Wise plc

For H1 FY26, Wise reported underlying income growth of 16% to GBP 750 million, cross-border volume up 24% year on year to GBP 85 billion, and customer holdings above GBP 25 billion. Personal customers grew 18% to 12.8 million, business customers grew 17% to 613,000, and card spend exceeded GBP 15 billion, generating GBP 132 million of revenue, up 28% year on year. The cross-border take rate fell 10 basis points year on year to 52 basis points, while management said underlying profit before tax was at the top of the 13% to 16% target range; including interest income beyond the first 1%, profit before tax was GBP 255 million. For FY26, Wise reiterated constant-currency underlying income growth of 15% to 20% and underlying PBT of around 16%, excluding a one-off dual-listing expense of circa GBP 25 million to GBP 35 million.

Kristo Kaarmann framed the quarter as evidence that Wise is scaling its network while lowering prices and improving the product. He emphasized that about 70% of customers discover Wise through word of mouth and said the company is using infrastructure, service quality, and advertising to amplify that effect. His tone was confident and expansionary, repeatedly stressing that the company is still early in building a business meant to move trillions.

Emmanuel Thomassin highlighted execution across customer growth, volume, revenue mix, and investment discipline. He cited servicing investment of GBP 134 million, marketing and sales investment of GBP 57 million, tech and development spend of GBP 144 million, and corporate function/infrastructure spend of GBP 131 million, while noting 1,000+ hires in H1 and an expected administrative expense of around GBP 1 billion for the full year. He also said non-cross-border revenue is now 41% of underlying income, customer holdings are above GBP 25 billion, and the company has already repurchased half of the 25 million incremental shares placed into the Employee Benefit Trust.

Analysts focused on Wise Platform momentum, the impact of price cuts, margin math, instant payments, hiring, and stablecoins. Management said platform volumes are rising both from newer logos and from earlier partners ramping over time, and reiterated the path to 10% of cross-border volume in the medium term; on stablecoins, Kristo said Wise’s advantage is its existing regulated on- and off-ramps and local payment connectivity, though the company is being deliberate and not betting on one payment scheme. On pricing and margins, management said price cuts are a long-term strategy, take rate declines are mainly deliberate pricing actions with some mix shift, and they expect FY26 margins around 16% excluding the one-off dual-listing cost.