The Bank of Lithuania has revoked the electronic money institution licence of PAYTEND EUROPE, UAB following an inspection that found serious and systematic violations in business relationship and transaction monitoring, money laundering and terrorist financing risk management, and the internal control system. As of 3 March, the institution may no longer provide any financial services and must inform customers within five business days about the procedure for settling with them. The inspection found that PAYTEND EUROPE’s monitoring measures were insufficient to identify suspicious customer activity, with deficiencies spanning internal control procedures, allocation of employee responsibilities and monitoring practices. Alerts indicating potentially suspicious activity were not consistently analysed in a timely and thorough manner, internal investigations were conducted only formally or left incomplete, and suspicious transaction reports were not submitted to the Financial Crime Investigation Service despite escalation indicators. Broader shortcomings included ineffective internal control procedures, unclear distribution of functions, insufficient resources, inadequate conflict of interest management and a failure to separate control functions from business interests. The institution also provided incorrect information to the Bank of Lithuania about a business relationship with a high-risk customer, failed to retain and submit related correspondence, and did not approve and submit its audited 2024 annual financial statements and other mandatory documents and supervisory reports within the required deadlines. Customers holding funds in accounts opened with PAYTEND EUROPE must apply directly to the institution for their return, with funds to be transferred to another financial institution account specified by the customer.
Bank of Lithuania 2026-03-06
Bank of Lithuania revokes PAYTEND EUROPE electronic money institution licence over serious and systematic AML control failures
The Bank of Lithuania revoked PAYTEND EUROPE's electronic money institution licence due to serious violations in transaction monitoring, money laundering risk management, and internal controls. PAYTEND EUROPE must cease financial services and inform customers about settlement procedures. The inspection revealed inadequate monitoring, incomplete investigations, failure to report suspicious activities, and broader internal control deficiencies.