The Weekly Wrap: all you need to know by Friday COB | January 13th

By Puja Sharma

January 13, 2023

Accenture
Deals of the Week
Debt Funding

The Weekly Wrap is published every Friday and recaps the week’s main stories and deals, as well as upcoming events and announcements. For Prime subscribers only.

The Big Story

As a result of Al Rayan Bank PLC (Al Rayan) failing to implement effective anti-money laundering (AML) controls, the FCA fined it £4,023,600.

The Al Rayan bank allowed money to pass through and be used in the UK without carrying out appropriate checks between 1 April 2015 and 30 November 2017. The firm failed to adequately check its customers’ Source of Wealth and Source of Funds when it was required to make sure the money was not connected to financial crime.

The failings were made worse by the lack of proper training provided to staff about how to handle large deposits, which further heightened the risk of money laundering and financial crime.

Al Rayan was aware of these weaknesses and failed to implement effective changes to fix them, despite the FCA raising concerns about the inadequacies of their systems.

After the FCA visited Al Rayan in 2017, the bank voluntarily agreed not to take on further high-risk customers. This restriction has now been lifted, following improvements to the bank’s systems and controls, but the bank remains subject to some limited restrictions while further improvements are made.

Mark Steward, Executive Director of Enforcement and Market Oversight at the FCA, said, “Al Rayan failed to manage the risk that it might be used to facilitate money-laundering.

“These failings create the conditions in which financial crime is facilitated and can take root within a firm. While the risk was caught in time, the failings here were egregious. The FCA will continue to raise the stakes for firms that do not take their financial crime responsibilities seriously, especially in preventing money laundering risks which harms confidence and integrity in our market and in preventing financial crime, which is a key component in the FCA’s three-year strategy.”

Al Rayan did not dispute the FCA’s findings and agreed to settle, which meant it qualified for a 30% discount. The FCA would have imposed a financial penalty of £5,748,000 if a settlement wasn’t reached.

Deals of the week

UK FinTech Detected closes £2.5m in Financing Round
Fello raises $4m to bring gamified savings to Indians
SBI launches e-Bank Guarantee facility in association with NeSL
40Seas secures funding of $111m from ZIM and Team8
Clayfin and Bandhan Bank win Best Digital Channel/Platform award from IBS Intelligence
InvestSky launches in the UAE following a $3.4m fundraise
InsurTech startup Propeller Bonds raises $6.4m in seed funding
Paytient raises $63m to help Americans access and afford healthcare
Accenture to acquire SKS Group to strengthen its regulatory capabilities
BNP Paribas joins AccessFintech Series C funding round
Tabby partners with Dubai Parks and Resorts to launch new BNPL solution
UK InsurTech Superscript scoops £45m in Series B
BankSathi raises $4m as Pre-series A round
Liberate closes $7m in funding and launches P&C Insurance platform to automate claims and underwriting

Be on the lookout for

The FINTECH LIVE VIRTUAL event will take place on May 3rd, 2023, event organisers have announced, as plans for the day-long virtual conference get underway.

FINTECH LIVE, which is backed by Fintech Magazine and organised by Bizlick Media Group, already hosts an annual hybrid event in London annually. The success of those events and the strong industry demand for more networking and thought-leadership opportunities have driven the decision to add the VIRTUAL conference to the FINTECH LIVE calendar.

Scheduled to take place from 10.25 until 2 pm on May 3rd, 2023, the conference will cover a range of themes from the latest developments in the fintech space, to what’s happening in the cryptocurrency market, and how things are changing in insurtech.

January 13, 2023