Having conducted a targeted inspection of the electronic money institution Via Payments UAB, the Supervision Service of the Bank of Lithuania has identified some breaches of the Republic of Lithuania Law on the Prevention of Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing. Therefore, the Bank of Lithuania imposed a fine on the institution and obligated it to remedy the identified deficiencies. The company stated that all deficiencies were eliminated.
The inspection revealed that the customer risk assessment procedures applied by the institution did not allow ensuring proper allocation of customers into risk groups. Not in all cases the customer’s beneficiary’s information was checked in reliable and independent sources. There have been cases where information about the purpose and nature of the customer’s business relationship was not received. In addition, shortcomings have been found in procedures to determine whether the customer is a politically exposed person . The institution did not take the appropriate measures to identify the source of the funds of high-risk customers. Deficiencies were also found in the mandatory ongoing monitoring of business relationships and transactions.
The Bank of Lithuania imposed on Via Payments UAB a €120,000 fine. The institution informed the Supervision Service that it had already taken measures to strengthen its AML compliance by increasing the number of specialists working in this particular field and improving technological solutions.
Failed to meet the equity capital requirement
In analysing the activities of electronic money institutions, the Supervision Service of the Bank of Lithuania recorded that Via Payments UAB violated legal acts, because according to the data of 31 March 2020 it failed to meet the equity capital requirement. Since the institution has eliminated the indicated shortcomings without further delay, no interests of their clients have been violated. In view of the above, the Bank of Lithuania decided to impose a mild enforcement measure by making these infringements public.
Via Payments UAB holds an electronic money institution licence, issued on 10 October 2017.
