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Central Bank fines payments firm €320,000

The Central Bank has fined a payment-services company €324,240 for breaches of EU regulations over a period between January 2021 and December 2022.

BlueSnap Payment Services Ireland Limited (BlueSnap) was fined for breaching requirements of the European Union (Payment Services) Regulations 2018 – known as the PSR 2018.

BlueSnap was authorised by the Central Bank as a payment institution under the PSR 2018 in late 2020.

It provides “merchant acquiring services” that enable businesses that sell online to accept payments for products and services.

Segregated account

When an online sale is made by one of BlueSnap’s customers, BlueSnap should collect the money, hold it securely in a segregated bank account and then pay it onwards to the customer’s bank account.

The Central Bank says that PSR 2018 contains specific requirements for payment institutions to safeguards the funds of customers who use their services.

The regulator says that BlueSnap breached the requirements of the PSR 2018 as it:

• Did not deposit its customers’ funds in BlueSnap’s designated safeguarding account,
• Mixed its customers’ funds with other funds, and
• Delayed informing the Central Bank once it became aware that it was not following the safeguarding procedures that BlueSnap had set out to the Central Bank in its application for authorisation.

“These failings arose due to deficiencies in regulatory awareness and understanding of reporting requirements, in addition to inadequate oversight and monitoring by BlueSnap of safeguarding operations that were provided by the BlueSnap group,” the regulator said. 

It added that BlueSnap had admitted the contraventions and had taken action to address the relevant safeguarding failures.

Settlement discount

The announcement today (21 November) follows a settlement reached between the Central Bank and BlueSnap on 19 November, under which a 30% discount was applied to the original fine of just over €460,000.

The sanctions are subject to confirmation by the High Court and will not take effect unless they are confirmed.

Seána Cunningham (director of enforcement and anti-money-laundering at the Central Bank) said that Bluesnap’s failure to comply with its safeguarding obligations had exposed its customers to “significant risk”.

“The safeguarding of customer funds has been, and will continue to be, a key area of supervisory focus for the Central Bank,” she added.