Financial Supervisory Authority of Norway concludes Ski-VM Trondheim 2025 offered payment services without authorisation and opts against police report

The Financial Supervisory Authority of Norway has sent a letter to Ski-VM Trondheim 2025 AS concluding that the event organiser provided a regulated payment service without the required authorisation. The case concerns payments collected from customers buying local food that were subsequently to be forwarded to the individual sellers, and Finanstilsynet decided not to report the matter to the police following a specific assessment. The arrangement required all sales to be processed through payment terminals distributed by Ski-VM, with the full sales proceeds credited to Ski-VM’s operating account and later paid out to the vendors net of an agreed commission. Finanstilsynet assessed this as money remittance, meaning the receipt and transfer of funds without a payment account arrangement, which triggers an authorisation requirement and safeguarding obligations for customer funds. Agreements with CoreGo, BankAxept and Verifone did not change the assessment, and Verifone’s licence was considered sufficient to execute the card payment into Ski-VM’s account but not to cover Ski-VM’s holding of funds and onward transfers to vendors. Finanstilsynet also noted indications that similar payment solutions have been used at other events and will contact the Norwegian Olympic and Paralympic Committee and Confederation of Sports to discuss how to avoid unlawful practices going forward. It warned that a police report may be an expected response if unlicensed payment services are identified at other organisers.