wise business account closed: the Plan B

The email is short, politely worded and final: Wise is closing your business account. It gives no reason. Clients, suppliers and platforms pay into this account, direct debits run through it, and perhaps the quarter's VAT is sitting there right now. What matters now is not the question of why, to which you will get no answer anyway. It is three other questions: how do you get your money out, which records must you secure now, and what do you build your business on afterwards?

What Wise itself says about closures

Wise is surprisingly open about these things; you only have to read the company's own texts. In its help centre, Wise writes that an account may be closed if its activity breaches the customer agreement and the acceptable use policy. As examples, Wise names trading in cryptocurrencies, payments for illegal products and for restricted goods such as weapons (Wise Help Centre).

On the reasons in an individual case, Wise is just as clear. Wise gives no specific reasons, and customer support cannot even see the reason itself (Wise Help Centre). Calling support to understand what happened therefore costs you time.

For business customers in the European Economic Area, the Business Customer Agreement of Wise Europe SA applies, last updated on 7 August 2026. Under clause 3.3, the Belgian company is a payment institution authorised by the National Bank of Belgium. Three clauses are worth knowing:

• Clause 9.6: Wise can terminate the agreement with two months' notice "where required", that is, where a notice period is prescribed.
• Clause 7.5: In the event of breaches of the restricted activities listed there, Wise can end the agreement immediately, block the account or close it without prior notice.
• Clause 5.5: If Wise cannot obtain or verify the information it has requested about your business, it may close, block or restrict the account with immediate effect.

UK business customers contract with a different company: Wise Payments Limited, an electronic money institution authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority (clause 3.3 of its business agreement). Its terms carry the same two months' notice "where required" (clause 9.7) and allow immediate termination if the services are misused (clause 8.6).

The contract alone therefore shows how wide the room for manoeuvre is in practice. Two months' notice is the rule for an ordinary termination, not a guarantee.

The background from Brussels

On 1 June 2026, Wise Group plc published a stock exchange announcement in response to press reports. In it, Wise confirms that it is cooperating with the public prosecutor's office in Brussels to answer enquiries about its business. The investigation is not concluded, it says, and no specific findings have been communicated to Wise so far.

Wise also explains its structure there. Wise Europe is based in Belgium and serves the rest of Europe from there through the European passport. That is why requests from law enforcement authorities across the whole EEA converge in Belgium. On its own practice, Wise writes that it checks customers before account opening and then monitors transactions continuously, including "offboarding customers when needed".

Whether and how this investigation relates to individual closures, Wise does not say, and from outside it cannot be judged seriously. All that can be stated is what Wise itself writes: customers are monitored, and where the company considers it necessary, they are let go.

The first days: money out, records secured

The help text on a closure in progress describes the process precisely. You receive an email with the date on which the account will be closed for good. Until then you can transfer money to an account outside Wise, withdraw it and spend it with the card. You can, however, no longer add money or receive payments, and existing direct debits are cancelled. Wise writes that you usually have 90 days from the first email to move your money out.

After the cut-off date it is over: no more login, the cards stop working, scheduled transfers are cancelled. Payments still arriving after that are automatically sent back to the sender by Wise. If the account has already been deactivated, you must provide an external bank account and request a refund. Under clause 9.3 of the EEA customer agreement, Wise can carry out additional checks before paying out. How long the payout then takes depends, according to Wise, on the currencies and the receiving banks. Balances in currencies Wise cannot pay out may be converted, and a negative balance must be settled first.

This gives a clear order for the first days:

1. Download statements, completely, for all currencies and all years. After closure there is no login; statements are then only available on request through the address given in the closure email. Your bookkeeping and your accountant need them.
2. Transfer balances to an account outside Wise before the deadline runs out. If you do not yet have a second business account, start the opening immediately and agree with your accountant where the company's balance may sit in the meantime.
3. Switch clients and platforms. New bank details on invoices, with payment providers, marketplaces and subscriptions. Every payment sent to the old Wise details after the cut-off date goes back to the sender and costs you time.
4. Set up direct debits and standing orders again, with the tax office, insurers, software providers and landlords. They lapse with the closure.
5. Keep the closure email. The next bank will ask why your last account was closed. The honest answer is that Wise gives no reasons, and the email proves it.

Appeal: possible, but rarely successful

Wise calls its decision "usually final". There is an appeal nonetheless: whether you may lodge one and by when is stated in the closure email, and customer support cannot pursue it for you (Wise Help Centre). It makes sense where there is a genuine misunderstanding, for instance because requested documents did not arrive or your business model was classified wrongly. Then it should contain new information and evidence, not indignation.

You can also file a complaint. By Wise's own account, however, it reviews the quality of the service, not the closure decision, and speeds up neither refunds nor checks. And do not count on simply starting again later: Wise writes that after a closure you usually cannot open a new account.

Why there is no right to a business account

Many entrepreneurs assume that some bank has to take them. For private individuals, that is broadly true. In the UK, regulation 22 of the Payment Accounts Regulations 2015 obliges the designated banks to offer a basic bank account to any consumer who meets the eligibility criteria, chief among them being legally resident in the United Kingdom. In the EU, Article 16 of the Payment Accounts Directive gives every consumer legally resident in the Union the right to a payment account with basic features, which covers readers in Sweden, Denmark and Finland.

Both rights apply expressly to consumers. For a limited company, an LLC or your sole trader business acting in a business capacity, there is no such lifeline. A business account is a contract both sides have to want, and that is exactly why every business needs a Plan B before it needs it. Why banks are so reluctant with corporate clients is explained in Why banks reject non-residents.

The Plan B: three building blocks instead of one account

Building block one: a main account at a bank

Wise says it itself in its customer agreement (clause 12.3 of the EEA agreement, clause 12.2 of the UK one): Wise is not a bank, and your Wise Business account is not a bank account, and the balances are not covered by any deposit protection scheme; the UK agreement names the FSCS expressly. Wise safeguards customer money under the rules for e-money institutions, which is something different from a statutory deposit guarantee. For its role as a fast payments and currency account, that is no flaw. For the account holding your business's reserves, it is.

The main account therefore belongs at a bank with a banking licence and a deposit guarantee, in a jurisdiction that suits your business. For a company in your home country, that is usually a bank in your home country. For a foreign company it is often a bank outside the EU, because European banks reflexively turn down foreign structures; the background is set out in Business account for a foreign company.

Building block two: an independent second account

A second account only helps if it is genuinely independent. A different provider, a different group of companies, ideally a different supervising country. Two accounts with two brands of the same group, or two e-money accounts that run their checks at the same points, will fail together when it counts. Keep the second account active, with regular payments that fit the business model. An account that has lain dormant for two years and is suddenly expected to take on all payment traffic triggers at any bank exactly the reviews you want to avoid. Which fintechs and neobanks open accounts without residence is shown in our overview of neobanks.

Building block three: a fintech as a tool, not a foundation

Wise remains a good tool for many businesses, and the same applies to comparable providers: fast transfers in many currencies, local account details in several countries, inexpensive conversion. The rule is simply: the fintech moves money; it does not hold the reserves. Sweeps from the fintech to the main account should run regularly, not only when the closure email arrives.

What you do differently at the next bank

A closure is an occasion to look at your own account management through the eyes of a compliance department. Do the payments fit the stated business purpose? If you registered as a software consultancy and suddenly process payments for trade goods from ten countries, you create questions. Are the beneficial owners cleanly documented, and do the details match the entries in the company register and the register of beneficial owners? Are contracts and invoices for larger payments at hand when the bank asks for them?

Answer the bank's questions quickly and completely. Under Wise's customer agreement, the mere inability to verify information is enough for immediate closure. Other institutions work under the same anti-money laundering rules, even if their contracts are worded differently. And hold the list of what your provider excludes against your actual business. If you trade in cryptocurrencies or work in restricted sectors, you need a provider that expressly allows it.

How a business account is opened outside the usual channels, which documents are realistically needed and how long it takes is explained in the full picture of opening a business account abroad. Our offer for corporate clients is on Business accounts.

The same line applies to every route: an account abroad is legal, and your company's profits remain taxable where the law provides. If you need a resilient solution quickly after a closure, or want to put your business on two independent accounts as a precaution, talk to us in the free consultation.