German online bank with worldwide offices fined €4.25m
Berlin-headquartered bank N26 has been fined €4.25m by the
German financial services regulator for weak anti-money laundering practices.
The fine from the Federal Financial Supervisory Authority
(BaFin) was imposed because of the delayed submission of less than 50
suspicious activity reports in the area of anti-money laundering, relating
exclusively to the years 2019 and 2020.
Currently, N26 has more than seven million customers in 25
markets. The company employs more than 1.500 employees across eight office
locations: Berlin, Barcelona, Madrid, Milan, Paris, Vienna, New York and São
Paulo.
With the growing importance of e-commerce, we have taken
numerous detailed measures and have also established structures and processes
that meet the highest standards of financial crime prevention."
The fine, only now (28 September) made public, was already
paid in full by N26 Bank on 14 July 14, 2021, and all related proceedings have
been closed.
All measures to improve reports of suspicious activities had
been implemented earlier this year, the bank said.
"N26 takes its responsibility in the fight against the
growing threat of global financial crime, and in the prevention of money
laundering, very seriously. With the growing importance of e-commerce, we have
taken numerous detailed measures and have also established structures and
processes that meet the highest standards of financial crime prevention to
address this pertinent global threat.
As always, N26 will continue to invest in maintaining and
improving these standards to set us up well for the future, working in close
collaboration with the responsible regulatory, financial and investigating
authorities."
Valentin Stalf and Maximilian Tayenthal founded N26 in 2013
and launched the initial product in early 2015.
Comments
Post a Comment