Berlin-headquartered bank N26 has been fined €4.25m by the German financial services regulator for weak anti-money laundering practices.
The fine from the Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin) was imposed because of the delayed submission of less than 50 suspicious activity reports in the area of anti-money laundering, relating exclusively to the years 2019 and 2020.
Currently, N26 has more than seven million customers in 25 markets. The company employs more than 1.500 employees across eight office locations: Berlin, Barcelona, Madrid, Milan, Paris, Vienna, New York and São Paulo.
The fine, only now (28 September) made public, was already paid in full by N26 Bank on 14 July 14, 2021, and all related proceedings have been closed.
All measures to improve reports of suspicious activities had been implemented earlier this year, the bank said.
"N26 takes its responsibility in the fight against the growing threat of global financial crime, and in the prevention of money laundering, very seriously. With the growing importance of e-commerce, we have taken numerous detailed measures and have also established structures and processes that meet the highest standards of financial crime prevention to address this pertinent global threat.
As always, N26 will continue to invest in maintaining and improving these standards to set us up well for the future, working in close collaboration with the responsible regulatory, financial and investigating authorities."
Valentin Stalf and Maximilian Tayenthal founded N26 in 2013 and launched the initial product in early 2015.
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