Payment firm fined over €240,000 for anti-money laundering breaches

A payment firm has been fined €240,000 for failures in its anti-money laundering policies.

C2D Payment Solutions, an online payment platform, was found by the FIAU to have accepted cash deposits from clients, without doing the necessary anti-money laundering checks.

Up until late 2022, the company did not gather essential information such as customers’ employment status, income, or expected account activity.

This lack of due diligence was found in nearly half of the client files reviewed, the FIAU said.

It highlighted how, in one instance, C2D Payment Solutions failed to collect any information about a client’s source of wealth, occupation or income, despite the client depositing €200,000 in cash between 2021 and 2023.

In another example, the FIAU said the owner of a car dealership deposited €240,000 over a six-month period without C2D Payment Solutions verifying his income.

On a positive note, the FIAU said C2D Payment Solutions embarked on a review of all its active customers following December 2022.

Subsequently, it collected sufficient information about its customers in 44% of the files reviewed, the FIAU said. The FIAU said C2D Payment Solutions proactively blocked the account of customers until additional documentation on their source of wealth was provided.

Notwithstanding this, the delay in initiating the request for necessary information, coupled with further delays in updating customer records and taking additional action when no information was provided, meant the company failed to establish a timely comprehensive overview of its customers in 92% of the cases examined, the FIAU said.

Despite these failures, the FIAU acknowledged the company’s cooperation throughout the process and its ongoing efforts to improve its anti-money laundering systems.

The FIAU said C2D has voluntarily initiated remediation measures and has been providing the FIAU with updates on its progress.