Lithuania fines Revolut 3.5 million euros for money-laundering prevention failures

VILNIUS (Reuters) - Lithuania’s central bank has fined Britain’s most valuable start-up, Revolut 3.5 million euros ($3.83 million) for failures in money-laundering prevention, the bank said on Monday.

 

The British fintech company, which is headquartered in London, is operating in the European Union under a Lithuanian licence and is under the supervision of the European and Lithuanian central banks.

 

The fine followed a routine inspection that identified "violations and shortcomings in the monitoring of business relationships and operations", the central bank said in a statement.

 

"They led to (Revolut) not always properly identifying suspicious monetary operations or transactions", it added, without further detail.

 

Revolut said the investigation had not identified any confirmed instances of money laundering, and its findings were related to improvements in existing controls.

 

"Revolut Bank is committed to the highest standards of regulatory compliance, and cooperated with the (Lithuanian central bank) in taking immediate action to address the procedural deficiencies," its spokesperson said in a statement.

 

Revolut has signed a settlement with the central bank and taken steps to resolve shortcomings, the bank said.

 

The fine is the largest ever issued by the Lithuanian central bank and has been set according to the severity of the violation and the revenues of Revolut Holdings Europe, it added, the holding company for Revolut’s regulated operations in the European Economic Area.

 

Revolut has been valued at $45 billion through a secondary share sale to new and existing investors, the financial technology firm said in August, making it worth more than some of Europe’s biggest banks.

 

It made a record pretax profit of 438 million pounds ($559.5 million) in 2023.

 

($1 = 0.9147 euros)

($1 = 0.7828 pounds)

 

(Reporting by Andrius Sytas in Vilnius; Editing by Jan Harvey)