The Swedish trade association BOS has filed a complaint with the Swedish Financial Authority (SFA) against the decision of major Scandinavian banks to withdraw their corporate accounts from gambling operators.
In a letter to the SFA, BOS argued that the banks had violated their contractual obligations to provide banking services to operators, as defined in the SFA guidelines.
BOS singled out Swedbank, Nordea, Handelsbanken, DNB Nor and Danske Bank for "refusing or failing" to serve Swedish licensed operators without conducting individual due diligence for each firm.
“Member companies, having applied to other banks, found out that banks do not offer to conclude new agreements.
“Therefore, reluctance to offer banking services to licensed online gambling companies is a common occurrence in the Swedish banking sector,” writes BOS.
BOS also alleges that banks prevent the operator from verifying their customers by denying them access to banking services, as well as tools such as Swish and BankID.
According to BOS, the only case where banking services can be lawfully terminated is through financial misconduct or the bad faith of the account holder.
In addition, the trading body assumes that the transfer of licensed operators will be reduced due to the termination of banking services, and as a result, players will be pushed out of the regulated market.
The BankID online verification system and the Swish payment method were developed and jointly owned by major Swedish banks.
They are available only to companies that are clients of subsidiary banks.
In its letter, BOS demanded a supervisory review of all banks' conduct in relation to the decision to deny service and prohibit the SFA from forcibly closing the operator's accounts.
“It appears that the decision was made based only on the overall reputation of the industry, and not on the basis of any anti-money laundering or similar concerns of the bank regarding individual customers,” said BOS CEO Gustav Hoffstedt.
“BankID and Swish are important competitive advantages for licensed operators in Sweden in their daily struggle against unlicensed operators.
“We need banks to be on the right side of this fight and that is why we are asking the SFA today for help in this matter,” added Hoffstedt.
The complaint echoes that of William Hill, which filed a complaint with the authorities against the decision of Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken AB (SEB) to stop providing banking services in March.
SEB justified this measure citing general concerns in the gambling sector and its perceived exposure to money laundering activities.
In a statement provided EGR at the time of filing the complaint, William Hill said: "The measures proposed by the Swedish banks are not only illegal, but damage the integrity and functioning of the important licensing system supported by a large majority of the Swedish Parliament."
This complaint is still under review by the SFA.
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