Anti-money laundering roundtable in Malta launched to share and discuss best-practice solutions

Swedish fintech company with offices in Malta, Zimpler, announced that it will be hosting regular roundtable forums in the country to be attended by iGaming companies based in Malta to educate and spark discussion around how to efficiently prevent and manage money laundering (ML) and terrorist financing (TF) and sharing best-practices.

“We have to unite in the fight against money laundering,” asserted Jonathan Hjelmåker, the company’s recently appointed head of operations and acting head of AML during a press conference held at their office.

“Every year, the amount of money laundered is equal to two to five per cent of Global GDP, which is equivalent to Germany’s GDP”.

He bluntly acknowledged that due to clients in the igaming sector, the payment solutions provider is exposed to the risk of being used for money laundering, and this is something they want to tackle head-on.

“We operate on a basis of AML by design” emphasised Mr Hjelmåker.

The AML roundtable will initially be held in Malta and focused on the iGaming sector, however, the company plans on expanding it to other segments and markets.

The other sectors which the company is active in are travel, e-commerce and financial services.

The event will be organised on an invitation basis with fewer than 20 attendants, to allow for in-depth discussions. The participants in the roundtable will be AML leads, compliance officers or money laundering reporting officers.

In a question asked by this newsroom, on what impact did Malta's temporary greylisting by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) have on the company's AML/FT practices, Mr Hjelmåker responded, “we work very closely with our clients, and during the greylisting, we did enhance due diligence measures,” adding that this is something that they carried over even after Malta was removed from the FATF greylist.

“We are kind of glad it happened” added Mr Hjelmåker, adding that it led to local regulators and enforcers such as the Financial Intelligence Analysis Unit (FIAU) becoming more active and efficient.

When asked whether the company is looking to get licensed by the Malta Financial Services Authority (MFSA), Rhiannon Burns, the company’s chief commercial officer, responded, “we’re looking into it."

“Our current priority is the Nordic countries in Europe, including Germany and Netherlands, and expansion into Latin America,” said Ms Burns.