Revolut, Europe’s most valuable fintech, has been fined €3.5 million by Lithuania’s central bank for significant shortcomings in its money laundering prevention systems. The Bank of Lithuania stated that its investigation revealed multiple failures in monitoring business relationships and transactions, which at times prevented the proper identification of suspicious financial activity.
This latest penalty is Revolut’s largest fine to date and highlights ongoing regulatory scrutiny of the fast-growing digital bank’s compliance controls. In 2022, the company was also fined €70,000 for missing financial reporting deadlines.
Revolut, which holds a European banking license through Lithuania and is still awaiting full UK banking approval, has faced criticism over the robustness of its internal systems. In 2023, auditor BDO warned that flaws in the company’s IT infrastructure could have led to materially misstated revenue figures for 2021.
In response to the recent penalty, Revolut emphasized its commitment to improving its anti-money laundering controls, stating it has cooperated fully with the Bank of Lithuania and is already implementing corrective measures. A company spokesperson noted that there were no confirmed cases of money laundering identified, and the fine represents less than 0.5% of Revolut’s 2023 revenue.
This move comes amid broader concerns from regulators about the pace at which neobanks scale versus their ability to maintain effective financial crime controls. In the UK, Starling Bank and Monzo have also come under scrutiny, with the former facing a £29 million fine over similar issues.
