Wise finance boss to step down next year to recover from accident

Money transfer firm Wise has said its chief financial officer will step down by next March to focus on recovering from a bike accident last year.

Matthew Briers, who has has held the role for nearly eight years, returned to work last May after the accident in February 2022.

He said he now wants to concentrate on making a “full recovery”.

Mr Briers said: “Some of you may know that a year ago I returned back to work at Wise after a quite horrible accident where I went under the wheels of a bus, and so, with this in mind, my focus will shift to making a full recovery.

“To support an orderly transition, I plan to remain as chief financial officer (CFO) into the new year.

“In this period we’ll be working out the transition and will keep folks updated once we have news to share.”

It comes less than two weeks after Wise co-founder and chief executive Kristo Kaarmann announced plans to take a three-month sabbatical to spend time with family and look after his newborn son.

Mr Kaarmann will take the leave from September to December this year, during which Wise’s chief technology officer, Harsh Sinha, will step into his shoes.

He said at the time of revealing the sabbatical plans that he was “overdue” the time off after starting the London-listed business 12 years ago.

Mr Kaarmann paid tribute to Mr Briers, who he said “joined us at the time when only around 500,000 people had used Wise and we were losing money” and has since “helped us scale up into a global service”.

He said: “I will always be grateful that Matt decided to jump on and build this rocket ship with us. His contributions will continue to shape Wise for years to come.”

Wise chairman David Wells said: “I benefited from watching Matt work at close quarters, and wish him a full and fast recovery from his accident last year.

“I will also be working closely with him and the rest of the team, and board as we commence our search for a new CFO.”

Formerly called TransferWise, the fintech company operates money transfers and debit cards.

It was founded in 2011 by Mr Kaarmann and Taavet Hinrikus, and now counts more than 16 million customers, processing on average £9 billion in cross-border transactions every month.

Shares in the group fell 4% on Monday morning after the CFO announcement.

Analysts at Jefferies said the departure of Wise’s CFO and boss Mr Kaarmann’s sabbatical “point to unfortunate timing given Wise is facing some challenging times ahead”, with the group’s share price performance lagging behind the wider fintech and payments sector.

But they said the management changes could potentially lead to a more permanent shift at the top if Mr Kaarmann decided to take on a “broader role to drive the business” following his sabbatical.

“While management changes amidst slowing momentum are unfortunate, we see it as an opportunity over the medium-term for Wise shares,” they added.