Wise stops issuing new digital cards in Ukraine

The international money transfer company Wise has announced that it will stop issuing new digital cards to clients from Ukraine. At the same time, in a letter to customers, which has already been published on Twitter, the company stated that cards already issued will continue to work.

Wise’s restrictions for Ukrainian users

The service issuing digital cards stopped being available for Ukrainians on August 12. The company called the decision temporary, but didn’t announce neither the reasons nor the terms when the service could return.

“From 12 August, we won’t be issuing new digital Wise cards in Ukraine. Unfortunately, we’ve had to temporarily stop issuing digital cards for customers with a registered address in Ukraine. This means that you won’t be able to get a new Wise digital card anymore,”

Wise says in the letter.

There are no other changes, except for new card issuing, to the Ukrainian accounts. Users from Ukraine will still be able to send, receive, and store money in different currencies.

Previously, Wise had blocked the accounts of funds helping Ukraine

Earlier this month, several charity funds helping Ukraine and Ukrainians began to report the blocking of their Wise accounts. Upon the requests to unblock them, the Wise representatives first agree to examine the situation in more detail. But later they simply block the accounts permanently, explaining that the blocking is to fulfill sanctions or some internal rules of the company.

The AIN.Capital respondents then came to the conclusion that Wise decided to no longer deal with each individual fund working in Ukraine, but simply refused to support the entire region in order not to violate its own rules. Judging by the news, it looks more and more like the truth.