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US remittance firm Sendwave and UK-based Wise have stopped cash transfer services for the majority of their Kenyan users from August, joining a growing list of global payment platforms pulling back from the East African market over money laundering compliance costs.
Sendwave, which allows customers to hold multi-currency digital wallets through its mobile app for cross-border transfers, told users it was experiencing "technical difficulties" that had made wallet services unavailable in Kenya. In an email to a Kenyan customer seen by the Business Daily, the company said it was "unsure" how long the fix would take and advised users to withdraw their cash balances. The company still lists Kenya among the African countries it serves on its website, and it did not respond to the Business Daily's queries on the matter.
Wise users have reported a similar pattern beginning in July, with the company notifying affected customers that their accounts would be fully closed by October 3. Wise lets Kenyans receive money from holders of US dollar, euro and British pound accounts abroad directly into local shilling bank accounts and M-Pesa wallets. "We've restricted your account and will close it on October 3," the firm told one user by email. "You can no longer send and receive money, or use your card."
Part of a Wider Pullback
The two firms are not acting in isolation. They join Hurupay, a US-based digital payments company that offered virtual dollar, euro and sterling accounts and let users convert funds into stablecoins, which exited the Kenyan market in July after telling customers it no longer supported USD banking services locally. Hurupay also dropped Nigeria from its list of served African countries and did not disclose its reasons for the withdrawal, though the exit followed regulators tightening anti-money laundering audits and introducing FATF-driven licensing requirements for virtual asset providers. The company had said in March that it processed more than $50 million in payments across Africa since January 2025.
Weeks earlier, PayPal froze funds and restricted an unknown number of Kenyan accounts, demanding that users receiving international payments produce work contracts, bank statements and proof of a physical residential address. Accounts left non-compliant for more than six months face permanent deactivation, and PayPal has told users it may hold balances for up to 180 days to cover potential chargebacks before releasing funds. The restrictions hit freelancers, online sellers, start-ups and creative workers hardest, since PayPal is the preferred payment rail for many Kenyans billing clients abroad. Some users have also reported failed transfers on virtual card issuer Chipper Cash since July, according to the Business Daily.
Grey Listing Drives Up Compliance Costs
The common thread across these exits is Kenya's continued presence on the Financial Action Task Force's list of jurisdictions under increased monitoring, commonly known as the grey list. FATF placed Kenya on the list in February 2024 over structural gaps in its anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing framework, and as of the FATF's June 2026 plenary statement, Kenya remained among 22 jurisdictions still listed, alongside countries including Angola, Bulgaria, Venezuela and Vietnam. Grey-list status is not a sanction, but it obliges banks and payment firms to apply enhanced due diligence to transactions linked to the country, which raises compliance costs and prompts some smaller or mid-sized platforms to withdraw rather than build out the monitoring infrastructure required to stay.
Kenyan authorities have been pushing to exit the list. National Treasury Principal Secretary Chris Kiptoo has chaired strategic review meetings with agencies including the Financial Reporting Centre, the Directorate of Criminal Investigations and the Asset Recovery Agency to assess progress under FATF's action plan, citing the enactment of the Anti-Money Laundering and Combating of Terrorism Financing Laws (Amendment) Act, 2025, and the Virtual Asset Service Providers Act, 2025, as key reforms. The government had targeted a possible delisting by May 2026, a date that has since passed without removal, and officials met again in July ahead of further engagement with the FATF Africa Joint Group, which evaluates the country's progress before making recommendations on its status.
Money Laundering Cases Add to Scrutiny
The pullback has coincided with several high-profile financial crime cases moving through Kenyan courts. Last month, Sendwave was cited as one of the platforms used to wire cash from the United States in a Sh300 million money laundering case involving local bank accounts and cryptocurrency networks, with detectives requesting international transaction data from US authorities to trace the funds' origin. Separately, a Kenyan court froze more than $2 million in USDT held in a Binance wallet in a case investigators say involved digital assets moved through crypto platforms before being converted or routed through conventional banking channels to obscure their source.
For everyday users, the practical effect has been the same regardless of which platform is involved: delayed access to earned income, unclear timelines for restoration of service, and a narrowing set of options for receiving payments from abroad. Freelancers who once relied on PayPal, Sendwave or Hurupay to receive client payments are increasingly experimenting with direct stablecoin wallets and peer-to-peer crypto transfers, platforms that fall outside the traditional banking rails now facing the heaviest compliance pressure, even as Kenyan regulators move to bring virtual asset providers under similar scrutiny through the newly enacted VASP Act.
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