Customers of a payment card issued by a financial entity in Gżira that was searched by police in connection with alleged money laundering say they have been unable to access their funds for several months.

A number of Blackcatcard customers told Times of Malta they have been unable to make bank transfers using the SEPA network – a system for transferring funds between European bank accounts – since at least February.

The card is issued by Papaya Ltd, a company that hit the headlines, also in February, after it emerged the firm was the focal point of a large-scale investigation into an alleged “Russian-Eurasian criminal network”.

Papaya Ltd insists SEPA services are available, with a “significant fraction” of Blackcatcard customers able to make such transfers.

Blackcatcard customers who spoke to Times of Malta on condition of anonymity said they have been unable to withdraw funds since around the time of the investigation

In February, Times of Malta revealed police had carried out searches of the financial entity as part of an international investigation into alleged money laundering.

In a statement at the time, the company said the investigation reported in the media – which it said focused on some of its clients and not the company – did “not affect Papaya’s business”, stressing its operations were continuing as normal.

But, according to its customers, this is not the case; Blackcatcard account holders say they have been unable to make Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) for months.

They also say they have been left without an International Bank Account Number (IBAN), leaving them unable to transfer money to other bank accounts using alternative methods.

'Nothing working properly over the last months'

Blackcatcard customers who spoke to Times of Malta on condition of anonymity said they have been unable to withdraw funds since around the time of the investigation, with one saying he had “no way to get it [the funds] back; SEPA is impossible now.”

Another customer said he is a business customer of Blackcatcard, and the lack of bank transfer functionality had left his company “unable to transfer money, pay online with card or withdraw from an ATM [cash machine],” adding he had been waiting almost 40 days for the delivery of a new card from the company.

“Our company has a pretty big sum on the account, I am very nervous already. Nothing is working properly in this institution over the last months.”

He and others said they had been told by Papaya it had recently partnered with UK-based company Tompay to restore SEPA payments and was rolling out IBANs to customers “in batches”.

But despite the promise, they have still not received an IBAN.

“We were assured more than a month ago by phone from Papaya we will be in the first batch in connecting to new IBANs, but still nothing. Hours spent on [customer support] chat, but in vain,” the customer said.

One corporate service provider said his client had been attempting “incessantly” to retrieve his funds and had also been left without an IBAN number after being promised one “weeks ago”.

Blasting Papaya and Blackcatcard for “tarnishing Malta’s reputation,” he said the shareholders of his client’s company were becoming concerned over the lack of clarity.

Meanwhile, a look at the company’s support channel on Telegram – which one customer said had recently been closed to new comments – reveals a host of ongoing complaints about the issue stretching back to February.

Responding to questions, Papaya said it had onboarded a SEPA provider in January to provide customers with SEPA Instant transfers, with the new provider’s “embedment into the Blackcatcard ecosystem up and running as planned”.

SEPA Instant is a quicker way of making SEPA payments introduced across the bloc in March following the adoption of a European Council regulation in February.

It said that while a “significant fraction” of its customers were able to “enjoy their SEPA services as usual”, the company was rolling out the feature “in batches” due to the number of customers needing to be reconnected to the system.

“The exact timeline for the complete restoration of SEPA functionality for every single client is hard to pin down... But rest assured, we are tirelessly working to speed up the process and to ensure that every client is reconnected to SEPA as swiftly as possible,” it said.

The company said it was “not aware of the clients’ personas you are mentioning in your inquiry”, stressing its clients had “unrestricted access to their funds all the time”.

It added that Papaya “has not ever had any accusations against its operations, ownership, management, or employees” and that it maintained a “strong working relationship” with Maltese and European authorities.

The company reiterated that the investigation reported in the media did “not impact the functionality of the organisation or its services in any way” and said it had “no intentions of withdrawing from the Blackcatcard ecosystem”.

When contacted, Tompay told Times of Malta it did “not comment on our relationships with clients, partners, service provi­ders, and financial institutions”.