Latest Payments News: ACPR Fines Tunisian Foreign Bank €1.7m for Governance Failures, and more

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

ACPR Fines Tunisian Foreign Bank €1.7m for Governance Failures

The French Prudential Supervision and Resolution Authority (ACPR) has announced a €1.7m fine against the Tunisian Foreign Bank (TFB) due to shortcomings in its governance and risk control frameworks.

This decision stems from an on-site inspection conducted between March and June 2022, which revealed significant deficiencies in TFB's internal control mechanisms and risk management practices.

The ACPR's findings highlighted a troubling lack of systematic credit reviews and inadequate risk monitoring, pointing to persistent governance failures that have remained unaddressed despite prior warnings from the authority.

These included deficiencies identified by the regulator in 2011, which had also resulted in a fine.

Although TFB reserves the right to appeal the ruling, the ACPR has taken into account the bank's attempts to implement corrective measures, as well as its current financial state, which features recurring losses yet maintains solvency and liquidity ratios above regulatory requirements.

Kenya’s RTGS Completes Migration To ISO 20022

The Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) has announced that the Kenya Electronic Payment and Settlement System (KEPSS) has been successfully migrated to ISO 20022.

The KEPSS is Kenya’s real-time gross settlement (RTGS) system, and is operated by the CBK to process large-value and time-critical payments.

“The migration of KEPSS to ISO20022 brings significant benefits, including faster settlement times, streamlined processing, and improved liquidity management for financial institutions,” the CBK said in a statement.

“The rich data formats will aid in monitoring fraud and improve the detection and prevention of illicit transactions. Additionally, the standardisation provided by ISO20022 reduces the complexity of payments and significantly enhances efficiency.”

In 2022, South Africa became the first country in Africa to migrate its RTGS system to ISO 20022.

UK Regulator Cracks Down On Finfluencers

The UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) is taking action against so-called "finfluencers" it believes may be illegally promoting financial services on social media firms such as TikTok and Instagram.

Twenty influencers are being interviewed under caution as part of the regulator's efforts to clamp down on unlawful promotions.

In addition, the FCA has issued 38 alerts against social media accounts suspected of making illegal financial promotions.

"Finfluencers are trusted by the people who follow them, often young and potentially vulnerable people attracted to the lifestyle they flaunt," said Steve Smart, joint executive director of enforcement and market oversight at the FCA.

"Finfluencers need to check the products they promote to ensure they are not breaking the law and putting their followers' livelihoods and life savings at risk."

The FCA intervention comes after it has already taken action against nine individuals and finfluencers for promoting an unauthorised trading scheme.

Swift To Launch AI-Powered Fraud Defence For Cross-Border Payments

Swift has announced that it is rolling out a new AI-powered anomaly detection tool that will help financial institutions identify and prevent fraud in cross-border payments.

Following a successful pilot with financial institutions in Europe, Asia and North America, the tool is set to be available from January 2025 onwards.

The new tool builds on Swift’s existing Payment Controls Service, drawing on pseudonymised data from billions of transactions to identify and flag suspicious activity in real time.

Since February this year, Swift has been working with financial institutions to explore how federated learning, combined with privacy-enhancing technologies, could enable market participants to share information without revealing their proprietary data.

The group has so far developed a number of additional fraud detection use cases which are set to be tested in a sandbox environment.

Portuguese Parliament Enacts New Law On Payment Fees

The Portuguese parliament has approved Decree-Law No. 72/2024, amending previous legislation that will mean a more interventionist approach to payment services fees.

Published on October 16, 2024, the law builds on Decree-Law No. 3/2010, which prohibits fees for payment services and ATM transactions.

A key update introduced in the legislation mandates a uniform transaction commission of 0.2 percent for both debit card payments and instant transfers, extending equal customer protection rights to users of third-party payment apps.

ECB Launches Public Consultation On Payment System Oversight Changes

The European Central Bank (ECB) has launched a new public consultation on proposed revisions to the oversight requirements for systemically important payment systems (SIPS).

The updates follow a year-long review of the existing regulation, which was initially adopted in 2014.

Key changes include a revised definition of SIPS operators, allowing euro area branches of non-euro area entities to be identified as SIPS operators.

New governance requirements, including the mandatory establishment of risk committees, are also proposed, and the revisions also introduce new articles on cyber risk and outsourcing management.

The consultation period will run until November 29, 2024, inviting feedback from market participants.

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