Wise vs Banking Circle
Verified facts in one table - licence, EEA data residency, rails, cards and published pricing. Shared ground: IBAN sponsor, BaaS, Cross-border payments / FX. No verdict - which one fits depends on your build, and that is what the match request is for.
Banking Circle
EU coreBaaS, IBAN sponsor, Crypto / digital-asset infra · Luxembourg
The facts, side by side
Every row comes from the source-verified catalogue - blank means not documented at source, not absent. Full context on each profile.
| Wise | Banking Circle | |
|---|---|---|
| Origin | UK (UK / Belgium) | EU core (Luxembourg) |
| EEA data residency | Partial | Yes |
| Licence type | EMI | Bank |
| Status | Active | Active |
| Verified | Verified 2026-07-19 | Verified 2026-07-19 |
| Product categories | IBAN sponsor, BaaS, Cross-border payments / FX | BaaS, IBAN sponsor, Crypto / digital-asset infra, Cross-border payments / FX |
| Local IBAN country codes | BE; GB | GB; DE; LU |
| Payment rails (documented) | SCT; SCT Inst; FPS | SCT; SCT Inst; FPS; CHAPS; SWIFT |
| Account model | Dedicated | Virtual |
| Account currencies | EUR; GBP; USD | EUR; GBP; CHF; SEK; DKK |
| Published entry price | no monthly fee; FX from 0.33% | not published (sales-led) |
How to read the sovereignty rows: EEA data residency explains Yes / Partial / No, the sovereignty framework covers origin and ownership, and the card-scheme map explains why the scheme row looks the way it does. Pricing context: what is published vs negotiated.
FAQ
What licences do Wise and Banking Circle hold?
Wise operates as an e-money institution (EMI) headquartered in UK / Belgium; Banking Circle as a fully licensed bank (credit institution) headquartered in Luxembourg. Both are verified at source, and their official register entries are linked from their profiles.
Do Wise and Banking Circle keep data in the EEA?
Wise is EEA: Partial - a non-EEA leg is named on its profile. Banking Circle runs fully on EEA data rails (EEA: Yes). What Yes / Partial / No mean - and why an EEA data centre alone is not the whole answer - is explained in the EEA data residency guide.