Over AML Failings, Lithuania Revokes Transactive Systems UAB’s License

The Bank of Lithuania took away Transactive Systems UAB’s license as an electronic money institution and fined the payments company €280,000 for breaking anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing rules in a “serious and systematic” way.

Transactive Systems UAB, which is a branch of Transactive Systems Ltd, which is controlled by the FCA in the UK, has been told it can’t offer financial services anymore. The company has five business days to let customers know about the loss of license and return any money to them through accounts held with another provider.

Transactive Systems UAB failed in a number of ways: it didn’t do a good job of identifying clients, their representatives, and beneficiaries; it let anonymous accounts be opened; it didn’t do a good job of keeping track of business relationships and transactions; and it didn’t have any controls to find cases of terrorist financing.

The central bank says it got “many complaints and questions” about the company from Lithuanians and from the financial market watchdogs of different EU Member States. The bank had already limited the company’s operations back in January.

Transactive Systems UOB was a big player on the Lithuanian market. In 2022, it made €13.1 billion in sales, which put it in second place among electronic money and payment companies in the country. Audited records show that its operating income was close to €4 million.