The Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority today announced decisions concerning observations and penalty fees for Loomis Sverige, Svenska kyrkans tjänstepensionsförening and Nasdaq Stockholm.
The Inspectorate considers that Loomis is in breach of several key parts of the anti-money laundering regulations in the context of its cash processing operations, i.e. payment services activities that enable deposits of cash to be made into payment accounts. Among other things, the Inspectorate points to deficiencies in the general risk assessment regarding assessment of geographical risks and the risks associated with customers engaged in cash-intensive operations. The Inspectorate also considers that Loomis’ assessments of customers’ risk profiles were deficient. Among other things, in several cases Loomis failed to obtain information about the purpose and nature of the business relationships, failed to carry out individual assessments of whether customers were engaged in cash-intensive operations and failed to obtain information about the origin of the funds from customers associated with a high risk of money laundering. The Financial Supervisory Authority also considers that the deficiencies are exacerbated by the fact that Loomis, both in the Inspectorate’s opinion and according to the company’s own general risk assessment, is engaged in activities associated with a high risk of money laundering. The Inspectorate considers that the breaches were serious and the penalty fee was set at SEK 40 million.
Svenska kyrkans tjänstepensionsförening was issued with an observation combined with a penalty fee of SEK five million as a result of deficiencies in internal regulations. The deficiencies relate to the fact that the association’s governing documents for managing investment risks did not comply with the requirement for adoption of risk tolerance limits pursuant to Chapter 8, section 20.2 of the Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority’s regulations and general guidelines (FFFS 2019:21) on occupational pension companies. The Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority also considers that the fact that the association has allowed an investment in a real estate company’s shares to become a large part of the association’s total investments has made the lack of risk tolerance levels even more serious. However, the Inspectorate considers that the nature of the breach as a whole is moderate, among other things because there is nothing to indicate that the deficiencies have jeopardised the association’s financial position.
Nasdaq Stockholm was issued with an observation combined with a penalty fee of SEK 100 million for breaches of the EU Market Abuse Regulation (EU) No. 596/2014 (MAR) and the Securities Markets Act (2007:528). The breaches consist, among other things, of deficiencies in the way Nasdaq Stockholm has carried out the trading supervision required under the MAR, the Commission's Delegated Regulation (EU) 2016/957 and the Securities Markets Act, the purpose of which is to prevent, detect and report insider trading. The breaches occurred in connection with four major corporate events in 2021 and 2022. The Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority also considers that, on two occasions in 2022 and 2023, Nasdaq commenced trading in financial instruments before approved prospectuses had been registered with the Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority in accordance with the requirement in Chapter 13, section 3, second paragraph of the Securities Markets Act. The Financial Supervisory Authority considers the breaches to be serious, among other things because they had tangible effects on the financial system and also risk damaging the market’s confidence in the financial system.
