2021-09-21
The Board of the Bank of Lithuania imposed enforcement measures on Medicinos bankas, UAB for violations of anti-money laundering obligations, approved the maximum price for the basic payment account package for 2022 and issued a full licence to OPAY Solutions, UAB.
A warning, a fine and an obligation for Medicinos bankas, UAB
At the end of last year, the Bank of Lithuania carried out a planned targeted inspection of the activities of Medicinos bankas, UAB, during which it assessed whether the credit institution complied with the requirements for anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing.
It was established during the inspection that the bank had inadequately assessed business-wide and individual money laundering and terrorist financing risks, failed to ensure proper implementation of the continuous customer payment transaction monitoring process and the enforcement of enhanced customer due diligence requirements. There were also deficiencies found in the process of identifying politically exposed persons.
Furthermore, the internal control measures and procedures did not ensure proper implementation of requirements for international financial sanctions and restrictive measures.
Already during the inspection, Medicinos bankas, UAB took actions to remove deficiencies and violations identified.
After assessing the results of the inspection and in light of the context, the Board of the Bank of Lithuania issued a warning, imposed a €300,000 fine and obliged the bank to remove all violations and deficiencies identified by 31 December 2021.
Notification published on NASDAQ stock exchange
Information on enforcement measures applied by the Bank of Lithuania, complaints regarding the applied enforcement measures, and settlement results is available here.
A decision taken on the basic payment account package
The Board of the Bank of Lithuania has approved the maximum price for the basic payment account package for 2022.
As this year, banks and credit unions will have to ensure that all basic payment services are offered for no more than €1.45 per month, and €0.72 for social benefit receivers.
The maximum price was established in line with the methodology approved by the Bank of Lithuania and will be valid from 1 January 2022 to 31 December 2022.
The composition of the basic payment account also remains unchanged for 2022.
Consumers can freely choose whether to use basic payment account package or other payment services package offered by banks and credit unions.
The basic payment account package approved by the Bank of Lithuania currently includes the following basic payment services, which would be provided monthly at no additional costs:
- opening and management of an account;
- e-banking, a secure means of logging into and managing an account (a code generator, special app, etc);
- incoming payments in euro;
- depositing of cash using a method selected by a credit institution;
- payment card and payments using a card at points of sale and online;
- no less than 10 online transfers of any kind in euro per month, including instant payments, utility and bill payments, e-invoice payments, transfers within an institution and to other payment service providers, direct debit transactions;
- cash withdrawals - no less than €550 per month within the bank’s ATM network or in the manner selected by a credit union.
A full licence issued
OPAY Solutions, UAB, holding a payment institution licence for restricted activity in Lithuania since 2012 and providing money remittance services, from now on will be able to widen the range of its payment services.
The Board of the Bank of Lithuania granted the request of the institution to issue a full payment institution licence authorising it to perform account-to-account transactions, and to provide payment instruments issue and payment processing, payment initiation and account information services.
Full payment institution licence will empower the institution to expand its activities in other European Union countries.