Revolut has been slapped with a €3.5m fine after failing to root out money laundering taking place on its app, according to European officials.
The leading fintech’s compliance headaches have been well-documented. A recent BBC Panorama report identified Revolut as the UK bank with the most fraud cases in October, with one customer losing £165k in an hour.
Since 2021, Revolut has held a European Union banking licence via its base in Lithuania. As a result, the Bank of Lithuania jointly regulates the company’s activities in the region alongside the European Central Bank.
On Tuesday, the Bank of Lithuania said it had fined Revolut €3.5m over “violations and shortcomings in the monitoring of business relationships and [transactions]”.
The watchdog said these issues “resulted in the bank not always properly identifying suspicious monetary operations or transactions carried out by customers”.
Fast-growing challenger banks have long struggled to implement anti-fraud measures quick enough to keep up with their ballooning number of customers. Experts have warned the fraud issue is likely to get worse as fraudsters become more sophisticated in their approach.
While Lithuanian law permits fines for anti-money laundering failures of up to a maximum of 10% of annual gross income, however, Revout’s €3.5m fine represents less than 1% of the company’s revenue.
A company spokesperson said: “Revolut Bank UAB is committed to the highest standards of regulatory compliance and cooperated with the Bank of Lithuania in taking immediate action to address the procedural deficiencies.
“We continue to invest to ensure we have best in class controls in the fight against financial crime.”
#Revolut #fined #3.5m #antimoney #laundering #issues