Wise account with USA address with USD balance - Is it reportable as a foreign bank account/foreign financial interest.

SECURITY CLEARANCE Q&A
1

This is a bit specific, but does anyone here know how a Wise (the financial services company with the green flag logo) account relate to the security requirement of reporting foreign bank account and financial interests? Here are what I know:

  • Wise is technically not a bank (no banking services like loans). It can connect to bank accounts to with draw/transfer/convert cash.

  • Wise is based in the UK, but has entities in difference countries. I think when registering with a USA address, my account would be with the entity Wise US Inc. which is headquartered in New York. The company as a whole is still a UK company and follows UK regulations.

  • Users can convert between different currencies. This is the main use I want from having an account with them. I want to have a JPY balance to pay for goods from Japan.

What I am wondering is that would an account with Wise need to be reported for security clearance purposes? provided I am registering with a USA address, and I only have US bank accounts (Chase) that I connect with Wise. If anyone is familiar with this or know any thing more, I would like to hear your opinion or advice, because it is unclear to me weather this qualifies as a foreign bank account or foreign financial interest for the purposes of security reporting.

2

Close enough to a foreign bank to report. Might as well, I don’t think it will be any kind of problem. As you say, its not really a bank, more of an online payment app. But better to disclose it up front than for them to discover it and ask questions.

The investigators can chime in here but I think the security concern is having financial interests in a foreign country. If US defense contractors like BAE Systems can get away with being a British company but having a US subsidiary why can’t Wise?