The value of payment transactions by electronic money and payment institutions in Lithuania grew 6.3x year on year, and their income from licensed activities grew 4.8x, in Q3 this year.

According to the Bank of Lithuania, the value of payment transactions by electronic money and payment institutions reached EUR157.6 billion in Q3, growing 29.4% compared to Q2.

Companies earned EUR333.6 million from licensed activities, from EUR264.8 million last year. EMIs earned 94% and PIs earned 6% of this income.

Further, one market participant held 51% of market share by income from licensed activities, and 63% in terms of the value of payment transactions.

Meanwhile, compliance with own funds requirements remained a “major issue” for some market participants, the central bank said.

Two market participants did not comply with their own funds requirements.

“According to the data of the sector’s self-assessment analysis, more than 80% of the institutions consider themselves to be compliant with the Bank of Lithuania expectations raised for them. Unfortunately, in reality some institutions do not comply with all requirements.

 

Therefore, we will continue to focus on compliance with fundamental requirements, such as those related to anti-money laundering, own funds, the safeguarding of customer funds, ICT and security risk management and internal control,”

said Dovilė Arlauskaitė, Head of the Payments Market Supervision Division.

The Bank of Lithuania is currently conducting 18 individual and thematic inspections of the fintech sector’s compliance with requirements related to money-laundering risk management, customer knowledge and fraud risk management, own funds, safeguarding of customer funds, and internal audit and internal control procedures.

As of this month, the licenses of three institutions were revoked, a temporary prohibition on the provision of services was imposed on one institution, five fines were imposed, and five announcements on violations of legal acts were published. Further, three account closure or restriction notifications were received.

The list of EMIs and PIs in Lithuania as of Q3 included 85 EMIs and 54 PIs, compared to 73 EMIs and 48 PIs in the same period last year.

The Bank of Lithuania is also currently examining about 30 applications for new EMI and PI licenses.

Featured image credit: Background photo created by zaozaa09 – www.freepik.com