REG - Wise PLC - Results for the financial year ended 31 March 2025
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RNS Number : 5158L Wise PLC 05 June 2025
This announcement contains inside information
Wise plc
Results for the financial year ended 31 March 2025
Update on listing review
"Our growth over the past financial year is a testament to the team's laser
focus on our vision to build money without borders. We moved £145.2 billion
across borders for 15.6 million people and businesses, a 23% increase compared
to last year. This growth has been generated by the investments we've made in
our underlying infrastructure, delivering lower fees and faster speeds for our
customers: we reduced our take rate by 14bps over the year, to 53bps in Q4
FY2025. More customers also benefited from instant payments, with
approximately 65% of transactions being completed in under 20 seconds.
We will accelerate our investments to improve the customer experience and to
increase our share of the huge c.£32 trillion market opportunity. Powered by
our new payments infrastructure that is fundamentally faster, cheaper, and
more reliable than the traditional correspondent networks, we're well on our
way to handle trillions, not just billions, and become 'the' global network
for the world's money.
As part of our next step on that journey, today we are announcing our
intention to dual list our shares in the US and UK. We believe the addition of
a primary US listing would help us accelerate our mission and bring
substantial strategic and capital market benefits to Wise and our Owners.
These include helping us drive greater awareness of Wise in the US, the
biggest market opportunity in the world for our products today, and enabling
better access to the world's deepest and most liquid capital market. A dual
listing would also enable us to continue serving our UK-based Owners
effectively, as part of our ongoing commitment to the UK. The UK is home to
some of the best talent in the world in financial services and technology, and
we will continue to invest in our presence here to fuel our UK and global
growth."
Kristo Käärmann, Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer
Highlights for the twelve months ended 31 March 2025
Strong growth in volume as Wise progresses towards moving trillions
● 23% increase in cross-border volume to £145.2bn driven by customer
growth and greater adoption of the Wise account.
● 15.6m active customers served in FY2025 (+21% YoY), with Personal
customers growing by 22% and Business customers up 11%.
● More customers continue to adopt multiple features within their Wise
account; this is now around 50% of our personal and 60% of business customers.
Customers are now holding more than £21.5bn (+33% YoY) through the account
(cash and Assets).
Growing fast and profitably
● Customer growth, account adoption and higher interest rates drove
underlying income up 16% YoY to £1.4bn (FY2024 £1.2bn) and revenue up 15% to
£1.2bn, (FY2024 £1.1bn). After accounting for costs and reinvestment, we
generated £282m of underlying profit before tax (FY2024 £242m +17%),
equivalent to an underlying profit before tax margin of 21%.
● Reported profit before tax rose to £565m (FY2024 £481m, +17%) with
basic earnings per share of 40.37p (FY2024 34.20p, +18%).
Investments made in FY2025 will contribute to future growth
● We continued to enhance our infrastructure; we are now connected to
the domestic payment system in the Philippines (InstaPay) and received
equivalent regulatory approvals in Brazil (PIX) and Japan (Zengin), which will
increase our direct connections to eight once live.
● We operationalised a new licence in India (AD-II) to remove
historical transfer caps to further unlock outward transfers. In Australia,
'Interest' is now live, allowing more customers to earn an interest-like
return by holding their money in government-guaranteed assets.
● Operational efficiencies and a significant effort to reduce prices
for our customers enabled a reduction in the cross-border take rate of 14bps
from Q4 FY2024 to Q4 FY2025, while 65% of payments are now instant.
● For businesses, we made it even easier to receive money, introducing
Quickpay, our QR-code feature and expanded the coverage of currencies to
>20.
● The value of our infrastructure has been recognised with some of the
world's leading banks, including Morgan Stanley and Standard Chartered,
choosing to partner with Wise.
Accelerating investment to serve as much of this huge, under-served market as
possible
● We have committed to investing around £2 billion over the next
two years, across infrastructure, marketing and products, to capture even more
of the substantial opportunity that exists for Wise.
● We are maintaining our guidance that, over the medium term, we
expect to operate to an underlying profit before tax margin of 13-16%; for
FY2026, we expect to be around the top of this range.
● We continue to expect underlying income growth of 15-20% CAGR over
the medium term and for FY2026.
Next stage of Wise's journey with proposed dual listing of its shares in the
US and UK
● The Board has concluded its review of our listing arrangements
and, having assessed in detail the optimal listing structure to accelerate our
vision and maximise value for our stakeholders, we intend to transfer our
primary listing from the equity shares (transition) category on the London
Stock Exchange ("LSE") to a US stock exchange, and to maintain a secondary
listing on the LSE. This would allow Wise's shares to trade on both a US stock
exchange and the LSE.
● The new listing arrangements are expected to include a structure
that aligns with US market practices including those of our US-listed tech
peers, which we believe allows us to remain laser-focused on delivering our
mission, thus creating long-term value for shareholders.
● We believe the transfer of our primary listing would bring a
number of benefits to Wise and our Owners, including:
○ Expanding the pool of investors able to invest in Wise, in
particular US domestic institutional and retail investors, the largest global
constituent of investors, many of whom are currently unable to hold our
shares. Wise is a global business with a vision for as many people and
businesses to use our products as possible. We apply this same vision to our
Owner base, and want to enable as many people as possible to benefit from the
value we create.
○ Increasing trading liquidity in our shares to give current and
prospective Owners greater flexibility and opportunity to buy and hold our
shares.
○ Providing a potential pathway to inclusion in major US indices,
further enhancing liquidity and demand for Wise shares. While Wise is not
initially expected to be eligible for these indices, a US primary listing
provides the opportunity to work towards this inclusion.
○ Helping to accelerate our growth in the US and advance our
mission. We believe a primary US listing would significantly enhance our
profile among potential customers, including for Wise Platform 一 the US is
home to over 4,000 banks, including several of the world's largest.
○ It would also more closely align us with major growth
opportunities in the US. The US is the world's largest economy and the biggest
market opportunity in the world for our products today.
○ By maintaining a listing in the UK, we would allow existing and
future Owners continued access to Wise stock in the UK.
● Our confidence in UK talent and the tech ecosystem here remains
undimmed. One-fifth of our employees are based in the UK and we plan to
continue hiring and investing in our UK team to fuel our growth in the UK and
abroad.
● Wise intends to call a shareholder meeting in the coming weeks for
our Owners to vote on the proposal. Full details of the proposal will be
included in the shareholder circular to be published on or around 26 June 2025
ahead of the meeting.
Financials - underlying basis
2025 2024 YoY Movement
£m £m £m %
Revenue 1,211.9 1,052.0 15%
Underlying interest income (first 1% yield) 150.4 120.7 25%
Underlying income 1,362.3 1,172.7 16%
Cost of sales (328.1) (307.4) 7%
Net credit losses on financial assets (9.1) (12.5) (27%)
Underlying gross profit 1,025.1 852.8 20%
Administrative expenses (768.6) (615.9) 25%
Net interest income from corporate investments 33.3 19.7 69%
Other operating income, net 7.1 5.7 25%
Underlying operating profit 296.9 262.3 13%
Finance income 0.7 - 100%
Finance expense (15.5) (20.5) (24%)
Underlying profit before tax 282.1 241.8 17%
Interest income above the first 1% yield 443.9 364.5 22%
Benefits paid relating to customer balances (161.2) (124.9) 29%
Reported profit before tax 564.8 481.4 17%
Income tax expense (148.1) (126.8) 17%
Profit for the year 416.7 354.6 18%
Underlying Free Cash Flow (UFCF)
Underlying free cash flow (UFCF) 332.7 247.0 34.7%
UFCF conversion (UFCF as a % of Underlying profit before tax) 117.9% 102.1% 15.8%
Earnings per share
Basic, in pence 40.37 34.20 18.0%
Diluted, in pence 39.73 33.73 17.8%
Growth Metrics
FY25 FY24 YoY Movement (%)
Active customers (thousands)¹ 15,566.1 12,838.2 21%
Personal (thousands) 14,868.7 12,212.4 22%
Business (thousands) 697.30 625.80 11%
Cross - border volume (£ billion)² 145.2 118.5 23%
Personal (£ billion) 106.4 87.2 22%
Business (£ billion) 38.8 31.3 24%
Customer balances (£ billion)³ 17.1 13.3 29%
Personal (£ billion) 10.5 7.9 34%
Business (£ billion) 6.6 5.4 21%
Assets under custody (£ billion) 4.5 2.9 52%
Customer holdings (£ billion) 21.5 16.2 33%
Underlying income (£ million)⁴ 1,362.3 1,172.7 16%
Personal (£ million) 1,040.5 884.4 18%
Business (£ million) 321.8 288.3 12%
Note: Differences between 'total' rows and the sum of constituent components
are due to rounding.
¹ Total number of unique customers who have completed at least one
cross-border transaction in the given period.
² Cross-border volume only.
³ Customer balances do not include Assets Under Custody which are not
recognised on the balance sheet.
(4 ) Amounts invested by customers in the Assets feature
(5)Underlying income is an alternative performance measure comprising revenue,
first 1% of gross yield of interest income on customer balances, and any
interest expense on customer balances. It does not include interest income
above the first 1% gross yield or benefits paid on customer balances.
An update from Kristo, our Co-founder and CEO
Becoming the network for the world's money
Dear Wise Owners,
Fourteen years ago, we set out with a simple but ambitious vision: our money
should work the same abroad as it works at home. Paying someone in another
currency shouldn't cost us extra. It shouldn't be more expensive to use our
cards when travelling. It should be as cheap and convenient for businesses to
sell to their clients abroad as it is to sell at home. Money should work
without borders.
Guided by this singular vision, we have built the next generation cross-border
money infrastructure that today powers payments from over 50 countries, and a
company that moved £145 billion for over 15 million people and businesses in
the last year alone - saving them around £2bn in fees along the way.
The size and value of the opportunity was self-evident when we listed in 2021
一 Wise's direct listing was the biggest listing of a tech company on the
London Stock Exchange to date.
As our lives become more digital, our financial relationships will extend
across borders even more. People work, spend and invest internationally.
Businesses now hire and sell everywhere. These cross-border payments already
add up to £32 trillion moved across borders each year.
We started with fixing overseas transfers and went on to develop the
international Wise account for a truly borderless banking experience for our
customers, and now also make this infrastructure directly available to banks
through our APIs. We're working to handle trillions, not just billions, and
become 'the' global network for the world's money.
Our growth over the past year is a testament to the Wise team's laser focus on
our long-term goals. In FY2025, we moved £145.2 billion across borders for
15.6 million people and businesses. These are well over double the number of
active customers and volume from just four years ago when we listed. And, in
what might be the strongest reflection of the trust that we're building with
our customers, our customer holdings grew 5.7x to £21.5 billion during the
same four-year period.
As a result of this growth in customers, volume and balances, underlying
income grew to £1.36 billion in FY2025, up 16% (18% in constant currency)
from last year, and more than triple compared to four years ago. And
underlying profit before tax grew to £282.1 million, up 17% from last year
一 nearly 7 times more compared to four years ago.
Unique and powerful new infrastructure
International payments outside of Wise feel broken, because the financial
infrastructure they are running on hasn't been fit for purpose for decades. We
are building a new global payments network that directly connects local banks
and payment systems at both ends of every transaction, bypassing the
traditional correspondent networks used by banks and other payment services,
eliminating costly intermediaries and outdated processes.
We are becoming increasingly experienced at building the direct connections
with domestic payment systems, refining and accelerating our integration
process. During the year we went live with InstaPay in the Philippines,
marking our sixth direct integration to date. We were granted access to
Japan's payments system, Zengin and secured the licence to access Brazil's
instant payments system, PIX.
The number of transfers arriving to recipients instantly, in less than 20
seconds, is an indicator of the experience this new infrastructure gives to
our direct customers, but also the customers of our Wise Platform clients. The
proportion of instant transfers increased from 49% three years ago to 65% this
year.
We expanded our global licensing footprint, closing the year with over 70
licences. In India, we operationalised our new licence, removing a previous
USD 5,000 transaction cap. And in Australia, we were granted a license for
investment services, allowing Australians to earn a return on their Wise
Account balances held in government-guaranteed assets.
We grow because our customers tell everyone about Wise. They do it because the
products work amazingly compared to their past experience with banks. And the
products are so great because we invest so much in the infrastructure beneath
it.
Account for a truly international experience
About £32 trillion moves across borders, split across individuals, businesses
and large enterprises. We serve each of these customer groups through our
three products: the Wise Account for personal customers, Wise Business for
small and medium-sized businesses and Wise Platform for banks and other
enterprises.
We brought Wise to more countries and groups, and added more features for
existing customers to make their international banking experience more
satisfying and therefore even easier to recommend.
We launched Wise for Mexican nationals, and went live with the Wise Account
and card for personal customers in the Philippines. We also brought Wise
Business to Hong Kong and Brazil, and launched Invoicing and QuickPay for
businesses globally.
Finally, we continued to roll out Assets with return-earning accounts for both
personal and business customers in more countries, including Australia,
bringing the number of countries Assets is now live in to 30 since we first
launched in the UK in September 2021.
This year was a year of significant progress for Wise Platform. We partnered
with two of South America's largest financial services providers, Nubank and
Itaú Unibanco as well as global banks, like Morgan Stanley and Standard
Chartered. These partnerships speak to the speed, scale and reliability of the
infrastructure and network we have built over the last 14 years.
Leading on price in an increasingly transparent market
It's clear that whoever builds the lowest-cost, highest-quality infrastructure
will move the world's money.
Supported by our scale, our discipline in cost optimisation and servicing
expenses, this year, our global take rate reduced from 0.67% to 0.53% in Q4
FY2025 一 our lowest to date.
It's never been cheaper to use Wise, but we are not done. New customers
consistently switch to Wise because our fees are radically lower than
traditional banks. They're doing the smart thing for their wallets: global
banks collect an estimated £200 billion annually in hidden retail
cross-border fees. That won't last. As technology continues to evolve, these
fees will come down, and Wise is leading the charge.
External forces are also working in our favour. We see signs that financial
conduct regulators will not tolerate banks charging hidden cross-border fees
to retail consumers. The EU has already legislated against hidden fees, and
some more forward-thinking banks are also adopting more transparent pricing.
As retail banks increase transparency and follow our lead in reducing prices,
plus more digital first options enter the market, our cost discipline remains
ever more important in retaining our long-term competitive advantage.
We expect that in the future world of transparent fees, people and business
owners will be even more actively looking for cheaper alternatives; it will
then be too late for banks to start competing. Indeed, the price drops we put
into place at the start of the year are already having an effect, positively
impacting growth in larger volume transactions.
Our approach to compliance and combating financial crime
Like all banks and financial services companies, there is a risk that bad
actors may try to use our services for their financial crime such as
fraudulent activity. To mitigate this risk, we need to be technologically a
step ahead of the bad actors.
We invest heavily behind this. Today, around a third of our global team is
dedicated to preventing financial crime, keeping our customers safe, and
helping to ensure that we are in compliance with the requirements of the over
70 regulatory licences we maintain globally. We also work in collaboration
with regulators and crime-fighting authorities around the world to prevent any
misuse of our services. Given an ever evolving landscape, we regularly assess
and review our systems to identify and address any potential gaps, and take
into account regulator input, to enhance our strategies and technologies to
adapt to new threats to help ensure the highest standards of compliance and
security.
We see financial crime prevention as a native function of our money moving
infrastructure. It will be a competitive advantage in a world, where threats
grow in sophistication faster than most institutions can improve their
countermeasures.
Customer driven financial results
Our growth is fast and sustainable, with capital generation allowing us to
comfortably reach our profitable medium-term targets and invest continuously
towards the massive, long term opportunities still ahead of us.
The value we are creating is evident in the strong growth over the last 3
years. We see this in active customers, which grew by 28% CAGR to 15.6
million, in our cross-border volumes, which grew by 24% CAGR to £145.2
billion, and in our customer holdings, which grew by 47% CAGR to £21.5
billion.
In order to continue on this path, we will continue to invest in a return-led
and disciplined manner in product, in pricing, in servicing and in marketing.
As announced in our recent Owners Day, we plan to double the annual investment
made in running and growing Wise over the medium term. This includes tripling
our investment in marketing and growing our teams. These investments mean we
will be able to support more than twice as many customers. Investing in
enhancing the awareness of our brand and our products will ensure our growth
remains strong amidst a growing and increasingly competitive digital-first
money transfer market.
As we scale, our unit costs also continue to decrease, which we can then
translate into more investment, including into price. In time, we expect
further growth in customers and volume as the price advantage we are driving
becomes even clearer. This relationship was evidenced in FY2025 with our
highest ever revenue recorded of £1.2 billion (FY2024 £1.1 billion) and
profit before tax of £564.8 million (FY2024 £481.4 million). These results
show that we can decrease prices for customers while maintaining
profitability, and so support our business model to scale and allow us to
reinvest to be able to build the best product for our customers.
After considering these costs and reinvestments, we are committed to our
medium-term guidance for underlying income growth of 15-20% and underlying
profit before tax margin of 13-16%. For FY2025, underlying income growth was
16% in reported currency (18% in constant currency) and the underlying profit
before tax margin was 21%. In FY26, we expect underlying income growth to be
within the guided range, with the underlying PBT margin to be around the top
of the guided range as we prudently ramp-up investments towards the enormous
opportunity ahead of us.
Onwards - the journey to move trillions
The relentless expansion of our products and geographic reach, improvements in
cost and speed through infrastructure build-out, increasing adoption and
increasing scale, means we're increasingly generating value for customers and
our owners along the way. This alignment between our customers and our owners
gives us every reason to be enthusiastic about our long-term vision of
becoming the network for the world's money.
In the near term, we will continue to provide the best cross-border experience
for our customers which will drive growth in our volumes. In the medium term,
we want to be the number one international account, and in the long term, we
will also be providing the world's best correspondent infrastructure.
We have made significant progress over the last year and I'm very pleased that
we were able to help 15.6 million customers move money across borders in
FY2025. However, our ambition is to do so much more 一 we are still at the
start of our journey when we consider the size of the market we want to serve.
Looking at the massive opportunities ahead of us, I am confident that our
continued focus and disciplined, long-term oriented investments will only
accelerate our path to become 'the' network for money around the world.
As a next step on this journey to move trillions, we are intending to dual
list our shares in the US and UK. We believe the addition of a primary US
listing with a secondary UK listing would help us drive greater awareness of
Wise in the US, the biggest market opportunity in the world for our products
today. Additionally, it would enable more investors to benefit from the value
we create and our shares would be more liquid, giving Owners more flexibility
and opportunity. A dual listing would also enable us to continue serving our
UK-based Owners effectively as part of our ongoing commitment to the UK, where
we will continue to invest to fuel our UK and global growth.
An update from Emmanuel, our CFO
We remain focused on our mission, balancing growth with driving efficiencies
FY2025 was another year of strong growth led by an expansion in active
customers. We continued investing in our customers by reducing our prices and
building the infrastructure they need to move and manage money around the
world, while also broadening our product offering. During FY2025 over 15.6
million customers used Wise for cross-border transactions and a growing number
used other Wise products. This has resulted in a strong financial performance
for the year, with 16% underlying income growth (18% in constant currency) and
an underlying profit before tax margin of 21%, which was above our medium-term
target of 13%-16%. Revenue increased by 15%, with reported profit before tax
increasing to £565 million (FY2024 £481 million), representing a reported
profit before tax margin of 34%.
Customer-led growth
In FY2025 our customers sent or converted £145.2 billion of volume
(cross-border volume), an increase of 23%, or 25% on a constant-currency
basis. This was primarily led by growth in active customers of 21% to 15.6
million, with 5.9 million new customers joining Wise and completing their
first cross-border transaction. We continued to deliver double-digit growth
across all five of our geographical segments (Europe, United Kingdom, North
America, Asia-Pacific, and the Rest of the World).
Active personal customers grew 22% to 14.9 million, with personal cross-border
volumes growing by 22% to £106.4 billion.
We continued to see an increased usage of the Wise Account, with an adoption
rate of c.50% at the end of FY2025, defined as the percentage of active
customers who have adopted more than one product. This adoption is driving a
continuation of the higher growth in 'card-only' customers, or customers who
only use their Wise card for cross-border activity.
Historically, these customers have had a cross-border VPC of £500 to £1,000
per quarter. In Q4 2025, the proportion of active personal customers who were
'card-only' was c.20%.
Personal VPC in Q4 FY2025 was £3,200, which was up 7% compared to Q4 FY2024.
This reflects higher growth in high-volume customers in Q4 FY2025, as our
pricing has made us more attractive for this group.
Active business customers increased by 11% to 0.7 million, with cross-border
volumes growing by 24% to £38.8 billion.
Business customer growth sequentially accelerated in Q4 FY2025, as we resumed
the onboarding of business customers in the US and UK, following the pause in
H2 FY2024. Business cross-border volumes grew at a faster rate than active
customers, driven by an increase in VPC.
Compared with cross-border volume growth of 23%, cross-border revenue grew by
6% to £840.4 million, reflecting a reduction in the average take rate for
FY2025 of 9bps to 58bps as we reinvested efficiency gains through lower
pricing with the aim of driving increased volumes.
Wise Account adoption is driving increased customer retention and we are
seeing a broader use of Wise products for business too. Within FY2025 revenue
of £1.2 billion, card revenue (which primarily consists of interchange
revenue), increased 31% in FY2025 to £219.8 million. Other revenue (which
largely comprises business customer account set-up fees, fees for replacement
cards and revenue from Wise Assets), increased by 71% to £151.7 million.
Additionally, underlying interest income rose by 25% to £150.4 million, due
to a 29% growth in customer balances to £17.1 billion combined with higher
interest income yields. Underlying income, which consists of cross-border
revenue, card revenue, other revenue, and underlying interest income,
increased 16% to £1.36 billion (18% on a constant currency basis), while
revenue itself increased 15% to £1.21 billion and total interest income 22%
to £594.3 million.
Underlying gross profit expansion enables reinvestment into growth
Cost of sales and net credit losses increased by 5% to £337.2 million in
FY2025, whereas revenue increased by 15% and underlying income grew by 16%.
Costs decreased in FY2024 with these reductions sustained through FY2025.
Underlying income benefited from active customer growth and Wise account
adoption, delivering an increase of 20% in both underlying gross profit and
gross profit to £1,025.1 million and £1,307.8 million, respectively.
Underlying gross profit margin was 75% in FY2025, up 2 percentage points
versus FY2024.
Underlying gross profit enables us to fund significant investments in the
business, reduce our prices and provide a better experience for our customers
whilst also delivering our target underlying profit margin. During FY2025 we
were pleased to reduce cross-border prices by over 9 basis points, sustainably
reinvesting gross profit margin into lower prices - a key reason why customers
choose to join Wise.
Administrative expenses for the year increased by 25% to £768.6 million. This
reflects our continued investment in future growth, as well as in the capacity
required to onboard and serve a fast-growing active customer base that is
increasingly using more features. In FY2025 we saw an increase in third-party
costs, as we continued to outsource the provision of specific elements of our
servicing operations, allowing us to flex capacity at a lower cost.
At 31 March 2025, we had over 6,500 Wisers, an increase of more than 2,000
employees over the last three years. The growth in our team resulted in
employee benefit expenses increasing 9% to £412.7 million in FY2025. We
expect to add c.700 roles over the course of FY2026. These Wisers will help us
on our mission: building products, improving our infrastructure, supporting
our core functions and helping to attract and serve even more customers.
We continue to invest in our customer acquisition efforts, with a focus on
improving the effectiveness of our marketing programme. In FY2025 our
marketing spend was £53.8 million, an increase of 47%, with our Marketing
team growing by 30%. We aim to drive incremental adoption and engagement as we
continue to invest across multiple channels, including an expansion into
awareness marketing and a greater level of investment into performance
marketing. In FY2025 we launched our first brand campaign in Australia, which
delivered encouraging results, reaching over 4 million people and driving an
increase in awareness of 11 percentage points.
Technology costs increased by 23% to £65.9 million and expenses relating to
consultancy and outsourced services increased by 42% to £128.1 million, both
reflecting the greater services required to support the growth of the
business.
Strong, sustained profitability profile
In FY2025 we generated an underlying profit before tax of £282.1 million at a
21% margin, an increase of 17% over FY2024, reflecting our continued
investment in the business. Our underlying profit before tax margin was strong
at 21%, above our sustainable margin target of 13%-16% for the mid-term.
Reported profit before tax of £564.8 million for the year is calculated by
adding 'interest income above the first 1% yield' (£443.9 million in FY2025)
and deducting benefits paid relating to customers' balances (£161.2 million).
Of this £443.9 million of interest income above the first 1% yield in FY2025,
our interest income framework aims to retain 20% (£88.9 million) and to
return the remaining 80% (£355.0 million) to customers. In FY2025 we managed
to pay £161.2 million to customers (45% of our target), while retaining
£282.7 million.
We were unable to return the other 55% of our target for several reasons,
including: where the deposits are in jurisdictions where we are unable to pay
interest or cashback for regulatory reasons (e.g. the UK, which made up
two-thirds of the 55%); where we do not yet pay interest or cashback on all
currencies; and in some geographies such as the US, where customers are
required to 'opt-in' to receive interest but have not yet done so. Where
customers do not currently receive interest or cashback on their balance, our
priority is to launch and promote our Assets 'Interest' product, which
provides a market rate of return, while still offering all the other benefits
of the Wise Account. This option is available for customers in the UK, EEA,
Australia and Singapore.
Reported profit before tax grew 17% to £564.8 million in FY2025, with
earnings per share of 40.37p.
Highly liquid and well capitalised
As at 31 March 2025, we held £18.6 billion of cash and highly liquid
investment grade assets, up 28% from £14.5 billion at the end of FY2024. This
includes assets in respect of the £17.1 billion of customer balances. It also
includes £1.4 billion of our 'own cash' (£1.1 billion at the end of FY2024),
with the increase from our operating performance partly offset by a reduction
in our rolling credit facility drawings as we repaid half of the RCF draw down
given our strong cash position.
We are well capitalised for the future, and as at 31 March 2025 our Group
eligible capital was £1.3 billion, including the now-audited FY2025 profits;
significantly above our minimum regulatory capital requirements.
Our capital position, built through sustained profitability, enabled us to
initiate a programme in FY2023 to reduce the dilutive impact on share count
that arises through stock-based compensation (SBC). £10 million of our
capital was used in FY2023 by our Employee Share Trust to fund such share
purchases, rising to £68 million in FY2024 and £73 million in FY2025, which
covered the impact of new grants issued during the year.
At our Owners Day on 3 April 2025, we announced our intention to expand our
programme of share purchases for the Employee Share Trust, with the expansion
taking us beyond those for in-year SBC grants to now also begin acquiring
shares for historical SBC grants, which represent c.25 million shares and
c.2.5% of issued capital.
Also, as part of our corporate finance strategy, we entered into a £520
million Safeguarding Insurance policy during FY2025, allowing for this amount
of customer funds to be used for operational customer liquidity, with the
insurance providing full customer security. We also refinanced our RCF on an
unsecured basis and underwent a credit scoring process in November 2024 and
received investment grade ratings of BBB from both S&P and Fitch. Our aim
is to optimise the funding of our working capital in the coming years.
Regulatory Development
As we continue to expand our product and coverage we aim to be compliant with
all regulations in the markets that we operate in. However, with an evolving
regulatory, political and financial crime landscape we occasionally don't
achieve this goal, and where we or regulators identify gaps in our processes
or controls then actively engaging with the relevant regulator we act quickly
to identify remediation plans. Late in FY2025 we agreed a consent order with
the CFPB in relation to some historic technical issues which had been fully
remediated at the time of the consent order. The CFPB originally fined us $2
million, but the Consent order was recently amended with an adjustment to the
findings and the penalty reduced to $45,000.
Relentless focus on the long-term opportunity
The opportunity for Wise remains substantial, with many millions of people and
small businesses moving trillions of pounds across borders while overpaying
for a poor service. We fundamentally believe that the market leader over time
will be the provider of the cheapest, fastest and most convenient service,
with the broadest coverage.
We remain focused on unlocking this opportunity and will continue to invest in
our long-term growth potential, building a business with world-class
fundamentals and the potential to scale volumes from billions to trillions,
and generating exceptional value for both the customers and owners of Wise.
As we deliver on our mission, we continue to target 15-20% CAGR for underlying
income (with FY2024 as a base year) and an underlying profit before tax margin
of 13-16% over the medium-term.
We expect our reported profit before tax to continue to be higher than
underlying profit before tax as long as the effective interest rate we achieve
on customer balances is greater than 1%.
Improvements in efficiency gained in FY2025 resulted in an inflated level of
earnings, which we expect to reinvest back in the business. We plan to scale
our ability to invest in the business in order to fuel many more years of
growth. Over the medium term, we aim to double our annual spend on the
running, and growing, of Wise. This will include a tripling of our investment
into marketing, alongside increased hiring in our Product and Engineering
teams. This investment will particularly support the planned initiatives
across Wise Business and Wise Platform, the investment needed to support a
larger business, and our continued efforts to reduce our average cross-border
pricing.
Strong financial performance with world-class fundamentals
We have built a unique business with world-class fundamentals, delivering
strong growth and high profitability. As we continue investing for the long
term with the aim of becoming 'the' network for the world's money, we are
delivering on our mission and creating massive value for both our customers
and shareholders.
Results presentation
A presentation of the full year results will be held at 9.30am BST Thursday,
05 June 2025 at Wise's London offices. We invite you to join the live stream
using this link https://vimeo.com/event/5101264.
Enquiries
Martin Adams - Investor Relations
owners@wise.com (mailto:owners@wise.com)
Sana Rahman - Communications
press@wise.com
Brunswick Group
Charles Pretzlik / Nick Beswick
Wise@brunswickgroup.com
+44 (0) 20 7404 5959
About Wise
Wise is a global technology company, building the best way to move and manage
the worldʼs money. With Wise Account and Wise Business, people and businesses
can hold over 40 currencies, move money between countries and spend money
abroad. Large companies and banks use Wise technology too; an entirely new
network for the worldʼs money.
One of the world's fastest growing, profitable tech companies, Wise launched
in 2011 and is listed on the London Stock Exchange under the ticker, WISE. In
fiscal year 2025 Wise supported over 15 million people and businesses,
processing approximately £145 billion in cross-border transactions, and
saving customers around £2 billion.
FORWARD LOOKING DISCLOSURE DISCLAIMER
This report may include forward-looking statements, which are based on current
expectations and projections about future events. These statements may
include, without limitation, any statements preceded by, followed by or
including words such as "forward looking", "guidance", "target", "believe",
"expect", "intend", "may", "anticipate", "estimate", "forecast," , "project",
"will", "can have", "likely", "should", "would", "could" and any other words
and terms of similar meaning or the negative thereof. These forward-looking
statements are subject to risks, uncertainties and assumptions about Wise and
its subsidiaries. In light of these risks, uncertainties and assumptions, the
events in the forward-looking statements may not occur.
Past performance cannot be relied upon as a guide to future performance and
should not be taken as a representation that trends or activities underlying
past performance will continue in the future, and the statements in this
report speak only as at the date of this report. No representation or warranty
is made or will be made that any forward-looking statement will come to pass
and there can be no assurance that actual results will not differ materially
from those expressed in the forward-looking statements.
Wise expressly disclaims any obligation or undertaking to update, review or
revise any forward-looking statements contained in this report and disclaims
any obligation to update its view of any risks or uncertainties described
herein or to publicly announce the results of any revisions to the
forward-looking statements made in this report, whether as a result of new
information, future developments or otherwise, except as required by law.
Consolidated statement of profit or loss and other comprehensive income
For the year ended 31 March 2025
2025 2024
Note £m £m
Revenue 3 1,211.9 1,052.0
Interest income on customer balances 4 594.3 485.2
Benefits paid relating to customer balances 5 (161.2) (124.9)
Cost of sales 6 (328.1) (307.4)
Net credit losses on financial assets 6 (9.1) (12.5)
Gross profit 1,307.8 1,092.4
Administrative expenses 7 (768.6) (615.9)
Interest income from corporate investments 33.3 19.7
Other operating income, net 7.1 5.7
Operating profit 579.6 501.9
Finance income 0.7 -
Finance expense 9 (15.5) (20.5)
Profit before tax 564.8 481.4
Income tax expense 10 (148.1) (126.8)
Profit for the year 416.7 354.6
Other comprehensive income
Items that may be reclassified to profit or loss:
Fair value gain on investments, net 10.3 10.9
Currency translation differences (10.4) (7.0)
Total other comprehensive income (0.1) 3.9
Total comprehensive income for the year 416.6 358.5
Earnings per share
Basic, in pence 11 40.37 34.20
Diluted, in pence 11 39.73 33.73
Alternative performance measures
Income¹ 1,645.0 1,412.3
Underlying income² 1,362.3 1,172.7
Underlying PBT³ 282.1 241.8
( 1) Income is defined as revenue plus interest income on customer balances,
less benefits paid relating to customer balances.
( 2) Underlying income is a measure of income retained from customers which
comprises revenue and the first 1% yield of interest income on customer
balances that Wise retains.
( 3) Underlying PBT is a profitability measure calculated as profit before
tax using underlying income and excluding Benefits paid relating to customer
balances.
All results are derived from continuing operations.
The accompanying notes form an integral part of these Group consolidated
financial statements.
Consolidated statement of financial position
As at 31 March 2025
As at 31 March As at 31 March
2025 2024 Re-presented*
Note £m £m
Non-current assets
Deferred tax assets 10 84.7 103.0
Property, plant and equipment 12 115.9 34.3
Intangible assets 13 4.0 6.5
Trade and other receivables 14 38.8 32.1
Total non-current assets 243.4 175.9
Current assets
Current tax assets 15.0 4.0
Trade and other receivables 14 347.6 442.8
Short-term financial investments 19 4,654.9 4,033.9
Derivative financial assets 19 2.5 1.6
Cash and cash equivalents 15 13,982.8 10,479.2
Total current assets 19,002.8 14,961.5
Total assets 19,246.2 15,137.4
Non-current liabilities
Trade and other payables 16 45.8 46.1
Borrowings 17 98.1 198.4
Lease liabilities 18 75.9 14.8
Deferred tax liabilities 10 4.0 2.4
Provisions 20 11.9 6.3
Total non-current liabilities 235.7 268.0
Current liabilities
Trade and other payables 16 17,578.8 13,861.8
Borrowings 17 1.3 4.3
Lease liabilities 18 10.3 6.7
Current tax liabilities 4.4 6.0
Derivative financial liabilities 19 3.7 1.6
Provisions 20 25.8 9.1
Total current liabilities 17,624.3 13,889.5
Total liabilities 17,860.0 14,157.5
Equity
Share capital 21 10.2 10.2
Equity merger reserve (8.0) (8.0)
Share-based payment reserve 299.4 306.5
Own shares reserve (66.8) (55.5)
Other reserves (2.1) (12.4)
Currency translation reserve (14.2) (3.8)
Retained earnings 1,167.7 742.9
Total equity 1,386.2 979.9
Total liabilities and equity 19,246.2 15,137.4
* Comparative balances have been re-presented to show the impact from the
adoption of the amendment to IAS 1 - Classification of Liabilities as Current
or Non-current and Non-current Liabilities with Covenants (refer to note 17)
and to present the lease liabilities separately from borrowings (refer to note
18).
The accompanying notes form an integral part of these Group consolidated
financial statements.
Consolidated statement of changes in equity
For the year ended 31 March 2025
Share capital Equity merger reserve¹ Share-based payment reserve Own shares reserve Other reserves(2) Currency translation reserve Retained earnings Total equity
Note £m £m £m £m £m £m £m £m
At 1 April 2023 10.2 (8.0) 247.4 (10.4) (23.3) 3.2 357.8 576.9
Profit for the year - - - - - - 354.6 354.6
Fair value gain on investments, net - - - - 10.9 - - 10.9
Currency translation differences - - - - - (7.0) - (7.0)
Total comprehensive income for the year - - - - 10.9 (7.0) 354.6 358.5
Shares acquired by ESOP Trust 22 - - - (69.9) - - - (69.9)
Share-based compensation expense 23 - - 72.5 - - - - 72.5
Tax on share-based compensation 10 - - 40.8 - - - - 40.8
Employee share schemes 23 - - (54.2) 24.8 - - 30.5 1.1
At 31 March 2024 10.2 (8.0) 306.5 (55.5) (12.4) (3.8) 742.9 979.9
Profit for the year - - - - - - 416.7 416.7
Fair value gain on investments, net - - - - 10.3 - - 10.3
Currency translation differences - - - - - (10.4) - (10.4)
Total comprehensive income for the year - - - - 10.3 (10.4) 416.7 416.6
Shares acquired by ESOP Trust 22 - - - (71.0) - - - (71.0)
Share-based compensation expense 23 - - 58.9 - - - - 58.9
Tax on share-based compensation 10 - - 0.5 - - - - 0.5
Employee share schemes 23 - - (66.5) 59.7 - - 8.1 1.3
At 31 March 2025 10.2 (8.0) 299.4 (66.8) (2.1) (14.2) 1,167.7 1,386.2
1. The merger reserve arises from the Group's pre-listing reorganisation
accounted for as a capital reorganisation. Upon the reorganisation, the
Group's Ordinary Shares have been re-presented as those of Wise plc. The
difference between Wise Payments Limited's net assets and the nominal value of
the shares in issue is recorded in the merger reserve.
2. Other reserves predominantly relate to investments into highly liquid
bonds measured at FVOCI. For these investments, changes in fair value are
accumulated within the FVOCI reserve within equity. During the year £10.3m of
fair value gains were recognised in other comprehensive income (2024:
£10.9m), including £3.5m of tax charge (2024: £3.5m). Refer to note 10 for
further information on the tax recognised on bonds. On disposal of these debt
investments before maturity, any related balance within the FVOCI reserve is
reclassified to profit or loss.
The accompanying notes form an integral part of these Group consolidated
financial statements.
Consolidated statement of cash flows
For the year ended 31 March 2025
2025 2024
Note £m £m
Cash generated from operations 24 4,137.2 2,994.9
Interest received 515.5 344.4
Interest paid (14.7) (16.7)
Corporate income tax paid (143.6) (73.7)
Net cash generated from operating activities 4,494.4 3,248.9
Cash flows from investing activities
Payments for property, plant and equipment (34.5) (10.6)
Payments for intangible assets (0.9) (2.4)
Payments for financial assets at FVOCI (6,455.6) (9,552.3)
Proceeds from sale and maturity of financial assets at FVOCI 5,892.6 9,422.6
Proceeds from sublease - 0.1
Net cash used in investing activities (598.4) (142.6)
Cash flows from financing activities
Funding relating to share purchases and employee share schemes (72.6) (68.4)
Proceeds from issues of shares and other equity 1.0 1.0
Proceeds from borrowings 17 200.0 420.0
Repayments of borrowings 17 (300.0) (470.0)
Principal elements of lease payments 18 (6.1) (7.1)
Interest paid on leases 18 (3.6) (1.1)
Net cash generated used in financing activities (181.3) (125.6)
Net increase in cash and cash equivalents 3,714.7 2,980.7
Cash and cash equivalents at beginning of the year 15 10,479.2 7,679.4
Effects of exchange rate changes on cash and cash equivalents (211.1) (180.9)
Cash and cash equivalents at end of the year 15 13,982.8 10,479.2
The accompanying notes form an integral part of these Group consolidated
financial statements.
Notes to the Group consolidated financial statements
For the year ended 31 March 2025
Note 1. Presentation of the consolidated financial statements
1.1 General information
Wise plc (the 'Company') is a public limited company and is incorporated and
domiciled in England. The address of its registered office is 1st Floor
Worship Square, 65 Clifton Street, London, United Kingdom, EC2A 4JE. The
principal activity of the Company and its subsidiaries (the 'Group') is the
provision of cross-border and domestic financial services. Further information
on the Group's operations and principal activities is presented in the
Strategic Report.
1.2 Accounting information and policies
Introduction
This section describes the basis of preparation of the consolidated financial
statements and the Group's accounting policies that are applicable to the
financial statements as a whole. The Group's material accounting policies and
critical accounting estimates and judgements specific to a note, are included
in the note to which they relate. Furthermore, the section details new
accounting standards, amendments and interpretations, that the Group has
adopted in the current financial year or will adopt in subsequent years.
(a) Basis of preparation
The consolidated financial statements of the Group have been prepared in
accordance with the UK-adopted International Accounting Standards in
conformity with the applicable legal requirements of the Companies Act 2006.
The accounting policies applied are consistent with those of the preceding
financial year, unless otherwise stated.
The financial statements are prepared on a going concern basis. All financial
information is presented in millions of pounds sterling ('£'), which is the
Group's presentation currency, rounded to the nearest £0.1m, unless otherwise
stated. The financial statements have been prepared under the historical cost
convention modified to include the fair valuation of particular financial
instruments, to the extent required or permitted under IFRS as set out in the
relevant accounting policies.
(b) Going concern
The Group's business activities together with the factors likely to affect its
future development and position are set out in the Strategic report.
The financial statements are prepared on a going concern basis as the
Directors are satisfied that the Group has the available resources to continue
in business for the foreseeable future.
The going concern assessment is based on the detailed forecast prepared by
management and approved by the Board (base plan). As part of the going concern
review, the Directors have considered severe, but plausible, downside
scenarios to stress test the viability of the business. These downside
scenarios covered reduction in revenues, profitability, cash position and
liquidity as well as the Group's ability to meet its regulatory capital and
liquidity requirements. Appropriate assumptions have been made in respect of
revenue growth and profitability, based on the economic outlook over the
forecast period. Appropriate sensitivities have been applied in order to
stress test the base plan, considering situations with lower revenue growth
and profitability compared to the base plan, where future trading is less than
forecasted. Management expects that sufficient liquidity and regulatory
capital requirement headroom are maintained throughout the forecast period.
The Directors have made inquiries of management and considered forecasts for
the Group and have, at the time of approving these financial statements, a
reasonable expectation that the Group has adequate resources to continue in
operations for the foreseeable future. Further details are contained in the
Viability Statement of the Strategic Report.
(c) Basis of consolidation
The financial statements comprise the consolidated financial statements of
Wise plc and its subsidiaries as at 31 March 2025.
Subsidiaries are all entities over which the Group has control. The Group
controls an entity when it is exposed to, or has rights to, variable returns
from its involvement with the entity and has the ability to affect those
returns through its power over the entity.
Subsidiaries are fully consolidated from the date on which control is obtained
by the Group and are de-consolidated from the date that control ceases.
Inter-company transactions, balances and unrealised gains on transactions
between companies within the Group are eliminated on consolidation. Unrealised
losses are also eliminated unless the transaction provides evidence of an
impairment of the transferred asset. Group accounting policies are
consistently applied to all entities and transactions.
(d) Foreign currency translation
The Group's consolidated financial statements are presented in pounds
sterling. Items included in the financial statements of each of the Group's
entities are measured using the currency of the primary economic environment
in which the entity operates ('the functional currency').
Transactions and balances
Transactions in foreign currencies are initially recorded by the Group's
entities at their respective functional currency spot rates at the date the
transaction is recognised.
Foreign exchange gains and losses resulting from the settlement of such
transactions and from the translation of monetary assets and liabilities
denominated in foreign currencies at year end exchange rates are recognised in
profit or loss (either as cost of sales or administrative expenses).
Non-monetary assets and liabilities are translated at historical exchange
rates if held at historical cost, or year end exchange rates if held at fair
value, and the resulting foreign exchange gains or losses are recognised in
either the income statement or shareholders' equity depending on the treatment
of the gain or loss on the asset or liability.
Group companies
On consolidation, the results and financial position of foreign operations
(none of which has the currency of a hyperinflationary economy) are translated
into pounds sterling as follows:
● assets and liabilities for each balance sheet presented are
translated at the closing exchange rate at the reporting date;
● income and expenses are translated at average monthly exchange
rates; and
● all resulting exchange differences are recognised in other
comprehensive income.
(e) Changes in material accounting policies and disclosures
Adoption of new or revised standards and interpretations
The following new or revised standards and interpretations became effective
for the Group from 1 April 2024:
a. Amendment to IAS 1 - Classification of Liabilities as Current or
Non-current and Non-current Liabilities with Covenants
As a result of the adoption of the amendments to IAS 1, the Group has
classified its borrowings as non-current, because it has the right to defer
payment for more than 12 months. Refer to note 17 for further details.
b. Other amendments:
● Amendments to IFRS 16 - Lease Liability in a Sale and Leaseback
● Amendments to IAS 7 and IFRS 7 - Supplier Finance Arrangements
The adoption of the other amendments did not have a material impact on the
Group. There are no other new or revised standards or interpretations that are
effective for the first time for the financial year beginning on or after 1
April 2024 that would be expected to have a material impact on the Group.
New standards, amendments and interpretations not yet adopted
The following amendments have been published by the IASB and are effective for
annual periods beginning on or after 1 January 2025; the amendments have not
been early-adopted by the Group:
a. New standard issue - IFRS 18 Primary Financial Statements
The new standard, which replaces IAS 1, creates detailed requirements for the
classification and aggregation of income and expenses in the income statement,
and disclosure requirements for management-defined performance measures. The
new standard is effective from 1 January 2027, but has not yet been endorsed
for use in the UK. It is anticipated that the application of the new standard
will have an impact in the Group's presentation of the consolidated financial
statements.
b. Amendments to IFRS 9 and IFRS 7 - Classification and Measurement of
Financial
Instruments
The amendments clarify the derecognition of financial liabilities via
electronic payments, refine the classification of financial assets with
ESG-linked features, and enhance disclosure requirements for equity
instruments at FVOCI. The amendments are effective for reporting periods
beginning on or after 1 January 2026. It is anticipated that the application
of these amendments may have an impact in the Group's consolidated financial
statements in future periods.
c. Other amendments:
● Amendments to IAS 21 - Lack of Exchangeability
● IFRS 19 Subsidiaries without Public Accountability: Disclosures
Neither of the other amendments is expected to have a material impact on the
Group in the current or future reporting periods or on foreseeable future
transactions.
(f) Climate change considerations
The impact of climate change has been considered as part of the assessment of
estimates and judgements in preparing the Group's consolidated financial
statements. Our climate risk assessment has primarily focused on short-term
risks to determine if they pose a material threat to the business, and it has
concluded that climate-related risks do not currently pose a material risk to
Wise, and has identified no material financial impact to these financial
statements.
1.3. Critical accounting judgements and key sources of estimation uncertainty
Details of the critical judgement which the Directors consider could have a
significant impact on these financial statements is set out in the following
notes:
● Customer balances (recognition of the financial assets and their
respective liabilities on the balance sheet) - note 15 and note 16
Management has concluded that there are no critical accounting areas of
estimation.
Note 2. Segment information
Accounting policy
The Group is managed on the basis of a single segment.The information
regularly reported to the Chief Operating Decision Maker ('CODM'), which is
currently the Board of Directors of the Group, for the purposes of resource
allocation and the assessment of performance, is based wholly on the overall
activities of the Group. Based on the Group's business model, the Group has
determined that it has only one reportable segment under IFRS 8, which is
provision of cross-border and domestic financial services.
The Group's revenue, assets and liabilities for the reportable segment can be
determined by reference to the statement of comprehensive income and the
statement of financial position. The analysis of revenue by type of customer
and geographical region is set out in note 3.
At the end of each reporting period, the majority of the non-current assets
were carried by Wise Payments Limited in the UK and its branch in Estonia.
Based on the location of the non-current asset, the following geographical
breakdown of non-current assets is provided:
2025 2024
£m £m
Non-current assets by geographical region*
United Kingdom 87.6 40.5
Rest of Europe 48.9 13.9
Rest of the world 15.7 15.6
Total non-current assets 152.2 70.0
* Non-current assets exclude deferred tax assets and financial instruments.
Note 3. Revenue
Accounting policy
The Group generates revenue from contracts with customers by transferring the
following services:
Cross-border
The Group primarily generates revenue from cross-border services, which
includes money transfers, conversions and the Wise Account. The applicable
fees depend on a number of factors, including the currency route, the
transaction size, the type of transaction being undertaken and the payment
method used.
A customer enters into a contract with the Group at the time of opening a Wise
Account or initiating a money transfer. The customer agrees to the contractual
terms by formally accepting the terms and conditions of the respective
service, on Wise's website or the app.
The revenue is recognised at the point in time the performance obligation has
been satisfied. For money transfers, the revenue is recognised upon delivery
of funds to the recipient. For money conversions, it is recognised when a
customer balance is converted into a different currency in their account.
The time required for the Group to process the payment to the recipient, and
therefore to satisfy its performance obligations, largely depends on the
processing time its banking partners require to deliver funds to the
recipient. As such the revenue is deferred until the funds are delivered.
Transactions in certain jurisdictions, where the Group has settlement accounts
with central banks, transfers between Wise accounts or conversions within a
Wise Account, are generally fulfilled instantly.
Card
Card revenue refers to debit card services and mainly comprises interchange
fees and card usage fees.
A customer enters into a contract with the Group at the time the card, either
virtual or physical, is made available for use and the customer is able to
either make a payment or a withdrawal.
The fees for card transactions are in accordance with the agreed terms and
conditions. They have a single performance obligation and the revenue is
recognised upon transaction capture, that the performance obligation is deemed
to have been satisfied.
Other
Other revenue mainly comprises:
● Revenue earned from the top-up of Wise account balances or
transfers to recipients in the same currencies. The revenue is recognised on
transaction completion for top-ups and delivery of funds to the recipient for
transfers.
● One-time fee charged to Wise business customers for setting up an
account; the revenue is recognised over time, throughout the period the
customer is expected to use the business account.
● Fees earned for the provision or replacement of physical cards;
the revenue is recognised over time throughout the period the debit card
services are provided, which is expected to be the life of the card.
● Revenue from the multi-currency investment feature called Wise
Assets ('Assets'), where Wise generates revenue from charging a fee based on
the value of the assets under custody. The revenue is accrued on a daily
basis, based on the daily value of the assets under custody, and is recognised
over time in line with the period the Group provides its services to Assets
customers. The Group acts as an agent on behalf of the customers and does not
retain control nor benefits from the Assets, thus it does not recognise the
financial assets and the respective liabilities for the Assets, and
derecognises customer funds on purchase.
Rebates
Wise offers certain rebates in the form of a fee refund or cashback for
eligible revenue-generating transactions. The rebate is recognised as a
liability at the time of completion of the eligible transaction and is
deducted from revenue.
Year ended 31 March
2025 2024
£m £m
Revenue by nature
Cross-border 840.4 795.2
Card 219.8 168.0
Other 151.7 88.8
Total revenue 1,211.9 1,052.0
Disaggregation of revenues
In the following table, revenue is disaggregated by major geographical market:
Year ended 31 March
2025 2024
£m £m
Revenue by geographical region
Europe (excluding UK) 369.6 323.9
Asia-Pacific 263.8 216.2
North America 237.2 214.5
United Kingdom 226.2 202.5
Rest of the world 115.1 94.9
Total revenue 1,211.9 1,052.0
The geographical market disclosed depends on the type of the service provided
and is based either on customer address or the source currency.
No individual customer contributed more than 10% to Wise's total revenue in
2025 and 2024.
Note 4. Interest income on customer balances
Accounting policy
Interest income on customer balances is earned from holding customer funds as
cash and cash equivalents or investing them into highly liquid permitted
financial assets. These amounts are recognised in the income statement using
the effective interest rate method.
Year ended 31 March
2025 2024
£m £m
Interest income
Interest income from cash at banks 220.6 162.2
Interest income from investments in money market funds (MMFs) 202.4 153.7
Interest income from investments in listed bonds 171.3 169.3
Total interest income 594.3 485.2
Note 5. Benefits paid relating to customer balances
Accounting policy
Benefits paid relating to customer balances are provided to customers for
holding eligible balances in their Wise accounts. These are calculated as a
percentage of those eligible balances and they are recognised in the income
statement in the period for which the customer receives the benefit.
Year ended 31 March
2025 2024
£m £m
Benefits paid relating to customer balances
EU cashback 121.3 107.9
US interest 38.5 17.0
Other 1.4 -
Total benefits paid relating to customer balances 161.2 124.9
Note 6. Cost of sales and net credit losses on financial assets
Accounting policy
Cost of sales comprises the costs that are directly associated with the
Group's principal revenue streams of money transfer, conversion services and
debit card services. This includes:
• banking and other fees, net of applicable rebates, incurred in processing
customer transfers and the costs of providing cards to customers;
• net foreign exchange costs generated due to customer transactions,
including the costs related to the difference between the published mid-market
rate offered to customers and the rate obtained by the Group in acquiring
currency. Within the same line are included the net foreign exchange
differences from the revaluation of customer balances at period end. Other
product costs include product losses that are directly generated from customer
transactions, including chargeback losses, as well as taxes directly
attributable to customer activity.
Breakdown of expenses by nature:
Year ended 31 March
2025 2024
£m £m
Cost of sales
Banking and customer related-fees 263.1 252.5
Net foreign exchange movements and other product costs 65.0 54.9
Total cost of sales 328.1 307.4
Net credit losses on financial assets
Amounts charged to credit losses on financial assets 9.1 12.5
Net credit losses 9.1 12.5
Expected credit losses are presented as net credit losses within gross profit
and subsequent recoveries of amounts previously written off are credited
against the same line item. Subsequent recoveries of amounts previously
written off are immaterial in both the current and prior year.
Note 7. Administrative expenses
Year ended 31 March
2025 2024
£m £m
Administrative expenses
Employee benefit expenses(*) 412.7 377.3
Consultancy and outsourced services 128.1 90.4
Other administrative expenses 78.2 42.0
Technology 65.9 53.5
Marketing 53.8 36.5
Depreciation and amortisation 18.4 18.3
Impairment of property, plant and equipment 11.5 -
Less: Capitalisation of staff costs - (2.1)
Total administrative expenses 768.6 615.9
* For further details on employee benefit expenses, including accounting
policies, refer to note 8.
During the financial year ended 31 March 2025, the Group expensed £129.0m of
product engineering costs (2024: £115.8m). These costs directly relate to the
development of the Group's product offerings and primarily comprise employee
costs of the Engineering and Product teams.
During the year, the Group (including its overseas subsidiaries) obtained the
following services from the Company's auditors:
Year ended 31 March
2025 2024
£m £m
Audit fees
Fees payable to the Company's auditors and its associates 2.3 2.7
for the audit of Company and Group consolidated financial
statements
Audit of the financial statements of the Company's 2.0 1.8
subsidiaries
Total audit fees 4.3 4.5
Non-audit fees
Assurance services other than the auditing of the Company's accounts 0.9 0.8
Total non-audit fees 0.9 0.8
Note 8. Employee benefit expenses
The aggregate remuneration of employees for the year ended 31 March 2025 was
as follows:
Year ended 31 March
2025 2024
£m £m
Salaries and wages 290.5 248.9
Share-based payment compensation expense 58.4 72.5
Social security costs 41.1 37.7
Pension costs 10.2 8.6
Other employment taxes and insurance costs 12.5 9.6
Total employee benefit expense 412.7 377.3
Refer to note 23 for details on awards granted to employees and the accounting
policy for share-based payments.
Remuneration of key management personnel is disclosed in note 26.
The monthly average number of employees during the year ended 31 March 2025
was as follows:
2025 2024
Number of employees Number of employees
Servicing 3,915 3,396
Product Development 1,411 1,341
Other functions 534 492
Marketing 291 270
Total average number of employees 6,151 5,499
Note 9. Finance expense
Accounting policy
Interest expense related to the Revolving Credit Facility is recognised in
finance expense over the term of the facility using the effective interest
method. The effective interest rate represents the true cost of borrowing and
is the rate that discounts the estimated future cash payments through the
expected life of the Revolving Credit Facility.
Year ended 31 March
2025 2024
Finance expense £m £m
Interest expense related to Revolving Credit Facility 11.8 19.2
Interest on lease liabilities 3.6 1.1
Other financial expenses 0.1 0.2
Total finance expense 15.5 20.5
Note 10. Tax
Accounting policy
The tax expense for the year comprises current and deferred tax. Tax is
recognised in the income statement, except to the extent that it relates to
items recognised in other comprehensive income or directly in equity. In this
case, the tax is also recognised in other comprehensive income or directly in
equity, respectively.
The current tax charge is calculated on the basis of the tax laws enacted or
substantively enacted at the balance sheet date in the countries where the
Company and its subsidiaries operate and generate taxable income. Management
periodically evaluates positions taken in tax returns with respect to
situations in which applicable tax regulation is subject to interpretation. It
establishes provisions where appropriate on the basis of amounts expected to
be paid to the tax authorities.
Deferred tax is recognised on temporary differences arising between the tax
bases of assets and liabilities and their carrying amounts in the Group
financial statements. Deferred tax is determined using tax rates (and laws)
that have been enacted or substantively enacted by the balance sheet date and
are expected to apply when the related deferred tax asset is realised, or the
deferred tax
liability is settled. Deferred tax assets and liabilities are classified as
non-current assets and liabilities.
Deferred tax assets are recognised only to the extent that it is probable that
future taxable profit will be available against which the temporary
differences can be utilised. Deferred tax assets on share-based payments are
recognised for the share options not exercised at the balance sheet date. The
deferred tax assets on share-based payments are determined based on the share
price at the balance sheet date. The impact of recognition is split between
income tax expense in profit or loss for the year, for the element up to the
cumulative remuneration expense; and the share-based payment reserve,
recognised directly in equity, for the element in excess of the related
cumulative remuneration expense.
Deferred tax assets and liabilities are offset when there is a legally
enforceable right to offset current tax assets against current tax liabilities
and when the deferred tax assets and liabilities relate to income taxes levied
by the same taxation authority on either the same taxable entity or different
taxable entities and there is an intention to settle the balances on a net
basis.
Pillar Two legislation has been enacted or substantively enacted in certain
jurisdictions in which the Group operates. The Group has applied a temporary
mandatory exception from deferred tax accounting for the impacts of the top-up
taxes and accounts for these as current tax when incurred.
Tax expense:
Year ended 31 March
2025 2024
£m £m
Current income tax for the year
UK corporation tax 132.5 78.5
Foreign corporation tax 18.1 13.4
Adjustment in respect of prior years (1.3) 2.3
Total current tax expense for the year 149.3 94.2
Deferred income tax for the year
Increase in deferred tax 0.5 36.4
Adjustment in respect of prior years (1.7) (3.8)
Total deferred tax expense for the year (1.2) 32.6
Total tax expense for the year 148.1 126.8
Factors affecting tax expense for the year:
Year ended 31 March
2025 2024
£m £m
Profit before taxation 564.8 481.4
Profit multiplied by the UK tax rate of 25% (2024: 25%) 141.2 120.4
Adjustments in respect of prior periods (3.0) (1.5)
Effect of expenses not deductible 6.5 0.4
Movement in tax provisions 0.1 3.1
Employee option plan 0.2 0.8
Difference in overseas tax rates and overseas taxes paid 5.0 3.7
Change in rate of recognition of deferred tax 0.3 (0.1)
Deferred tax not previously recognised (2.2) -
Total tax expense for the year 148.1 126.8
The Group's effective tax rate (ETR) before other comprehensive income (OCI)
is a 26% charge (2024: 26% charge).
This equates to the applicable UK corporation tax rate of 25%, adjusted for a
number of factors such as double taxation on overseas income, movements in
provisions and higher overseas tax rates.
Amounts recognised in other comprehensive income:
2025 2024
£m £m
Current tax
Recognition of current tax liability on listed bonds - 0.1
Deferred tax
Recognition of deferred tax asset on listed bonds (3.5) (3.6)
Total amounts recognised in other comprehensive income (3.5) (3.5)
Amounts recognised directly in equity:
2025 2024
£m £m
Current tax
Deduction for exercised options 17.8 15.7
Deferred tax
Recognition of deferred tax asset on share-based payments (17.3) 25.1
Total amounts recognised directly in equity 0.5 40.8
The deferred tax asset in relation to share-based payments was recognised
based on the share price at the balance sheet date which was £9.45 (2024:
£9.29).
Deferred tax assets and liabilities
Movements during the year
Year ended 31 March 2025
1 April 2024 Recognised in income Recognised in equity/OCI FX 31 March 2025
£m £m £m £m £m
Property, plant and equipment 0.9 (0.1) - - 0.8
Share-based payments 92.7 0.5 (17.3) (0.5) 75.4
Intangibles (1.6) 1.4 - - (0.2)
Provisions 5.0 1.5 - (0.1) 6.4
Tax losses 1.4 (0.9) - (0.1) 0.4
Other 2.2 (1.2) (3.5) 0.4 (2.1)
Closing deferred tax asset 100.6 1.2 (20.8) (0.3) 80.7
Represented by:
Deferred tax assets 103.0 - - - 84.7
Deferred tax liabilities (2.4) - - - (4.0)
Total 100.6 - - - 80.7
Year ended 31 March 2024
1 April 2023 Recognised in income Recognised in equity/OCI FX 31 March 2024
£m £m £m £m £m
Property, plant and equipment 0.3 0.8 - - 1.1
Share-based payments 61.6 6.1 25.1 (0.2) 92.6
Intangibles (1.0) (0.6) - - (1.6)
Provisions 3.0 2.0 - - 5.0
Tax losses 40.2 (38.9) - - 1.3
Other 8.0 (2.1) (3.6) (0.1) 2.2
Closing deferred tax asset 112.1 (32.7) 21.5 (0.3) 100.6
Represented by:
Deferred tax assets 113.2 - - - 103.0
Deferred tax liabilities (1.1) - - - (2.4)
Total 112.1 - - - 100.6
The deferred tax asset is predominantly generated in the UK and the US and
mainly comprises unexercised share options which are forecast to be exercised
within four years and as such are less sensitive to changes in long-term
profit forecasts. The deferred tax asset on share options is impacted by the
future share price.
The deferred tax assets are reviewed at each reporting date to determine
recoverability and to determine a reasonable time frame for utilisation. To
determine this, the Group uses the approved Group forecast used for the
viability statement and going concern analysis. The Group considers it is
probable that there will be sufficient taxable profits in the coming years to
realise the majority of the deferred tax asset. Consequently, the Group has
recognised a deferred tax asset of £84.7m (2024: £103.0m), with a remaining
£3.9m unrecognised deductible temporary differences relating to foreign tax
credits (2024: £nil).
Both the UK and the US utilised brought forward losses in FY2023 and in
FY2024, with the UK taxable losses fully utilised as at 31 March 2024 and the
US taxable losses fully utilised as at 31 March 2025. Therefore, there are no
deferred tax assets in respect of losses recognised in the UK and the US as at
31 March 2025.
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)/G20
Inclusive Framework on Base Erosion and Profit Shifting published on 20
December 2021 introduced the Pillar Two model rules designed to address the
tax challenges arising from the digitalisation of the global economy. The
Pillar Two regulation provides for an international framework of rules aimed
at ensuring that worldwide profits of multinational groups are subject to tax
at a rate not lower than 15% in every jurisdiction in which a group operates.
The Group operates in the United Kingdom (amongst other locations), which has
enacted new legislation to implement the global minimum top-up taxes. The
first period for which enacted legislation is effective for the Group is the
year ended 31 March 2025.
The Pillar Two rules provide for a transition period in which the in-scope
multinational groups are excused from undergoing the complex effective tax
rate calculation required by the new piece of legislation. In particular, the
Pillar Two legislation provides for a transitional safe harbour ("TSH") that
applies for the first three fiscal years following the entry into force of the
relevant regulation and deems the top-up tax due in a jurisdiction to be zero
where the TSH tests are met.
The Group has performed an assessment of the Group's exposure to Pillar Two
income taxes, including assessment of the TSH tests. This calculation is based
on the accounting data for the fiscal year 2025. Based on the calculation, the
Group does not expect any material top-up taxes under enacted or substantively
enacted Pillar Two legislation for the year ended 31 March 2025.
Note 11. Earnings per share
Basic EPS has been calculated by dividing the profit attributable to the
Group's owners by the weighted average number of ordinary shares outstanding
during the period, including, the ordinary shares issuable for no
consideration for which all conditions are satisfied (25.6 million shares as
at 31 March 2025 and 39.1 million shares as at 31 March 2024).
Shares held by the Employee Share Ownership Plan (ESOP) Trust are deducted
from both basic and diluted EPS calculations. At the end of the reporting
period, there were 14.6 million (31 March 2024: 22.9 million) shares held in
the ESOP Trust.
The diluted EPS calculation adjusts the weighted average number of shares used
in the basic EPS calculation by assuming all potentially dilutive shares
convert into ordinary shares. Rights granted to employees under employee share
award plans, with a strike price and/or with conditions which have not yet
been met, are considered to be potential dilutive shares and therefore have
been included in the calculation of diluted EPS.
Year ended 31 March
2025 2024
Profit for the year (£m) 416.7 354.6
Weighted average number of Ordinary Shares for basic EPS (in millions of 1,032.2 1,036.7
shares)
Plus the effect of dilution from share options (in millions of shares) 16.5 14.7
Weighted average number of Ordinary Shares adjusted for the effect of dilution 1,048.7 1,051.4
(in millions of shares)
Basic EPS, in pence 40.37 34.20
Diluted EPS, in pence 39.73 33.73
Note 12. Property, plant and equipment
Accounting policy
Property, plant and equipment is stated at historical cost less accumulated
depreciation and any accumulated impairment losses. Items of property, plant
and equipment are derecognised on disposal or when no future economic benefits
are expected to arise from the continued use of the asset.
Computer equipment is not recorded in property, plant and equipment, but
expensed as low-value short-lived equipment.
The accounting policy for right-of-use assets is included in note 18.
Depreciation
Depreciation is charged on a straight-line basis from the time the asset is
available for use, so as to allocate the cost of assets less their residual
value over their estimated useful lives; these values and lives are reviewed
each year. Subject to these reviews, the estimated useful lives assigned to
principal categories of assets are as follows:
● Right-of-use assets: lease term (1-10 years)
● Leased office improvements: lease term (1-10 years)
● Office equipment: 5 years*
Change in estimates
During the financial year, the Group has entered into new long-term leases in
several locations and conducted a review of the useful lives of leased office
improvements and office equipment. As a result, the expected useful life of
the leasehold improvements was updated to the lease term and the useful life
of the office equipment increased from 2 to 5 years. The effect of these
changes on the depreciation expense for the financial year and the future
periods, included in administrative expenses, is not material.
Impairment of property, plant and equipment
Reviews are carried out if there is an indication that assets may be impaired,
to ensure that property, plant and equipment are not carried at above their
recoverable amounts.
*Except Brazil where 10 years is used to align with local accounting rules
Right-of-use assets Leased office improvements Office equipment Assets under construction Total
£m £m £m £m £m
At 1 April 2023
Cost 29.4 13.0 6.6 0.5 49.5
Accumulated depreciation (17.5) (7.2) (3.7) - (28.4)
Net book value 11.9 5.8 2.9 0.5 21.1
Additions 15.3 0.1 - 10.3 25.7
Reclassifications - 3.4 2.0 (5.4) -
Depreciation charge (7.3) (2.5) (1.6) - (11.4)
Disposals - (0.8) - - (0.8)
Foreign currency translation differences (0.4) - 0.2 (0.1) (0.3)
At 31 March 2024
Cost 39.0 15.4 8.1 5.3 67.8
Accumulated depreciation (19.5) (9.4) (4.6) - (33.5)
Net book value 19.5 6.0 3.5 5.3 34.3
Additions 75.0 2.1 - 34.7 111.8
Reclassifications - 31.8 7.4 (39.2) -
Depreciation charge (10.7) (2.6) (1.6) - (14.9)
Impairment charge (9.4) (2.1) - - (11.5)
Disposals (4.0) (0.6) - - (4.6)
Foreign currency translation differences 0.7 - - 0.1 0.8
At 31 March 2025
Cost 101.4 46.0 15.5 0.9 163.8
Accumulated depreciation and impairment (30.4) (11.4) (6.1) - (47.9)
Net book value 71.0 34.6 9.4 0.9 115.9
Impairment loss
During the financial year, the Group moved or transferred part of its
operations into new leased premises and as part of this tested for impairment
the right of use asset and the related leased office improvements for office
space that will no longer be utilised. An impairment loss of £11.5m (2024:
nil) was subsequently recognised from writing down to its recoverable amount
the right of use asset and the related leased office improvements. The
recoverable amount was determined by reference to either the fair value less
costs to sell or value in use where applicable. The impairment loss is
included in administrative expenses in the statement of profit or loss.
Note 13. Intangible assets
Accounting policy
Intangible assets predominantly relate to internally generated software and
other intangible assets and are stated at cost less accumulated amortisation.
Internally generated software
The Group develops software used in the provision of its services. Only the
development costs that are directly attributable to the design, development
and testing of new software controlled by the Group are capitalised. Other
development expenditures that do not meet the recognition criteria are
recognised as an expense as incurred. Development costs previously recognised
as an expense are not recognised as an asset in a subsequent period.
Costs associated with maintaining computer software are recognised as an
expense as incurred. Directly attributable costs that are capitalised as part
of the software product comprise software development employee costs.
Other intangible assets
Other intangible assets primarily include licences and domain purchases. They
are amortised on a straight-line basis over their useful economic life or the
term of the contract.
Amortisation
The Group amortises intangible assets on a straight-line basis over 3 years,
except for mobile applications which are amortised over 2
years, and licence purchases that are amortised over a period of 2-10 years.
Impairment of intangible assets
Intangible assets are assessed for impairment whenever there is an indicator
that they might be impaired, for example when the assets are no longer in use
and need to be decommissioned.
Software Other intangible assets Total
£m £m £m
At 1 April 2023
Cost 28.3 5.0 33.3
Accumulated amortisation (19.1) (2.8) (21.9)
Net book value 9.2 2.2 11.4
Additions 2.0 - 2.0
Amortisation charge (6.5) (0.4) (6.9)
At 31 March 2024
Cost 11.0 4.6 15.6
Accumulated amortisation and impairment (6.3) (2.8) (9.1)
Net book value 4.7 1.8 6.5
Additions - 0.9 0.9
Amortisation charge (3.0) (0.4) (3.4)
At 31 March 2025
Cost 6.6 5.1 11.7
Accumulated amortisation and impairment (4.9) (2.8) (7.7)
Net book value 1.7 2.3 4.0
Note 14. Trade and other receivables
Accounting policy
Trade and other receivables primarily consist of amounts due from payment
processors, partners, brokers and customers, and collateral deposits the Group
holds with its counterparties. Trade and other receivables are initially
recognised at fair value and subsequently measured at amortised cost less
impairment for expected credit losses. The carrying values of current trade
receivables approximate their fair values due to their short maturity.
Trade and other receivables are presented as current in the statement of
financial position if it is expected to be realised or intended to be sold or
consumed in the normal operating cycle; and/or
expected to be realised within 12 months after the reporting period. All other
assets are classified as non-current.
The Group recognises impairment loss allowances for expected credit losses on
financial assets that are measured at amortised cost. The impairment loss
allowance, recognised during the year, relates to chargebacks and negative
customer balances. For chargebacks, the Group has established a provision
matrix that is based on its historical credit loss experience, adjusted for
forward-looking factors specific to the debtors and the economic environment.
For negative customer balances, if an active non-fraudulent account goes more
than 30 days past due, according to the Group policy, it is perceived as an
indication of a significant increase in credit risk and the receivable is
provided in full.
Refer to note 19 for further information on expected credit losses.
2025 2024
£m £m
Non-current trade and other receivables
Office lease deposits 6.5 2.8
Other non-current receivables 32.3 29.3
Total non-current trade and other receivables 38.8 32.1
Current trade and other receivables
Receivables from customers* 97.1 131.6
Receivables from partners 76.1 93.6
Receivables from brokers 54.3 19.9
Receivables from payment processors 40.0 95.6
Prepayments 26.4 30.1
Collateral deposits 25.4 25.0
Interest receivable 23.0 30.9
Other receivables 5.3 16.1
Total current trade and other receivables 347.6 442.8
*Receivables from customers disclosed are net of expected credit loss
provision of £46.6m as at 31 March 2025 (2024: £41.3m). The movement in the
provision for the year is predominantly related to increased activity and the
related increase in customer balances, which resulted in the increase of
negative customers' balances older than 30 days. Customer chargebacks
decreased by £0.9m to £1.6m at 31 March 2025 (31 March 2024: £2.5m) and
negative customer balances increased by £6.1m to £45.0m (31 March 2024:
£38.9m).
Note 15. Cash and cash equivalents
Accounting policy
Cash and cash equivalents include on-demand deposits, term deposits used for
meeting short-term cash commitments, deposits (with collateral) held, money
market funds (MMFs) and other short-term high-quality liquid investments with
original maturities of 3 months or less, and e-money held with payment
processing partners. Due to the short duration of the cash and cash
equivalents (less than 3 months), the fair value approximates the carrying
value at each reporting period.
Cash and cash equivalents is presented as current in the statement of
financial position, unless it is restricted from being exchanged or used to
settle a liability for at least twelve months after the reporting period.
Cash in transit to customers represents cash that has been paid out from the
Group bank accounts but has not been delivered to the bank account of the
beneficiary.
Cash collateral deposits the Group holds with its counterparties are
recognised under 'Trade and other receivables' in the statement of financial
position.
Customer deposits
As disclosed above, the Group recognises financial assets and liabilities for
the funds customers hold in their Wise accounts, and the funds collected from
customers as part of the money transfer settlement process that have not yet
been processed. The liability is recognised upon receipt of cash or capture
confirmation (depending on pay-in method), and is derecognised when cash is
delivered to the beneficiary.
Principles to determine the point of delivery are the same as applied in
revenue recognition, see note 3.
Critical accounting judgement
Customer balances
The Group recognises financial assets and corresponding liabilities for the
funds customers hold in their Wise accounts and the funds the Group receives
as part of the money transfer settlement process. At the point that the cash
is received from the customer, the Group becomes party to a contract and has a
right and an ability to control the economic benefit from the cash flows
associated with this balance. Additionally, pursuant to IAS 32, the Group
considers it does not have a legally enforceable right to set off these
financial assets and liabilities, or an intention to settle them on a net
basis or settle them simultaneously. Therefore, management has concluded that
the recognition of the financial assets and their respective liabilities on
the balance sheet is appropriate.
As at 31 March As at 31 March
2025 2024
£m £m
Cash and cash equivalents
Cash at banks and in transit between Group bank accounts 7,845.9 6,570.3
Investment into money market funds 5,992.2 3,776.1
Cash in transit to customers 144.7 132.8
Total cash and cash equivalents 13,982.8 10,479.2
Cash at banks and in transit between Group bank accounts include term deposits
of £204.2m (2024: £285.8m). Their settlement date is three months or less.
Of the £13,982.8m (2024: £10,479.2m) cash and cash equivalents at the year
end, £1,430.2m (2024: £1,061.1m) is the corporate cash balance of the Group.
This balance is not related to customer funds, which are held in Wise
accounts, or collected from customers as part of the money transfer settlement
process.
The Group is subject to various regulatory safeguarding compliance
requirements with respect to customer funds. Such requirements may vary across
the different jurisdictions in which the Group operates. Within the £7,845.9m
(2024: £6,570.3m) of cash at banks and in transit between Group bank accounts
is £5,807.5m (2024: £5,290.5m) of customer funds in segregated, safeguarding
bank accounts and term deposits held at investment grade banking institutions,
or the highest possible credit-rated institutions in non-investment grade
jurisdictions (bank ratings being limited by the relevant country rating). The
remainder of safeguarded customer deposits were held across highly liquid
global money market funds (MMFs), treasury bonds and investment grade
corporate paper, as allowed by local regulations. In addition, during the year
ended 31 March 2025, the Group has introduced a hybrid approach to
safeguarding UK customer funds by implementing Safeguarding via Comparable
Guarantees, of total value of £520.0m, with nine investment grade sureties.
The Group holds the amount equal to the value of these guarantees in our
customer network to support customer activity and liquidity.
Note 16. Trade and other payables
Accounting policy
Accounts payable consist of obligations to pay for goods and services that
have been acquired in the ordinary course of business from suppliers on the
basis of normal credit terms and do not bear interest.
Wise accounts relate to the funds customers hold in their Wise accounts and
the funds the Group receives as part of the money transfer settlement process.
They are non-derivative liabilities to personal or business customers for
money they hold with the Group and do not constitute borrowings. Refer to note
15 for details of the judgement management has exercised in relation to
customers' balances and the recognition of the financial assets and their
respective liabilities on the balance sheet.
Outstanding money transmission liabilities represent transfers that have not
yet been paid out or delivered to a recipient.
Payables are initially recognised at fair value and subsequently measured at
amortised cost.
Trade and other payables are presented as current in the statement of
financial position if it is expected to be settled in the normal operating
cycle; or expected to be settled within 12 months after the reporting period;
or there is no unconditional right to defer the settlement of the liability
for at least twelve months after the reporting period. All other liabilities
are classified as non-current.
Trade and other payables are unsecured unless otherwise indicated; due to the
short-term nature of current payables, their carrying values approximate their
fair value.
As at 31 March As at 31 March
2025 2024
£m £m
Non-current trade and other payables
Accounts payable and accrued expenses 8.7 7.4
Other payables 37.1 38.7
Total non-current trade and other payables 45.8 46.1
Current trade and other payables
Wise accounts 17,056.4 13,261.0
Outstanding money transmission liabilities 188.8 235.9
Payables to payment processors 125.3 216.8
Accrued expenses 103.0 76.3
Other payables 65.5 39.2
Other taxes 10.2 11.8
Accounts payable 16.8 7.9
Deferred revenue 12.8 12.9
Total current trade and other payables 17,578.8 13,861.8
Wise accounts
The table below illustrates the currencies in which Wise accounts are held:
2025 2024
£m £m
Wise accounts
EUR 6,283.6 4,717.6
USD 5,862.6 4,881.8
GBP 2,577.3 2,092.2
AUD 495.7 338.0
CAD 305.6 205.1
CHF 295.9 183.9
JPY 279.2 182.7
Other 956.5 659.7
Total 17,056.4 13,261.0
Note 17. Borrowings
Accounting policy
Borrowings, consisting of a Revolving Credit Facility (RCF), are recognised
initially at fair value, net of transaction costs incurred, and are
subsequently carried at amortised cost. Any difference between the proceeds
(net of transaction costs) and the redemption value is recognised as interest
expense using the effective interest method over the term of the borrowing.
Fees paid on the establishment of loan facilities are recognised as
transaction costs of the loan to the extent that it is probable that some or
all of the facility will be drawn down. In this case, the fee is deferred and
treated as a transaction cost when the draw-down occurs. The Group presents
the impact of transaction costs as part of financing cash flows.
Borrowings are classified as current liabilities unless, at the end of the
reporting period, the Group has a right to defer settlement of the liability
for at least 12 months after the reporting period.
Covenants that the Group is required to comply with, on or before the end of
the reporting period, affect whether the right to defer exists at the
reporting date and therefore impact the classification of loan arrangements
with covenants as current or non-current. Covenants that the Group is required
to comply with after the reporting period do not affect the classification.
2025 2024 Re-presented
£m £m
Current
Interest expense related to Revolving Credit Facility 1.3 4.3
Total current borrowings 1.3 4.3
Non-current
Revolving Credit Facility 98.1 198.4
Total non-current borrowings 98.1 198.4
Total borrowings 99.4 202.7
Change in accounting policy
As a result of the adoption of the amendments to IAS 1 - Classification of
Liabilities as Current or Non-current and Non-current Liabilities with
Covenants, the Group has classified its borrowings as non-current, because it
has the right to defer payment for more than 12 months. The policy change
resulted in £198.4m of comparative balances being re-presented.
Borrowings movement reconciliation:
Revolving credit facility Revolving credit facility
2025 movements 2024 movements
£m £m
Opening balance 202.7 249.9
Cash flows:
Proceeds 200.0 420.0
Transaction costs (2.1) (0.5)
Repayments (300.0) (470.0)
Interest expense paid (13.0) (15.8)
Non-cash flows:
Interest expense 11.8 19.2
Foreign currency translation differences - (0.1)
Closing balance 99.4 202.7
Revolving credit facility (RCF)
In the year ended 31 March 2025, the Group terminated its previous secured
Revolving Credit Facility and entered into a new, unsecured, multi-currency
revolving facility for £330.0m offered by a syndicate of six lenders, namely:
HSBC Innovation Banking Limited, JP Morgan Chase Bank N.A. London Branch,
National Westminster Bank Plc, Citibank N.A., London Branch, Barclays Bank PLC
and Goldman Sachs Lending Partners LLC. The maturity date of the facility is
December 2027, and the agreement offers two, one-year, extension options.
The facility bears interest at a rate per annum equal to SONIA plus a margin
determined by reference to adjusted leverage (calculated as a ratio of debt to
adjusted EBITDA). The agreement contains certain customary covenants,
including to maintain a maximum total net leverage ratio not in excess of 3:1
and interest cover (calculated as a ratio of adjusted EBITDA to finance
charges in accordance with the terms of the agreement) not less than a ratio
of 3.5:1 in respect of any relevant period.
The Group monitors compliance with the covenants throughout the reporting
period and has complied with all financial covenants for this and all
reporting periods. The undrawn available committed funds as at 31 March 2025
were £230.0m (2024: £200.0m).
Credit ratings
The Group obtained independent credit ratings from Standard & Poor's
Global (S&P) and Fitch Ratings that were published on 3 April 2025. These
ratings assess the creditworthiness of the Group, its subsidiaries and
branches, and are based on reviews of a broad range of business and financial
attributes including capital strength, profitability, funding, liquidity,
strategy and governance.
Credit ratings and outlook of Wise plc*
Long term Outlook
Standard & Poor's BBB Stable
Fitch Ratings BBB Stable
* These credit ratings were published after the financial year end, on 3 April
2025 by S&P and Fitch respectively
As of 31 March 2025, there were no liabilities or covenants that made
reference to these credit ratings.
Note 18. Lease liabilities
Accounting policy
Where the Group is the lessee, the right-of-use assets are recorded within the
'Property, plant and equipment' line in the statement of financial position
and are measured at an amount equal to the lease liability. These relate to
office spaces leased in various locations and are depreciated on a
straight-line basis with the charge recognised in administrative expenses. The
liability, recognised as part of the lease liabilities, is measured at a
discounted value and any interest is charged to finance charges. The Group
presents the payments of principal and interest on lease liabilities as part
of financing cash flows.
The Group has elected not to apply the requirements of IFRS 16 to short-term
leases (leases with a lease term of 12 months or less) and leases for which
the underlying asset is of low value. Low-value assets comprise IT and office
equipment with a purchase price under £5,000. Payments associated with
short-term and low-value assets are recognised on a straight-line basis as an
expense in profit or loss.
Extension and termination options are included in a number of office space
leases across the Group to maximise operational flexibility and they are
exercisable only by the Group and not by the lessors. The Group assesses at
the lease commencement date whether it is reasonably certain to exercise the
extension options. The Group reassesses whether it is reasonably certain to
exercise the options if there is a significant event or significant changes in
circumstances within its control.
As at 31 March As at 31 March
2025 2024
£m £m
Lease liabilities
Current 10.3 6.7
Non-current 75.9 14.8
Total lease liabilities 86.2 21.5
Lease movement reconciliation:
Lease liabilities Lease liabilities
2025 movements 2024 movements
£m £m
Opening balance 21.5 14.5
Cash flows:
Repayments (6.1) (7.1)
Interest expense paid (3.6) (1.1)
Non-cash flows:
New leases 75.3 15.3
Interest expense 3.6 1.1
Foreign currency translation differences 0.0 (0.2)
Other (4.5) (1.0)
Closing balance 86.2 21.5
As at 31 March 2025, the lease liabilities are £86.2m (2024: £21.5m) and
relate to the expected terms remaining on multiple office space leases that
the Group uses for its operations, discounted at between 2.2% and 14.0%. The
leases expire between 2025-2035.
The significant increase in lease liabilities is due to the Group entering
into new long term leases in several locations during the year. As a result of
this increase, lease liabilities have now been presented separately from
borrowings due to their materiality and to provide more relevant information
to users of the financial statements.
The total expense, relating to short-term leases to which the lessee
recognition and measurement requirement has not been applied, for the year
ended 31 March 2025 is £1.4m (2024: £1.0m).
The Group has extension options in office leases, which have not been
exercised as at 31 March 2025. The potential future lease payments, should the
Group exercise the extension options, would result in an increase in the lease
liability of £4.8m.
The Group has termination options in multiple office leases, one of which
management is certain as at 31 March 2025 that the termination option will be
exercised. The potential future lease payments, should the Group not
exercise this termination option, would result in an increase in the lease
liability by £0.7m.
Note 19. Financial instruments and risk management
Accounting policy
Financial assets
The Group classifies its financial assets, at initial recognition, and
subsequently measures them at:
● amortised cost;
● fair value through profit or loss (FVTPL); and
● fair value through other comprehensive income (FVOCI).
The classification of financial assets at initial recognition depends on the
financial asset's contractual cash flows and the Group's business model for
managing them. The Group's business model for managing financial assets refers
to how they are used in order to generate cash flows. The business model
determines whether cash flows will result from collecting contractual cash
flows, selling the financial assets, or both. Cash flows in relation to
purchase or sale of these instruments are classified as investing activities
in the consolidated cash flow statement.
Financial assets at amortised cost
The Group classifies its financial assets at amortised cost only if both of
the following criteria are met:
● the asset is held within a business model whose objective is to
collect the contractual cash flows; and
● the contractual terms give rise to cash flows that are solely
payments of principal and interest.
Financial assets at amortised cost are subsequently measured using the
effective interest method and are subject to impairment. Gains and losses are
recognised in the profit or loss when the asset is derecognised, modified or
impaired. Financial assets measured at amortised cost are predominantly trade
and other receivables and cash and cash equivalents.
Financial assets at fair value through other comprehensive income (FVOCI)
The Group classifies debt securities (e.g. bonds) as FVOCI, as the contractual
cash flows are solely payments of principal and interest, and the objective of
the Group's business model is achieved both by collecting contractual cash
flows and selling financial assets.
Financial assets through profit or loss (FVTPL)
Financial assets are classified at fair value through profit or loss when they
do not meet the criteria to be measured at amortised cost or fair value
through other comprehensive income, as described above. This includes debt
instruments that do not meet the amortised cost criteria or the FVOCI criteria
and all derivative financial assets. Interest earned on assets mandatorily
required to be measured at FVTPL is recorded using the contractual interest
rate.
Impairment of financial assets
The Group recognises impairment loss allowances for expected credit losses
('ECLs') on financial assets that are measured at amortised cost or fair value
through other comprehensive income. The ECL assessment considers both the
12-month and the lifetime ECL, as per IFRS 9 requirements.
The Group considers that the below elements have low credit risk based on the
credit quality of the counterparties:
a. cash and cash equivalents;
b. debt instruments held at FVOCI;
c. collateral deposits the Group holds with its counterparties; and
d. receivables from payment processors, partners and brokers.
ECLs on these instruments are measured on a 12-month basis; nevertheless, when
there has been a significant increase in credit risk since initial
recognition, the allowance will be based on the lifetime ECL. At every
reporting date, the Group evaluates whether there has been a significant
increase in credit risk since initial recognition using all reasonable and
supportable information that is available without undue cost or effort. The
Group uses external credit ratings if available both to determine whether the
financial instrument has significantly increased in credit risk and to
estimate the ECLs. If a bank or other counterparty has no external credit
rating, the Group evaluates its credit quality, where necessary, by analysing
its financial position, past experience, and other factors.
The Group's policy only allows exposures to banks and counterparties with
sound credit quality and limits the exposures to a maximum amount, considering
their level of risk. Furthermore, as per the Group's investment policy, the
debt instruments held at FVOCI consist of quoted bonds and other fixed asset
securities that are graded in the top investment categories (rated A- and
above) and, therefore, are considered to be low credit risk investments.
The Group's receivables from customers qualify for the simplified approach in
calculating ECLs, as they do not contain a significant financing component.
Therefore, the Group does not track changes in credit risk, but instead
recognises a loss allowance based on lifetime ECLs at each reporting date. To
measure the ECLs, receivables from customers have been grouped based on shared
credit risk characteristics and number of days past due.
In calculating the ECL on receivables recognised for chargebacks, the Group
has established a provision matrix that is based on its historical credit loss
experience, adjusted for forward-looking factors specific to the debtors and
the economic environment. For negative customer balances, if an active
non-fraudulent account goes more than 30 days past due, according to Group
policy, it is perceived as an indication of a significant increase in credit
risk and the receivable is provided in full.
Financial liabilities
Financial liabilities are measured at amortised cost, except for derivative
liabilities, which are classified as financial liabilities measured at fair
value through profit or loss.
Derivative financial instruments
Derivative financial instruments are used to manage exposure to market risks.
The principal derivative instruments used by the Group are foreign currency
swaps, foreign exchange forwards and non-deliverable foreign exchange
forwards. Such derivative financial instruments are initially recognised at
fair value on the date on which a derivative contract is entered into and are
subsequently remeasured at fair value through profit and loss at each
reporting date.
The Group does not hold or issue derivative financial instruments for trading
or speculative purposes.
The fair value of the derivative financial instruments is determined by
mark-to market valuation technique. The key inputs in the valuation model are
the observable foreign exchange rates for the currencies involved. These
inputs are considered level 2 within the fair value hierarchy, as they are
observable, but may not be quoted directly for the specific instruments.
In the course of its business, the Group is exposed to the main financial
risks: liquidity, credit, and market risk from its use of financial
instruments. The Group's financial risk management programme seeks to minimise
potential adverse effects on the Group's financial performance. All financial
risks are managed against a control framework and risk appetite, which include
defined metrics and limits. The treasury function is responsible for ongoing
management. The risk management function provides close oversight by
monitoring exposures, proposing metrics, methodologies and assumptions,
setting limits and early warning indicators, and performing stress testing.
a. Liquidity risk
Liquidity risk is the risk that the Group cannot meet its financial
obligations as they fall due. Management monitors rolling forecasts of the
Group's liquidity requirements to ensure it has sufficient cash to meet
operational needs.
The Group's approach to managing liquidity risk is to ensure that it always
has enough liquid resources in excess of its liquidity risk appetite to meet
its liabilities when due, under both normal and stressed conditions, without
incurring losses or risking damage to the Group's position.
On the top of adhering to its internal liquidity risk management framework and
risk appetite, the Group follows and adheres to the overall financial adequacy
rule (OFAR) requirements pursuant to the guidance of MIFIDPRU 7. At 31 March
2025:
● the Group maintained healthy liquidity buffers above both the FCA
liquid assets threshold requirement as well as all minimum regulatory
requirements across all Wise regulated entities
● the Group maintained healthy liquidity buffers above its internal
risk appetite, supporting the Group's ability to withstand a range of
severe, but plausible, market-wide and Wise-specific stresses defined within
the Group's Internal Liquidity Adequacy Assessment and approved by the
Group's board.
In May 2024, the Group entered into Safeguarding Insurance Guarantees with 9
insurance companies to guarantee £520.0m of customer funds, so that this
amount does not need to be safeguarded and can be used for operating customer
liquidity. These arrangements have an 18 month term and include specific
renewal provisions which can be triggered 6 months before the end of the term,
in order to provide certainty on renewal at least 3 months before the end of
the term. Also the Group's Revolving Credit Facility was refinanced in
December 2024 as an unsecured 3 year £330.0m facility, with the option to
extend for 2 additional years. At 31 March 2025 £100.0m of the facility had
been drawn down with a further £230.0m available.
Despite the Group's use of external funding options for liquidity management,
the impact of refinancing risk on the Group's liquidity adequacy is low due to
the Group's limited reliance on the external funding and high level of
internal liquidity.
The breakdowns of trade payables, borrowings and leases into current and
non-current are shown in notes 16, 17 and 18. See also note 19 (e) for the
maturity profile of the Group's financial liabilities based on contractual
undiscounted payments.
b. Credit risk
Credit risk is the risk of financial loss to the Group if a customer or
counterparty to a financial instrument fails to meet its contractual
obligations. The credit risk exposures are managed against internal metrics
and limits. Wise actively manages credit concentration risk and it is Wise's
policy to impose credit limits in order to control the exposures (amount and
period) Wise has with each counterparty considering their level of risk. These
limits are set based on the credit ratings or perceived credit quality of each
counterparty and approval must be obtained from the Credit Risk Committee for
any exceptions outside of the framework.
The Group's maximum exposure to credit risk by class of financial asset is as
follows:
2025 2024
£m £m
Asset category
Cash and cash equivalents 13,982.8 10,479.3
Short-term financial investments 4,654.9 4,033.9
Trade and other receivables 327.7 415.4
Derivative financial assets 2.5 1.6
Total assets subject to credit risk 18,967.9 14,930.2
The majority of these financial assets are held with investment grade
financial institutions or invested in highly rated financial instruments with
credit ratings assigned by reputable credit rating agencies such as Moody's,
Standard & Poor's and Fitch Ratings.
The Group's financial assets breakdown by external credit ratings is as
follow:
2025 2024
£m £m
Investment into money market funds
AAA 5,992.2 3,776.1
Cash at bank and in transit
AA/Aa 6,305.6 1,978.2
A 947.1 4,114.5
BBB/Baa 99.8 80.0
BB/Ba/B 119.1 56.0
CCC/Caa 0.7 2.1
Unrated * 283.0 201.4
Cash in transit 235.3 271.0
Total cash and cash equivalents subject to credit risk 13,982.8 10,479.3
Short-term financial investments
AAA, AA/Aa, A 4,654.9 4,033.9
Total short-term financial instruments subject to credit risk 4,654.9 4,033.9
Trade and other receivables
AA/Aa 100.2 130.6
A 31.7 83.4
BBB/Baa 0.2 4.8
Unrated* 195.6 196.6
Total trade and other receivables subject to credit risk 327.7 415.4
Derivative financial instruments
AA/Aa, A 2.5 1.6
Total derivative financial instruments subject to credit risk 2.5 1.6
* 'Unrated' refers to payment service providers, banks and customers with no
public credit rating issued by a global credit rating agency.
The Group held cash and cash equivalents of £13,982.8m net of impairment
allowance of £1.2m. Impairment of cash and cash equivalents has been measured
on a 12-month expected loss basis and reflects the short maturities of the
exposures.
c. Market risk
Interest rate risk
The Group is exposed to interest rate risk from fixed interest rate assets and
liabilities on Wise's balance sheet. Interest rate risk is managed against a
control framework, which is defined with set metrics and limits in place.
The Group's economic value of equity is exposed to interest rate risk from
fixed interest rate assets and liabilities on Wise's balance sheet. The main
fixed interest rate exposure for Wise is driven by sovereign bonds within the
safeguarded assets.
The Group is also exposed, more generally, to the risk of changes in net
interest income (interest income net of benefits paid to customers) resulting
from potential movements in interest rates on its financial assets, including
cash and cash equivalents and short-term investments.
A 1% instantaneous downward shock of all interest rate curves would lead to a
reduction of £141.4m in annual interest income (2024: £110.9m), based on an
average FY2025 balance of £16,537.0m of financial assets and to a reduction
in net interest income, after benefits paid to customers, of £86.1m (2024:
£69.0m), based on FY2025 level of interest returned to customers. A 1% upward
shock of all interest rate curves would lead to an increase of £142.1m in
annual net interest income (2024: £112.2m) and to an increase in net interest
income, after benefits paid to customers, of £86.7m (2024: £70.4m).
Foreign exchange
risk
The Group is exposed to foreign exchange rate movement from holding assets and
liabilities in different currencies and guaranteeing Send Money customers a
foreign exchange rate on their international transfers for a short period of
time. Wise actively monitors foreign exchange risk, and exposures are managed
through a combination of natural hedging and treasury hedging products.
The Group uses a combination of foreign currency swaps, foreign exchange
forwards and non-deliverable foreign exchange forwards to hedge its exposure
to foreign currency risk:
2025 2024
Carrying amount assets Carrying amount liabilities Notional amount Carrying amount assets Carrying amount liabilities Notional amount
£m £m £m £m £m £m
Derivative financial instruments
Foreign currency swaps 1.6 2.5 1,124.0 1.2 0.8 494.9
Foreign exchange forwards 0.8 0.4 562.7 0.4 0.5 486.5
Non-deliverable foreign exchange forwards 0.1 0.8 95.9 - 0.3 45.6
Total derivative financial instruments 2.5 3.7 1,782.6 1.6 1.6 1,027.0
The remaining maturity of all open treasury positions as at 31 March 2025 is
between 1 to 30 days (31 March 2024: between 1 to 19 days).
The notional contract amounts of derivatives held to manage the foreign
exchange exposure indicate the nominal value of transactions outstanding at
the balance sheet date. They do not represent amounts at risk. Since the
balance sheet date all open treasury positions have been realised or settled.
The Group's exposure to foreign exchange risk by currency
The table below presents the Group's net position (difference between
financial assets and liabilities) across its main currencies at the end of
each reporting period. This table does not include the final settlement
amounts of any open derivative positions, as these are only accounted for upon
cash settlement on the balance sheet. Hence the accounting exposures below, as
at 31 March 2025, are higher than the true economic exposures to foreign
exchange risk:
2025 2024
£m £m
Net exposure by currency
USD(*) 258.9 60.8
HUF(*) (134.2) (96.6)
BRL(*) 50.6 52.6
SGD(*) 46.9 37.3
EUR(*) (45.2) (45.2)
THB(*) (40.2) (43.1)
AUD(*) 39.3 59.3
KRW(*) (35.3) (1.2)
PLN(*) (29.5) (8.1)
MXN(*) (27.2) (4.4)
Other currencies (51.8) 18.7
*The Group mitigates the exposure to foreign exchange risk from movements in
these currencies with a combination of treasury products. For further
information on the instruments the Group utilises to manage its foreign
exchange risk, refer to the 'Foreign exchange risk' section above.
Foreign exchange fluctuations sensitivity analysis
Foreign exchange risk is monitored on an ongoing basis using a value at risk
(VaR) and stressed value at risk (SVaR) approach, considering the foreign
exchange risk arising from open non GBP currency positions as FX rates move
adversely against our open positions. For the sensitivity analysis, a severe
stress was applied to our 31 March 2025 positions, which assumes that both EUR
and USD would depreciate 5% simultaneously. In this scenario, a loss of £3.2m
would arise over one day (2024: £1.4m).
d. Capital risk
Capital risk is the risk that the Group and its individual entities have an
insufficient level or composition of capital to support their normal business
activities and to meet their regulatory capital requirements, both under
normal operating environments and stressed conditions.
The Group's eligible capital comprises ordinary share capital, share based
payments reserve, other reserves and audited retained earnings, as disclosed
in the consolidated statement of changes in equity, less certain deductions
(including deferred tax and intangibles).
The Group's objectives when managing capital risk are
to:
● adhere to regulatory requirements in each jurisdiction;
● safeguard the Group's ability to continue as a going concern, so
that the Group can continue to provide returns for shareholders and benefits
for other stakeholders;
● fund an orderly wind-down in a reverse stress scenario (an
extreme, but still plausible, combination of events or circumstances that
would lead to that catastrophic failure which won't allow the Group to
continue operating); and
● maintain an optimal capital structure to reduce the cost of
capital.
The Group is subject to prudential regulatory consolidation which follows the
rules in the sourcebook for MIFID investment firms ('MIFIDPRU'). This is the
case due to the existence of Wise Assets UK Ltd, a group UK FCA-regulated
investment firm subject to the same rules.
Both Wise Assets UK Ltd (MIFID investment firm) and the Group (MIFID
investment group) are classified as Non-small and Non-interconnected
investment firms ('non-SNI').
The Group also follows and adheres to the Overall Own Funds Threshold
Requirement as this is derived by the Group's Internal Capital Adequacy
Assessment ('ICARA') and approved by the Group board. ICARA is a continuous
risk assessment process which considers the business model implication on
capital and liquidity on an ongoing basis pursuant to the guidance of MIFIDPRU
7.
At 31 March 2025 the Group maintained healthy buffers above both the Group
Overall Own Funds Requirement as well as all minimum regulatory capital
requirements across all Wise regulated entities.
Further information on the Group's policies and processes for managing
capital, along with the disclosure requirements under MIFIDPRU 8, can be found
on our Owner relations website: https://wise.com/owners/.
e. Carrying amounts and fair values of financial instruments
The carrying value of the Group's financial assets and liabilities by
measurement basis is presented below:
2025 2024 Re-presented*
£m £m
Financial assets at amortised cost
Non-current receivables 6.5 2.8
Current trade and other receivables 321.2 412.6
Cash at banks and in transit 7,990.6 6,703.2
Total financial assets at amortised cost 8,318.3 7,118.6
Financial liabilities at amortised cost
Non-current lease liabilities (75.9) (14.8)
Non-current borrowings (98.1) (198.4)
Current lease liabilities (10.3) (6.7)
Current borrowings (1.3) (4.3)
Current trade and other payables (17,525.9) (13,806.0)
Total financial liabilities at amortised cost (17,711.5) (14,030.2)
Financial assets at FVOCI
Short-term financial investments 4,654.7 4,033.9
Total financial assets at FVOCI 4,654.9 4,033.9
Financial assets at FVTPL
Investment into money market funds 5,992.2 3,776.1
Derivative financial instruments 2.5 1.6
Other short term investments 0.2 -
Financial assets at FVTPL total 5,994.9 3,777.7
Financial liabilities at FVTPL
Derivative financial instruments (3.7) (1.6)
Financial liabilities at FVTPL total (3.7) (1.6)
*Comparative balances have been re-presented to align the investment into
money market funds with our business model to hold them for short-term
liquidity.
Fair value
hierarchy
Assets and liabilities carried at fair value or for which fair values are
disclosed have been classified into three levels according to the quality and
reliability of information used to determine the fair values.
● Level 1: The fair value of financial instruments traded in active
markets is based on quoted market prices at the end of the reporting period.
Products classified as level 1 predominantly comprise treasury bonds,
investment grade corporate paper and money market funds. The quoted market
price used for financial assets held by the Group is the current close price
at the balance sheet date.
● Level 2: The fair value of financial instruments that are not
traded in an active market is determined using valuation techniques with the
inputs that are observable either directly or indirectly. The Group classifies
derivative financial assets and liabilities as level 2 financial instruments.
These instruments are valued by observable foreign exchange rates. There were
no changes to the valuation technique during the period.
● Level 3: If one or more of the significant inputs is not based on
observable market data, the instrument is included in level 3. The Group does
not currently have any financial instruments in level 3.
The following table presents the Group's assets and liabilities that are
measured at fair value by the level in the fair value hierarchy as at the
reporting date:
Total Level 1 Level 2 Level 3
At 31 March 2025 £m £m £m £m
Financial assets measured at fair value
Short-term financial investments 4,654.9 4,654.9 - -
Investment into money market funds 5,992.2 5,992.2 - -
Derivative financial assets 2.5 - 2.5 -
Total financial assets measured at fair value 10,649.6 10,647.1 2.5 -
Financial liabilities measured at fair value
Derivative financial liabilities (3.7) - (3.7) -
Total financial liabilities measured at fair value (3.7) - (3.7) -
Total Level 1 Level 2 Level 3
At 31 March 2024 £m £m £m £m
Financial assets measured at fair value
Short-term financial investments 4,033.9 4,033.9 - -
Investment into money market funds 3,776.1 3,776.1 - -
Derivative financial assets 1.6 - 1.6 -
Total financial assets measured at fair value 7,811.6 7,810.0 1.6 -
Financial liabilities measured at fair value
Derivative financial liabilities (1.6) - (1.6) -
Total financial liabilities measured at fair value (1.6) - (1.6) -
Contractual maturity of financial liabilities based on undiscounted cash
flows:
2025 2024
£m £m
Less than 1 year
Current lease liabilities (10.6) (8.6)
Current borrowings (105.0) (209.9)
Current trade and other payables (17,525.9) (13,806.0)
Total financial liabilities (17,641.5) (14,024.5)
Between 1 and 5 years
Non-current lease liabilities (84.7) (16.9)
Non-current borrowings (3.4) (1.0)
Total financial liabilities (88.1) (17.9)
Current and non-current borrowings include principal and interest.
Note 20. Provisions
Accounting policy
Provisions are liabilities where the exact timing and amount of the obligation
are uncertain. Provisions are recognised when the Group has a present
obligation (legal or constructive) as a result of past events, when an outflow
of resources is probable to settle the obligation and when an amount can be
reliably estimated.The carrying amounts of provisions are reviewed at each
balance sheet date and adjusted to reflect the current best estimate.
Legal & regulatory provisions Tax provisions Other Total
£m £m £m £m
At 31 March 2024 2.2 10.9 2.3 15.4
Provisions charged during the year 12.0 10.9 11.2 34.1
Provisions utilised or reversed during the year (0.6) (4.1) (6.8) (11.5)
Exchange differences - (0.3) - (0.3)
At 31 March 2025 13.6 17.4 6.7 37.7
Current 13.6 8.4 3.8 25.8
Non-current - 9.0 2.9 11.9
13.6 17.4 6.7 37.7
The Group recognises provisions for legal and regulatory matters that may
arise as part of its operations in highly regulated global environments.
The Group also recognises tax provisions where there is uncertainty around tax
positions globally and works constructively with local advisors and tax
authorities on these matters.
Other includes property provisions in respect of the commitment to restore the
Group's leased facilities to their original conditions at the end of the
leasing period and commercial provisions.
Note 21. Share capital
Allotted, called up and fully paid
As at 31 March 2025 As at 31 March 2024
Class Nominal value, £ Number of shares issued Share capital, £ Nominal value, £ Number of shares issued Share capital, £
Class A Ordinary 0.01 1,025,000,252 10,250,003 0.01 1,024,777,252 10,247,773
Class B Ordinary 0.000 000 001 243,584,255 - 0.000 000 001 398,889,814 -
Total 1,268,584,507 10,250,003 1,423,667,066 10,247,773
During the year, the Company allotted 223,000 Class A Ordinary Shares with a
nominal value of £0.01 related to share options granted to Non-Executive
Directors of Wise under the Company's legacy incentive plans prior to the
Company's admission to trading on the London Stock Exchange (2024: 100,000
Class A Ordinary Shares).
During the year, the Company redeemed 155,305,559 Class B Ordinary Shares with
a nominal value of £0.000 000 001 in accordance with Article 15.3.2 of the
Company's Articles of Association (2024: nil).
Each Class A Ordinary shareholder is entitled to one vote for each Class A
Ordinary Share held, subject to any restrictions on total voting rights as set
out in the Company's Articles of Association. Class A Ordinary shareholders
are entitled to interim or annual dividends to the extent declared and do not
hold any preferential rights to dividends. Class A Ordinary Shares are
non-redeemable.
Each Class B shareholder is entitled to nine votes for each Class B Share
held, subject to any restrictions on total voting rights as set out in the
Company's Articles of Association. Class B Shares carry no rights to
distributions of dividends except on distribution of assets, up to their
nominal value, on a liquidation or winding up. Class B Shares are strictly
non-transferable, non-tradable and non-distributable to any person or entity
whatsoever.
Note 22. Own share reserve
Accounting policy
Own share reserve
Own share reserve represents the weighted average cost of shares of Wise plc
that are held by the employee share trust for the purpose of fulfilling
obligations in respect of various employee share plans. Own shares are treated
as a deduction from equity, and on exercising of employee awards, are
transferred from own shares to retained earnings at their weighted average
cost.
Employee share trust
The Group provides financing to the Employee Share Ownership Plan (ESOP) Trust
to either purchase the Company's shares on the open market, or to subscribe
for newly issued share capital, to meet the Group's obligation to provide
shares when employees exercise their options or awards. Costs of running the
ESOP Trust are charged to the consolidated income statement. The Group
consolidates this share trust.
Shares held by the ESOP Trust are deducted from reserves and presented in
equity as own shares until such time that employees exercise their awards. The
consideration paid, including any directly attributable incremental costs (net
of income taxes), on purchase of Company's equity instruments is deducted from
equity.
Purchase of own shares
During the financial year, Wise continued the programme, which commenced in
2023, to purchase Wise shares in the market through the Trust in order to
reduce the impact of dilution from stock-based compensation. As of 31 March
2025, a total of 8,704,883 shares (31 March 2024: 9,071,706) were purchased
from the market at an average of £8.21 per share (2024: £7.56). Directly
attributable costs of £0.5m (2024: £0.5m) have been charged to equity.
Note 23. Share-based employee compensation
Accounting policy
The Group operates a number of employee equity-settled schemes as part of its
reward strategy, which are designed to provide long-term incentives for all
employees to deliver long-term shareholder returns. Under the plans,
participants are granted share awards of the Company, which vest gradually
over the vesting period and are equity-settled for shares within Wise plc. The
maximum term of share awards granted is 10 years.
The total amount to be expensed is determined by reference to the fair value
of the awards granted and it is calculated using the closing share price at
the grant date. It is recognised in employee benefit expenses together with a
corresponding increase in equity (share-based payment reserve), over the
period in which the service and the performance conditions are fulfilled (the
vesting period). Upon exercise of share options, the impact is recognised in
retained earnings.
For non-market-based awards, vesting conditions are included in the
assumptions of the number of options and awards that are expected to vest. At
each reporting date, the entity revises its estimates of the number of options
and awards that are expected to vest. It recognises the impact of the revision
to original estimates, if any, in the statement of comprehensive income, with
a corresponding adjustment to the share-based payment reserve. For awards
subject to a market-based performance condition, no subsequent adjustments may
be made.
Employee share award plans
The awards are subject to service conditions, i.e. the requirement for
recipients of awards to
remain in employment with the Group over the vesting period, which typically
is 4 years.
Market-based awards
For market-based awards, the vesting is conditional on achievement of the
relative total shareholder return (TSR) compared to the FTSE 250 and volume
growth performance measures over the 3-year performance period.
Transactions on the share award plans during the year were as follows:
As at 31 March 2025 As at 31 March 2024
Weighted average exercise price per award, £ Number of awards Weighted average exercise price per award, £ Number of awards
Beginning of year 0.08 53,590,058 0.08 65,648,858
Granted during the year - 7,547,396 - 11,460,714
Exercised during the year 0.08 17,194,598 0.06 19,895,709
Forfeited during the year 0.00 3,174,878 0.01 3,623,805
End of year 0.08 40,767,978 0.08 53,590,058
Vested and exercisable as at end of year 0.14 22,823,849 0.15 30,049,308
The share-based payment compensation expense for the year ended 31 March 2025
is £58.4m (2024: £72.5m).
During the year £66.5m (2024: £54.2m) of share-based payments were vested
and exercised and were recycled to retained earnings.
Share awards outstanding at the end of the year have the following expiry
dates and exercise prices:
Grant date range 12 months ended 31 March Expiry date range 12 months ended 31 March Weighted average exercise price Number of awards as at 31 March 2025 Number of awards as at 31 March 2024
2015 2025 - - 221,193
2016 2026 0.12 552,139 1,267,842
2017 2027 0.14 855,482 1,498,924
2018 2028 0.07 1,605,370 2,823,387
2019 2029 0.08 4,662,246 6,430,466
2020 2030 0.12 5,734,556 8,376,895
2021 2031 0.06 2,901,394 5,036,241
2022 2032 - 4,106,746 5,807,083
2023 2033 - 7,921,600 12,120,478
2024 2034 - 5,959,031 10,007,549
2025 2035 - 6,469,414 -
Total 40,767,978 53,590,058
Weighted average remaining contractual life of options outstanding at end of 6.4 years 6.8 years
year
The weighted average share price at the date of exercise for share options
exercised in 2025 was £8.71 (2024: £7.15).
Valuation of share awards
The assessed fair value at the grant date of share awards granted during the
year ended 31 March 2025 was £8.58 per option on average (2024: £6.52). The
fair value of the share awards granted is calculated using the closing share
price at the grant date.
Note 24. Cash generated from operating activities
2025 2024
Note(s) £m £m
Cash generated from operations
Profit for the year 416.7 354.6
Adjustments for:
Depreciation, impairment of PPE and amortisation 7,12,13 29.9 18.3
Non-cash share-based payments expense 58.4 72.5
Foreign currency exchange differences 0.4 21.5
Current tax expense 10 148.1 126.8
Adjustment for interest income and expense (612.2) (484.6)
Fair value gain/loss on financial assets at FVOCI - 0.3
Effect of other non-monetary transactions (0.5) 2.1
Changes in operating assets and liabilities:
Decrease/(increase) in prepayments and receivables 11.4 (119.2)
Increase in trade and other payables 58.9 58.0
Decrease/(increase) in receivables from customers and payment processors 56.8 (72.7)
(Decrease)/increase in liabilities to customers, payment processors and (104.5) 228.6
deferred revenue
Increase in Wise accounts 4,073.8 2,788.7
Cash generated from operations 4,137.2 2,994.9
Note 25. Commitments and contingencies
The Group's minimum future payments from non-cancellable agreements as at year
end are detailed below:
2025 2024
£m £m
Infrastructure subscriptions
No later than 1 year 24.2 34.3
Later than 1 year and no later than 5 years 40.8 64.3
Total 65.0 98.6
Significant capital expenditure contracted
No later than 1 year 1.4 0.6
Later than 1 year and no later than 5 years 8.4 27.7
Later than 5 years 12.9 55.5
Total 22.7 83.8
The Group does not have any other material commitments, capital commitments or
contingencies as at 31 March 2025 and 31 March 2024.
Note 26. Transactions with related parties
Related parties of the Group and Wise plc include subsidiaries, key management
personnel (KMP), close family members of KMP and entities that are controlled
or jointly controlled by KMP or their close family members. Wise identifies
the Board of Directors as KMP.
Balances and transactions between the Company and its subsidiaries, which are
related parties, have been eliminated on consolidation and are not disclosed
in this note.
Details of the Directors' remuneration and interest in shares are disclosed in
the Remuneration Report. Additional information for key management
compensation and particulars of transactions with related parties are
presented below, in accordance with IAS 24 Related Party Disclosures
requirements.
2025 2024
£m £m
Compensation of KMP of the Group
Short-term employee benefits 0.5 0.6
Share-based payment expense 0.8 0.8
Non-Executive Directors' fees 1.2 1.2
Total compensation paid to key management personnel 2.5 2.6
Short-term employee benefits include salaries for KMP. Refer to the
Remuneration Report for the remuneration of each Director.
Share-based payment expense is related to employee share option plans (more
information about the plans is provided in note 23).
In the financial year ended 31 March 2025, the KMP of the Group held deposits
of £4.7m (financial year ended 2024: 5.6m) in Wise Accounts or Wise Assets.
Note 27. Post balance sheet events
The Board has concluded its review of the Group's listing arrangements and,
having assessed in detail the optimal listing and structure, the Group intends
to transfer its primary listing from the equity shares (transition) category
on the London Stock Exchange ("LSE") to a US stock exchange, and to maintain a
secondary listing on the LSE. This would allow the Group's shares to trade on
both a US stock exchange and the LSE.
No other material post balance sheet events have been identified.
Alternative performance measures
The Group uses a number of alternative performance measures ("APMs") within
its financial reporting. These measures are not defined under the requirements
of IFRS and may not be comparable with the APMs of other companies.
The Group believes these APMs provide stakeholders with additional useful
information in providing alternative interpretations of the underlying
performance of the business and how it is managed and they are used by the
Directors and management for performance analysis and reporting. These APMs
should be viewed as supplemental to, but not a substitute for, measures
presented in the financial statements which are prepared in accordance with
IFRS.
Underlying interest income The first 1% yield of interest income on customer balances that Wise plans to
retain
Income Income is calculated as revenue plus interest income on customer balances,
less benefits paid relating to customer balances
Underlying income The measure of income that will be retained from customers, which is
calculated as revenue plus 'Underlying Interest Income'
Underlying operating profit The calculation of underlying operating profit using 'underlying income' and
excluding the Benefits paid relating to customer balances
Underlying profit before tax Measure of profitability which is calculated as profit for the year, excluding See definition in Annual Report for calculation method
the impact of interest income from customer balances above the first 1% yield
and benefits paid relating to customer balances. The Group believes that
Underlying profit before tax is a useful measure for investors as it provides
a measure of underlying performance and growth that is not inflated by the
excess interest income that we will look to pass back to our customers
Underlying profit before tax margin Underlying profit before tax as a percentage of underlying Income
Free cash flow (FCF) Measure of cash flow which takes into account the net cash flows from See definition in Annual Report for calculation method
operating activities less the change in working capital (excluding timing
differences for receipts of interest income, income tax payments, change in
collateral and pass-through items), the costs of purchasing property, plant
and equipment, intangible assets capitalisation and payments for leases. It is
a non-statutory measure used by the Board and the senior management team to
measure the ability of the Group to support future business expansion,
distributions or financing
FCF conversion Free cash flow as a percentage of profit before tax
Underlying free cash flow (UFCF) Free cash flow as defined above but starting from underlying profit before tax
Underlying FCF conversion Free cash flow as a percentage of Underlying profit before tax
Corporate Cash Corporate cash represents cash and cash equivalents that are not considered See Corporate Cash APM for calculation detail
customer-related balances. Measure of the Group's ability to generate cash and
maintain liquidity
Cross- border fees saved Fees saved by our personal customers when using Wise for cross- currency See definition in Annual Report for calculation
transfers versus other providers. This measure is used by the Group to
demonstrate the value proposition to stakeholders
Underlying profit before tax
2025 2024
£m £m £m
Revenue 1,211.9 1,052.0
Underlying interest income (first 1% yield) 150.4 120.7
Underlying income 1,362.3 1,172.7
Cost of sales (328.1) (307.4)
Net credit losses on financial assets (9.1) (12.5)
Underlying gross profit 1,025.1 852.8
Administrative expenses (768.6) (615.9)
Net interest income from corporate investments 33.3 19.7
Other operating income, net 7.1 5.7
Underlying operating profit 296.9 262.3
Finance income 0.7 -
Finance expense (15.5) (20.5)
Underlying profit before tax 282.1 241.8
Interest income above the first 1% yield 443.9 364.5
Benefits paid relating to customer balances (161.2) (124.9)
Reported profit before tax 564.8 481.4
Income tax credit/(expense) (148.1) (126.8)
Profit for the year 416.7 354.6
Free cash flow
2025 2024
£m £m
Underlying profit before tax 282.1 241.8
Underlying income 1,362.3 1,172.7
Underlying profit before tax margin 20.7% 20.6%
Corporate cash working capital change excluding collaterals 62.8 8.2
Adjustment for exceptional and pass-through items in the working capital (0.6) (0.2)
Depreciation, Impairment of PPE and amortisation 29.9 18.3
Payments for lease liabilities (6.1) (8.1)
Capitalised expenditure - Property, plant and equipment (34.5) (10.6)
Capitalised expenditure - Intangible assets (0.9) (2.4)
Underlying free cash flow (UFCF) 332.7 247.0
UFCF conversion (UFCF as a % of Underlying profit before tax) 117.9%(*) 102.1%
Adjustments to profit before tax
Interest income above the first 1% yield 443.9 364.5
Benefits paid relating to customer balances (161.2) (124.9)
Profit before tax 564.8 481.4
Free cash flow (FCF) 615.4 486.6
FCF conversion (FCF as a % of reported profit before tax) 108.9% 101.1%
*UFCF/FCF conversion is elevated in the current year due to a change in
payment terms with a key partner, which means that we will have a lower level
of receivables outstanding for them. This is expected to normalise in FY2026.
Income
2025 2024
£m £m
Revenue 1,211.9 1,052.0
Interest income on customer balances 594.3 485.2
Benefits paid relating to customer balances (161.2) (124.9)
Income 1,645.0 1,412.3
Corporate cash
The tables below show a non-IFRS view of the 'Corporate cash' metric that is
used by the Group management as a key performance indicator in assessment of
the Group's ability to generate cash and maintain liquidity. Corporate cash
represents cash and cash equivalents that are not considered customer-related
balances.
Information presented in the table below is based on the Group's internal
reporting principles and might differ from the similar information provided in
IFRS disclosures:
2025 2024
£m £m
Corporate cash at beginning of year 1,061.1 671.1
Free cash flow 615.4 486.6
Net corporate cash generated from operating activities (58.6) 33.1
Net (repayments)/proceeds from the RCF (100.0) (50.0)
Funding relating to share purchases and employee share schemes (72.6) (68.4)
Other (15.1) (11.3)
Corporate cash at end of year 1,430.2 1,061.1
2025 2024
£m £m
Breakdown of corporate and customer cash
Cash and cash equivalents and short-term financial investments 18,637.5 14,513.2
Receivables from customers and payment processors 209.6 287.7
Adjustments for:
Outstanding money transmission liabilities and other customer payables (361.2) (479.4)
Wise customer accounts (17,055.7) (13,260.4)
Corporate cash at end of year 1,430.2 1,061.1
Corporate cash includes some elements of current trade and other receivables
which are due to Wise and this includes receivables from payments processors,
as well as receivables from customers, brokers and partners and other
receivables, as disclosed in note 14, but excludes those elements which are
considered customer-related balances.
Similarly, corporate cash includes the 'Outstanding money transmission
liabilities' and the payables reported under 'Deferred revenue' and 'Other
payables' in note 16, which are not considered customer related-balances.
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