Contis slapped with $840K fine over AML violations

In enforcing the penalty, the Lithuanian central bank accuses Contis of failing to establish adequate AML provisioning to electronic money distributors, delegating the responsibilities for sanctions screening to partner institutions but failing to ensure these duties were properly carried out.

The Bank additionally notes that Contis’ procedures for identifying money laundering and terrorist financing risks had significant gaps.

“The implemented scenarios were not enough to identify unusual activities of the client in a timely manner, and not enough human resources were allocated to carry out monitoring,” the central bank says.

The firm was also criticised for lax business continuity preparations.

Contis has been ordered to recttify its system by April next year and in the meantime has been barred from from forging new business relationships with distributors and intermediaries.

UK-based Contis was acquired by German Banking-as-a-Service platform Solaris in January 2022.