Sweden's Klarna fined SEK500m for money laundering failures

(Sharecast News) - Buy now, pay later firm Klarna has been fined SEK500m (£35.7m) by Sweden's financial regulator for violating anti-money laundering rules. The Financial Supervisory Authority (FI) investigated Klarna's compliance with anti-money laundering regulations, including requirements on a general risk assessment and customer due diligence procedures and guidelines, between 1 April 2021 and end of March 2022.

The investigation found that Klarna had violated several key rules.

"Klarna's general risk assessment has had significant deficiencies; for example, it has not contained any assessments of how the bank's products and services could be used for money laundering or terrorist financing," the regulator said.

"In addition, the bank has not had procedures and guidelines that capture all situations for when due diligence measures should be taken for customers that use Klarna's invoice product."

Daniel Barr, director general at FI, said: "The anti-money laundering regulations must be followed. It is important to counteract the risk that the firm's operations could be used by criminals.

"Our investigation shows that Klarna has not followed the requirements on, among other things, a general risk assessment and procedures and guidelines for due diligence measures. There are therefore grounds on which to intervene against the bank."

FI said the violations were not serious enough to warrant a formal warning to Klarna or to withdraw its authorisation.

It emerged last month that Klarna had filed paperwork with the US Securities and Exchange Commission to list in the US.