Malta’s financial regulator FIAU has ordered the island’s subsidiary of Swiss money transfer company Sendvalu to pay €502,000 ($591,000) for failing to comply with money laundering laws.
The Financial Intelligences Analysis Unit (FIAU) found there had been seven breaches of the Prevention of Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing Act related to due diligence and a lack of information on customer files.
In 84% of the cases sampled, Sendvalu had failed to collect adequate information on the purpose and intended nature of the business relationship, as required to establish an adequate customer business and risk profile, the Malta Today newspaper reported.
“Many of the failures have been considered by the committee as serious and systemic, which seriousness is compounded when taking into consideration the high-risk business model of the company’s operations, the jurisdictions to where the funds were being remitted, the inadequacy in establishing a concrete customer profile and in view of several transactions processed without the appropriate levels of inquiry, probing and scrutiny,” the FIAU said.
The jurisdictions mentioned in Malta Today’s report were India, Sri Lanka and the Philippines.
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