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Estonian Regulator Enhances Scrutiny of Correspondent Accounts for Fintechs

By Koos Couvée

Estonian regulators are closely reviewing banks' ties with payment services providers and cryptocurrency firms amid concerns that high-risk nonresident clients shed by lenders are now accessing the financial system indirectly, a senior official told ACAMS moneylaundering.com. Estonia's Financial Supervision and Resolution Authority began pressuring the country's banks to reduce their offshore deposits in 2014 and renewed those calls after news last year that billions of illicit euros flowed through Danske Bank's local affiliate, Danske Bank Estonia, from 2007 to 2015, primarily through accounts held by legal entities formed abroad. Matis Maeker, the FSA's head of anti-money laundering supervision, discussed the...

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