EMI | FinTelegram News

Category: EMI

February 28, 2022

Introducing FCA-regulated BnkPro, FxPro and their partner FairFX

BNKPro Ltd, an e-money institution regulated by the FCA, is part of the FxPro Group. The company has an interesting history. Until October 2019, the company traded as Hermex International Limited with the trading name HermexFX (www.hermexfx.com) and was part of the FXPro Group. In August 2019, FCA-regulated FairFX Plc acquired the payments business of HermesFX. HermesFX became FairFX. The company was later renamed FXPro Invest Ltd before a new renaming to BNKPro Ltd in January 2021.

January 13, 2022

Impressive! Payment processor Checkout valued at $40 billion!

According to the Wall Street Journal, the London-based FCA-regulated payment processor Checkout Ltd d/b/a Checkout.com raised $1 billion in a recent share sale that valued it at $40 billion. New investors including Franklin Templeton and the Qatar Investment Authority participated alongside existing ones, such as Insight Partners and Tiger Global Management. Checkout is one of the big crypto-to-FIAT payment processors. It didn’t raise money from outside investors until 2019 but is one of the most valuable start-ups in the world.

October 25, 2021

New on our radar – introducing FCA-regulated e-Money Institution Payset

Pay Set Limited d/b/a Payset (www.payset.io) is an e-Money Institution regulated by the UK Financial Conduct Authority with Reference No. 900920. The company was established in August 2018 by experienced fintech people and is headed by Adam Mark Mackulin and Perry Ernest Asforis. The latter also controls the company through UK-registered Capitalium Limited. Payset is a relatively new player in the fintech and paytech sector with big ambitions and an excellent global network. It's on our radar now, so let's have a look at it.

September 7, 2021

Introducing crypto payment processor Global DLT Exchange with Jubiter and Coindeck

Coindeck is a new high-risk crypto payment processor brand operated by Slovakia-based Global DLT Exchange S.R.O., which also operates Jubiter. The latter was the trade name of Estonian Jubiter Technologies OÜ, which was licensed until February 2021. After many scam involvements, the company lost or renounced its license. Jubiter was transferred to Global DLT Exchange S.R.O. but continued to surface as a scam facilitator. Frequently together with BridgerPay. Most recently, we also found both in the GoldBachInvest scam.

August 6, 2021

Interesting! Nasdaq-listed GreenBox POS acquires notorious Bulgarian Transact Europe

GreenBox POS is a California-based FinTech company specializing in payment solutions on the blockchain. The company has been listed on Nasdaq with the symbol GBOX since February 2021 and currently has a market capitalization of around $450M. Transact Europe is a Bulgarian financial institution with an intense past in the largely fraudulent binary options industry. Transact Europe was one of the facilitating payment processors of Gal Barak and his Bulgarian E&G Bulgaria. GreenBox POS is to acquire Transact Europe for $30M in cash.

July 2, 2021

Notorious scam-facilitator Deutsche Handelsbank about to close down payment business

The notoriously well-known Deutsche Handelsbank has been in the FinTelegram focus over the last three years. Like ING's Dutch subsidiary Payvision and, until its collapse, Wirecard, the bank was a prime address for scammers and cybercrime organizations. Uwe Lenhoff, who died in prison in 2020, was one of the clients of Deutsche Handelsbank and used the bank to launder the illicit proceeds of his huge lotto scam LottoPalace. Now the German financial institution seems to be about to its dirty payment division.

June 26, 2021

Lithuanian compliance issue or why GlobalNetInt is grateful for its penalization

A penalty is usually not an occasion for gratitude. That would also make the purpose of a punishment absurd. Usually, one is grateful for a received punishment only if one is aware that one has gotten away well with this punishment and should actually have been punished much worse. A driver who is speeding while massively impaired by alcohol or other drugs certainly grateful is grateful if he is punished by the police only for speeding and not for the offense of driving under the influence (DUI). Similarly, GlobalNetInt (GNI) shows itself grateful for the penalization by the Bank of Lithuania.

June 23, 2021

Lithuanian Compliance Issue – Findiban website switched into maintenance mode

The Lithuanian Liudvikas Kulikauskas is the co-founder, CEO, and shareholder of GlobalNetInt (GNI), an e-Money Institution regulated by the Bank of Lithuania. Additionally, he and his wife Egle Kulikauskiene launched the payment processor Ifind MB d/b/a Findiban, which was apparently positioned as a high-risk payment processor, offering businesses a range of financial services, including SEPA IBAN account, white-label FinTech services, or credit card processing. Currently, the Findiban website is in maintenance mode and hence down.

June 18, 2021

SG Veteris and its crypto payment brands Koinal and Bitpace

Koinal (www.koinal.io) and Bitpace (www.bitpace.com) are two trading styles of SG Veteris Limited, a company that used to be registered with the Uk Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) as an agent until October 2020. After that, it was temporarily registered as a crypto asset business with the FCA but no longer is. While Koinal offers crypto exchange and payment services, including payments with credit and debit cards, Bitpace is focused on merchants offering them a crypto payment gateway to accept crypto payments from their clients.

June 8, 2021

Bravo! Bank of Lithuania revokes license of Finolita Unio

As reported by FinTelegram, The Financial Times reported that German prosecutors suspect that more than €100M was stolen from Wirecard via the licensed Lithuanian e-Money Institution (EMI) Finolita Unio. Via this fintech, at least €35M was said to have flowed to fugitive ex-Wirecard executive Jan Marsalek and another €65M to the now insolvent company oCap in Singapore. Today, the Bank of Lithuania announced that the license of Finolita Unio had been revoked for violations of money laundering rules.

May 21, 2021

Interesting German-Lithuanian Compliance Dispute about Wirecard and fintech regulation

The spot is on Lithuania! The Financial Times reported that German prosecutors suspect that more than €100M was stolen from Wirecard via the licensed Lithuanian Finolita Unio. Via this fintech, at least €35M was said to have flowed to fugitive ex-Wirecard executive Jan Marsalek and another €65M to the now insolvent company oCap (previously Senjo Trading) in Singapore. Both Finolita Unio and oCap are part of the Senjo Group, one of Wirecard's most important partners in Asia, and received a loan of €350M from the latter. Finolita Unio CEO Danas Oliskevicius rejects the accusations and blames the German BaFin.

May 6, 2021

GlobalNetInt CEO launched new financial services venture Findiban

Liudvikas Kulikauskas, founder, CEO, and shareholder of GlobalNetInt UAB (GNI), an e-Money Institution (EMI) regulated by the Bank of Lithuania with authorization code LB000434, has founded a payment processor Ifind MB d/b/a Findiban (www.findiban.com), together with his wife, Egle Kulikauskiene. The company is apparently positioned as a high-risk payment processor, offering businesses a range of financial services, including SEPA IBAN account, white-label FinTech services, or credit card processing.

The Unraveling of Rabidi and the Rise of the SoftSwiss Network: Our Updated Forensic Report

A few months ago, FinTelegram released a first forensic report on the bankruptcy of Rabidi N.V., a Curacao-registered online casino operator with hundreds of millions in revenues — and no traceable assets by the time of its collapse in May 2024. That report already raised serious questions about the opaque structures behind Rabidi’s operations and its successor, Liernin Enterprises Ltd.

DeFi Decoded: Smart Contracts – The Code Behind the DeFi Revolution

Smart contracts are the invisible architects of decentralized finance. These self-executing lines of code run everything from token swaps to lending platforms without middlemen. But while they offer autonomy, they also introduce new risks—bugs, exploits, and irreversible mistakes. In this fourth installment of our FinTelegram DeFi Series, we explain what smart contracts are.

CFTC

Despite New Crypto Friendlyness: No Settlement Between U.S. CFTC And KuCoin?

A planned settlement between the U.S.CFTC and crypto exchange KuCoin is now in limbo due to a reported policy shift within the CFTC. This change is attributed to the Trump administration’s new approach, which deprioritizes enforcement actions against crypto companies. As a result, a CFTC attorney said that it is "unlikely that such authorization will be granted in the near term" regarding the settlement approval.

SEC’s New Era: Paul Atkins Sworn In—Will Crypto Finally Get the Regulatory Clarity It Deserves?

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has entered a new chapter with the swearing-in of Paul S. Atkins as its 34th Chairman, a move widely anticipated to mark a dramatic pivot in how the agency approaches crypto and DeFi regulation. For years, the financial industry—especially the burgeoning digital asset sector—has bristled under the SEC’s “Regulation by Enforcement” strategy.

Crypto Mogul Changpeng Zhao – Fallen, Rich, and Rising Again?

As spring 2025 blooms and Easter’s themes of rebirth fill the air, Changpeng Zhao emerges as one of the most controversial figures of startup mythology: a man who fell spectacularly, paid a price—then rose again, wealthier and louder than ever. Once the almighty architect of Binance, CZ now resides in Dubai with a net worth that Forbes estimates at $63 billion.