Wirex’s debit card services in the European Economic Area (EEA) may stop working due to UAB PayrNet’s license being revoked by Lithuania’s central bank. The company assured its customers that their funds held in the app are safe and unaffected by the issue.
Wirex is switching to Transact Payments Malta Limited to handle its debit card services, and it is working hard with both PayrNet and Transact to resume the service as soon as possible.
Wirex has been expanding its service offerings over the past two years and claimed to have over 3 million users throughout Europe and Asia in 2020.
Background
Wirex is a multi-currency crypto payment app that features fiat on-ramps and off-ramps, as well as debit cards. It claimed in 2020 to have over 3 million users throughout Europe and Asia.
On June 22, the Bank of Lithuania announced it was revoking UAB PayrNet’s electronic money institution (EMI) license ‘for serious, systematic and multiple violations of legal acts.’ Among other accusations, the central bank claimed that PayrNet failed to properly administer Anti-Money laundering (AML) provisions to prevent its services from being used for illicit financing.
In its announcement, the Bank of Lithuania claimed that client funds are safe, saying that they are ‘safeguarded in separate dedicated accounts.’ Cointelegraph has attempted to contact UAB Payrnet through email, but has not received a response by the time of publication. Payrnet’s director, Stephenas Couttie, reportedly claimed that the central bank’s actions are ‘not adequate for the violations committed,’ according to a Google translation of text from Lithuanian news site Verslo Žinios.
Wirex stated that the cause of the problem was UAB PayrNet, not any issues within Wirex’s system.
Conclusion
Wirex’s debit card services in the EEA region may not be available until the issue is resolved with its new card provider, Transact Payments Malta Limited. Despite the inconvenience, Wirex customers can still access their funds through other means provided by the app.