Trustly hit with SEK130m fine over AML failings
Payment provider feels wrath of Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority amid moves to beef up in-house compliance teams
Trustly has been slapped with a SEK130m (£10.3m) fine over significant anti-money laundering (AML) failings by the Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority (SFSA).
The payments provider was found to have failed to adhere to AML regulations by not treating its end users as customers in accordance with the Swedish AML Act.
Trustly had previously interpreted the fact the consumers who pay via Trustly are not Trustly customers, but are customers of the merchants (operators) which are using the Trustly service.
The investigation was centred around Trustly’s relationship with the gambling industry, which the SFSA noted was a sector associated with a high risk of money laundering and terrorist financing.
The investigation found that Trustly had failed to comply with core parts of Swedish AML regulatory frameworks.
According to the SFSA, Trustly “demonstrated deficiencies in its risk assessment of customers, procedures and guidelines for customer due diligence, customer due diligence measures and its monitoring of customers”.
The SFSA said: “The deficiencies have primarily applied to an industry that is associated with a high risk of money laundering and terrorist financing, and through Trustly’s role in the payment chain, the company has taken a position that can almost be described as a hub between the banks and the gambling companies.
“Therefore, there has been a considerable risk that it has been possible to use Trustly and the financial system for money laundering and terrorist financing. Finansinspektionen makes the overall assessment that the deficiencies have been of such a nature that there are grounds on which to intervene against Trustly,” the regulatory body added.
Johan Tjärnberg, Trustly CEO, said: “It is good that we now have clarity on the issue of who the SFSA believes we should treat as a customer.
“Trustly will always strive to fully comply with both the applicable regulatory framework and our own high standards, and takes the SFSA’s decision very seriously,” he added.
Trustly also noted it had taken measures to improve its in-house compliance and regulation teams.
The firm has appointed Josefin Lindstrand as a board member and chair of the group’s global risk committee, hired Rob Thacker as compliance and risk officer, and Johanna Vikström as head of compliance Europe.
Last week, Trustly announced 120 redundancies and a series of C-level departures as part of a restructuring process for the Swedish firm.