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Catch up on a short selection of the stories our payments compliance analysts have covered lately, and stay up-to-date on the latest news.

Swedish Regulator Targets Payments And Crypto AML In 2025

Sweden’s Finansinspektionen (FI) has its supervisory priorities for 2025, placing a strong emphasis on anti-money laundering (AML) and fraud prevention.

According to the financial regulator, payment firms, smaller banks and crypto traders will face heightened scrutiny as the FI targets sectors deemed more vulnerable to financial crime.

The authority will also ensure firms comply with sanctions, market abuse regulations and fraud prevention measures.

In addition to AML, the FI has said that it will focus on strengthening operational resilience.

This includes assessing financial firms’ ability to handle economic and climate-related risks and improving cybersecurity and IT systems, with compliance with the Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA) a significant area of oversight.

Consumer protection will also feature prominently in the FI’s agenda, and the authority has said it will examine whether financial products and services meet high standards of transparency and quality, helping to bridge the knowledge gap between consumers and providers.

“The financial market is large and our resources are limited. Therefore, we must prioritize and direct our efforts where we assess the risks are greatest,” said Daniel Barr, director general at the FI.

“At the same time, we are always prepared to reprioritise and handle the unexpected,” he said.

BaFin Fines Islamic Bank €600,000 Over AML Deficiencies

Germany’s Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin) has levied a €600,000 fine on KT Bank for breaching the German Money Laundering Act (GwG) and Banking Act (KWG).

The enforcement decision stems from significant compliance failures, including inadequate internal safeguards against money laundering, failure to retain customer identification records and insufficient monitoring of high-risk business relationships.

KT Bank, which itself as “the first bank in Germany which introduced comprehensive financial products and services according to Islamic banking principles”, also neglected to file required suspicious transaction reports and failed to seek executive approval for high-risk partnerships.

According to BaFin, a fine of €20,000 was imposed for each violation.

“Credit institutions must continuously monitor business relationships, including the transactions carried out during their course, and ensure that the relevant documents, data or information are updated at appropriate intervals,” the regulator .

Jordan Overhauls Payment Services Oversight

The Central Bank of Jordan (CBJ) has introduced two new regulatory updates aimed at payments processors operating in the country.

One new circular out mandatory communication methods for electronic payment and transfer firms, with firms needing to comply by February 1, 2025.

Companies are required to submit an official email address for their compliance monitoring unit and provide a list of email addresses for their chairman and board of directors to the CBJ.

The circular specifies that official notifications from the CBJ will be directed to the chairman’s email address and outlines communication channels for key matters, including payment system supervision, inspections, audit reports, licence applications and winding-up procedures.

In a separate announcement, the central bank has redefined the classification of payment systems.

Under the updated , only centralised real-time gross settlement and securities settlement systems will be deemed systemically important.

Payment systems handling more than 500,000 transactions annually with a value exceeding JOD10bn ($14bn) will be classified as systems of interest.

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