The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau ordered Wise to pay nearly $2.5 million to address claims that the U.K. remittance company advertised inaccurate fees and failed to properly disclose exchange rates and other costs.
The CFPB said in a press release that it determined that Wise misled U.S. customers about its ATM fees and failed to properly disclose other fees. The bureau also claimed that failed to timely refund the remittance fees when people sent money that did not arrive on time.
Wise, which operates in the United States through its subsidiary Wise US and an app, was ordered to pay a $2 million civil money penalty and pay about $450,000 in redress to harmed consumers.
“By deceiving customers, Wise gave itself an unfair advantage over other competitors in the remittances market,” CFPB Director Rohit Chopra said in the release “New technology can help make money transfers cheaper and more convenient, but companies must be truthful and live up to longstanding law.”