I just transferred some cash from UK -> Europe and whatd'ya konw? There is indeed a hook to the bank, but I am pretty convinced that it is just the legit, real, EU (& UK) wide open banking that Wise have implemented for most of the popular UK banks, mainly because I was on the First Direct (my bank) site the entire time once I clicked through, and I still had to authenticate properly with the app for anything to actually happen.