Court slashes FIAU fine for firm at risk of losing licence

A payment service provider at risk of losing its MFSA licence has had a €156,000 fine for anti-money laundering failures slashed by a court of appeal. Corporate & Commercial FX Services Limited had its licence withdrawn by the financial services watchdog (MFSA) in August 2020. The withdrawal of its licence will only formally come into effect once an appeal filed by the company before the financial services tribunal has been decided. In a separate court appeal over the FIAU fine, the court confirmed the anti-money laundering watchdog’s findings of inadequate internal controls by the company but slashed the fine imposed on it to €31,000 as the original sanction was deemed to be “too high”. Court appeals against fines imposed by the secretive anti-money laundering unit are conducted behind closed doors, and the final judgement is never published by the court. In a public notice, the FIAU said a 2018 review of the company’s operations found it was failing to assess the money-laundering risks posed by its clients before taking them on board. While the company was not named by the FIAU, court registry documents show the appeal in question was filed by Corporate & Commercial FX...