Not upheld: account creation without explicit consent and payment routing complaint against Wise Payments Limited

Decision detail

Summary

Mr D complained that Wise automatically created a US Dollar account in his name to receive an incoming payment, rather than routing it to his existing external US Dollar account. He argued this was done without his informed consent and created unwanted tax and reporting obligations. Wise explained that when a sender uses an email address as the recipient identifier and chooses to send to the Wise account, funds are automatically credited to the corresponding currency balance, creating one if necessary. The ombudsman found that Wise's system operated as designed, the payment was routed according to the sender's instructions, and the account creation was covered by the terms and conditions Mr D had agreed to. The complaint was not upheld.

The Ombudsman's reasoning

The ombudsman found that Wise's system operated as designed and in accordance with its terms and conditions. The payment was routed to Mr D's Wise account because the sender chose this option when using an email address as the identifier. The automatic creation of a currency balance when funds are received is covered by the terms of service, which Mr D agreed to. Although the ombudsman understood Mr D's frustration, the terms and conditions did not require Wise to obtain further consent to open an internal account. The ombudsman noted that any tax and reporting obligations flow from Wise's account process, not from an error by Wise, and Wise makes clear it has no advisory involvement in such matters.

How this compares

Source

Read the original decision on the Financial Ombudsman Service website