I’m pretty sure there wasn’t an option to use my Canadian debit card, but maybe I’ll try again. Thanks.

The general principle is that "everyone is in this together", whether customers, trade suppliers, unsecured lenders (a secured lender is an example of an exception to the "everyone is in this together" principle), landlords, and pretty much anyone else who might be owed money, or has paid for goods or services that they haven't yet received, is given an equal percentage share of whatever funds the liquidator can recover from sale of assets, recovery of debts, litigation, and the contents of any bank accounts.So while undoubtedly you are correct in that the money is in [b]a[b] bank account, the critical issue is that the money isn't in [b]your[b] bank account - the bank account belongs to Transferwise. So if Transferwise goes bust all its business activities are frozen, then the funds in their (Transferwise's) bank accounts, along with the proceeds of the sale of any property, vehicles, equipment, investments, net proceeds of litigation, etc. would be shared out between all creditors, including people with money in "borderless accounts".

The only other exception I know of to what I described above, are the "client accounts" of professional services firms such as solicitors and accountants. When a bank opens a client account for a professional firm it is designation as containing funds held in trust for their clients. If the professional goes bust then the contents of the client account are ring-fenced and not available for other creditors to claim against. I will concede that it is possible that Transferwise has a similar "client account" arrangement with their banks, but I am very doubtful that would be the case. And I say this not least because central banks don't like non-banks operating banking like activities, which is why other businesses, such as M&S, Sainsbury's, and Tesco always have to partner with a bank to offer banking services, such as current and savings accounts.