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Klarna has been fined $50 million and reprimanded by Sweden's financial regulator for breaching anti-money laundering rules, as the buy now, pay later company prepares for a stock market listing.
Between 2021 and 2022, the Swedish regulator said on Wednesday Klarna It had “significant shortcomings”, such as the lack of any assessments of how its services were used for money laundering or terrorist financing.
“Anti-money laundering regulations must be followed. It is important to confront the risk of criminals using company operations,” said Daniel Baar, Director General of FI, the main Swedish financial regulator.
Klarna is considering listing in the United States in the first quarter of next year after filing confidential IPO documents last month. The value of the Swedish group is expected to reach $20 billion.
But it has come under the spotlight from regulatory authorities around the world, who are increasingly scrutinizing the buy-now-pay-later sector. Klarna has faced blame before for how it handles credit risk and debt collection.
FI said its investigations were not serious enough to revoke Klarna's license or issue a formal warning, but enough to hand the company a “note” — less a reprimand — and a fine of 500 million Swedish krona ($46 million).
all SwedenThe country's largest banks received fines for anti-money laundering recently, including Sweden Bank – the country's oldest bank – which was ordered to pay 4 billion Swedish krona.
Klarna noted on Wednesday that it is the largest Swedish bank – other than state-owned SBAB – that has not yet been investigated, and said it faces a “complicated set of regulations”.
She added that she takes her responsibility to follow anti-money laundering rules “seriously.” She stressed that the financial institution's decision was related to “the interpretation and application of the rules, and not to actual cases of money laundering.”
