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Payment institution Flywire and e-money institution Secure Nordic Payments, which operates as Mistertango, have been fined by Lithuania’s financial services authority over regulatory shortcomings.
The fines represent a return to strict enforcement activity by the Bank of Lithuania over the sizeable fintech industry it oversees, after a quieter enforcement period in the first quarter of the year.
Flywire failed to comply with equity capital requirements in the third and fourth quarters of 2023, the regulator said, fining the company €40,000. It said the company is now compliant.
Flywire, which is headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts, had not responded to requests for comment by the time of publication.
Secure Nordic Payments, which appears to operate under the trading name Mistertango, was fined €210,000 and ordered to cease regulatory violations by June 1, 2024.
The Bank of Lithuania found that the Vilnius-based company had failed to ensure reliable and effective money laundering prevention controls.
Secure Nordic Payments also failed to comply with requirements to determine the identity of clients and beneficiaries, and did not ensure monitoring of clients' business relationships and transactions.
Further, the company did not comply with equity capital requirements, did not allocate and protect client funds, provided incorrect information to the Bank of Lithuania, and failed to submit reports for supervision on time.
As well as the fine, the regulator temporarily barred Secure Nordic Payments from entering into new business relationships with clients with a higher risk of money laundering and terrorist financing and legal entities whose activities are related to financial services, gambling and crypto-assets.
This is not the first time that the institution has got into trouble with the regulator. It was fined in 2020 for failing to execute payment transactions properly, and in 2019 for failing to comply with money laundering rules.
