The Finnish Financial Supervisory Authority (FIN-FSA) published a thematic review on de-risking based on a March 2025 survey of 10 deposit banks operating in Finland, covering both legal-person and private-person customer relationships. While banks generally appear to be following earlier FIN-FSA recommendations, the review identifies signs of de-risking in legal-person relationships and highlights gaps in banks’ ability to evidence decisions and monitor access to services. For legal persons, the rejection rate for account applications increased, with around 11% of applications rejected in 2024, mostly for reasons other than anti-money laundering (AML) legislation, and terminations of account relationships also rose, with approximately half linked to AML obligations. For private persons, rejections remained low at about 0.8% in 2024, while terminations increased, including closures due to non-use. The FIN-FSA found shortcomings in banks’ statistics and documentation on rejected and terminated relationships and recommended that banks introduce procedures to compile statistics on rejections and terminations and their reasons, split by private persons and by legal-person form of association, including the share attributable to AML regulation. The review also notes limited monitoring of payment-account application processing times and recommends that banks apply the 10 banking day processing period used for basic payment accounts to all payment-account applications from private persons where the account concerns the customer’s primary banking relationship, and that banks monitor and compile statistics on processing times. In addition, the FIN-FSA recommends assessing the impact of risk management measures on financial inclusion within the firm’s money laundering and terrorist financing risk assessment. The FIN-FSA will continue supervising banks where operating practices were found to be inadequate and will monitor the appropriateness and reasonableness of customer due diligence procedures and the practical application of the risk-based approach.
Finanssivalvonta 2025-09-29
Finland’s Financial Supervisory Authority finds rising rejections and terminations for legal-person accounts and issues de-risking recommendations to banks
The Finnish Financial Supervisory Authority (FIN-FSA) released a review on de-risking, noting increased rejection rates for legal-person account applications and terminations due to anti-money laundering (AML) obligations. It identifies gaps in banks' documentation and monitoring, recommending better statistics compilation and adherence to processing timelines. FIN-FSA will continue supervising banks with inadequate practices and assess risk management's impact on financial inclusion.