We’re licensed to hold your money and, as part of keeping it safe, we follow strict rules set out by the regulators in the countries where we operate.
As of 30 September 2022, our customers are trusting us with the equivalent of 9.2 billion GBP in their Wise accounts.
If you keep money with us, our regulatory obligation is to hold all of it in cash and secure liquid assets.
Why do banks need deposit insurance?
We don’t lend out your money. Banks do. This is why governments make them insure their deposits by participating in country-specific deposit insurance schemes like the FSCS and FDIC.
Because we’re not lending your money we handle it differently, by safeguarding it. Safeguarding means that we look after your money, keep it separate from our own money, and keep it available to you whenever you need it.
How we hold your money can vary by country. Learn more about how Wise safeguards:
Learn more about where we’re regulated
How we keep your money available to you even during market turmoil
We make sure your money is safe and readily available to you. Roughly 60% of your money is in secure liquid assets such as UK and US Government bonds and money market funds (as of 13 March 2023). The other 40% is in cash in reputable banks. For a government bond to fail, the government would need to default on their loan payments, which almost never happens with stable governments. For the money that we put into banks, we hold it with several reputable banks with strong liquidity.
The bonds we hold are predominantly short-term bonds so we are not materially exposed, and therefore more resilient, to increasing interest rates. The average duration of the bonds we hold is currently under 6 months – with the majority of bonds having a remaining term of 3 months or less.
Keep growing your money with Interest
If you live in the UK or EEA, we give you the opportunity to grow your money — following central bank rates — when you switch it to Interest, through Wise Assets.
When you switch, your money’s in a fund holding government-guaranteed assets. However, an investment is never guaranteed and it’s possible that the value of your money could decrease, for example if interest rates become negative.
If you’ve already switched to Interest, learn how your money is held
If you live in the US, you might be eligible to earn interest on the money you hold with us.