2020-04-22
The Board of the Bank of Lithuania imposed a sanction on Bruc Bond, UAB (UAB ABC Projektai). The institution appealed against the decision of the Board of the Bank of Lithuania, the Decision of the Court is available here.
A targeted AML/CTF-related inspection at Bruc Bond, UAB carried out by the Supervision Service of the Bank of Lithuania identified serious and systematic breaches of the Republic of Lithuania Law on the Prevention of Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing with respect to the assessment of ML/TF risks, identification and verification of the customer and the customer’s representative, implementation of international financial sanctions, and adequate staff awareness of AML/CTF requirements. The inspection also revealed that the tools used by the institution to monitor its customers’ business relationships and transactions were formal, ineffective and insufficient to ensure timely identification of suspicious customer transactions and/or activities; the institution also failed to manage the risk of (potentially) being exposed to ML/TF risks.
The institution has also breached the requirements set for payment institutions with regard to the protection of customer funds: the institution has long held most of its customer funds with credit institutions, with no precise procedures for safeguarding the funds of payment service users. It was found that the funds of the institution were not kept separate from those of its customers, although this had to be done for safety reasons.
During the investigation it was established that for more than a year the institution had been providing incorrect information in its supervisory reports to the Bank of Lithuania regarding its own and customer balances. Such non-compliance not only points to weaknesses in the institution’s internal control mechanisms and risk management, but also risks undermining the essential interests of the institution’s customers, as the Bank of Lithuania is not in a position to ensure proper supervision of the institution without obtaining accurate financial data.
The licence of the payment institution Bruc Bond, UAB was issued on 13 October 2016.
The institution returned the licence to the Bank of Lithuania at the beginning of July 2024.