Wise's US bank license bid rejected over compliance 'deficiencies'
US regulators have turned down Wise's application for a national banking license, citing longstanding deficiencies in the fintech company's anti-money laundering checks and an insufficient understanding of banking law, according to the Financial Times.
The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency stated in a letter that Wise's US business had not demonstrated a comprehensive understanding of money laundering rules or of US banking law and responsibilities more generally.
The regulator noted that Wise US has no historical experience with fiduciary activities, and that the company's proposed management and directors failed to show sufficient experience with the fiduciary activities carried out by national banks.
The OCC said it could not conclude that the proposed national trust bank would maintain an effective anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism compliance program for conducting business in the US until Wise addresses its existing deficiencies.
South Korea Fines Coinone $3.5M for AML Failures
South Korea's Financial Intelligence Unit has fined cryptocurrency exchange Coinone 5.2 billion won, equivalent to $3.5 million, and imposed a three-month partial business suspension over a series of anti-money laundering failures.
The FIU, operating under the Financial Services Commission, accused Coinone of failing to verify user identities in approximately 70,000 cases, according to reports from The Korea Times, Chosun, and Yonhap News. The regulator also alleged that the exchange facilitated more than 10,000 transactions with 16 foreign cryptocurrency exchanges not registered with South Korean authorities, despite repeated warnings.
Additional allegations include marking customer verification as complete when key information was still missing, and failing to restrict transactions for users whose due diligence checks had not been completed. The partial suspension prevents new customers from depositing or withdrawing funds from the platform until the ban is lifted. Coinone's chief executive, Cha Myung-hoon, is also receiving an official administrative reprimand, though the measure carries no criminal penalty.
The action makes Coinone the second South Korean exchange to face regulatory penalties in the past month. In March, Bithumb, the country's second-largest crypto exchange by trading volume, was fined $24 million and handed a six-month partial suspension over alleged anti-money laundering failures.
Iran gambling network helped channel $4 billion through crypto exchange
An illicit Iranian gambling network helped move at least $4 billion through an unlicensed Dubai-based cryptocurrency exchange that also handled funds for sanctioned Iranian institutions, a Reuters investigation found.
Blockchain data reviewed by Reuters showed the exchange, Shelbit, processed money for a Farsi-language gambling network spanning more than 2,000 websites. It also interacted with Iran's central bank, the sanctioned Iranian exchange Nobitex, and wallets that Israel has linked to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
Reuters traced tens of millions of dollars from the gambling network through Shelbit and found that at least $676 million moved from Shelbit-linked addresses to Binance, the world's largest crypto exchange, since May 2024.
Shelbit processed at least $125 million connected to Iran's central bank and received funds from what blockchain investigators described as an Iranian bitcoin-mining operation, according to data reviewed by Reuters.
