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UAB Best Finance has been temporarily prohibited from providing services to customers from outside the European Economic Area (EEA), according to the Baltic financial supervisor.
During an unscheduled inspection of UAB Best Finance, the Bank of Lithuania found that the payments institution was providing services to clients based in high-risk countries.
The Bank of Lithuania uncovered deficiencies in its internal control procedures related to client identification and insufficient transaction monitoring. The regulator also found that the institution did not ensure proper implementation of international financial sanctions and restrictive measures.
“Taking into account the violations and shortcomings, the Bank of Lithuania temporarily prohibited UAB Best Finance from providing payment services to customers who do not reside in the European Economic Area or are not citizens of its countries,” the regulator’s Financial Market Supervision Committee (FMSC) concluded.
In a separate action, the licence of a management company called Dovre Forvaltning was also revoked. The FMSC said its decision was based on the firm currently not having managers and investment decision-makers who meet the established requirements of “reputation, qualification and work experience”.
These decisions are reflective of an exclusive interview VIXIO conducted with the Bank of Lithuania last week, where the financial market development chief told us that the country is adapting to its maturity as a market and focusing on quality and business culture. This follows several years of fast expansion, particularly in terms of growth of payments and e-money institutions.
“We are aware of the risks that come with expansion, and with quantity, quality needs to follow. We must face the mirror and see where we can make improvements,” he said.
Recently, the regulator has fined NIUM EU, an e-money institution, for improperly storing customer funds and providing incorrect information, and in March this year, the committee revoked the licence of another e-money institution called TRUSTCOM, determining that senior staff at the company may have organised money laundering.
