Administrators have been appointed to London FinTech Contis Financial Services, with all customer accounts immediately frozen.
Founded in 2008, e-money payments firm Contis Group Ltd – which includes Contis Financial Services – was acquired by German counterpart Solaris in 2022 after the latter secured a €190m Series D funding round.
However in November 2023 Contis was fined €840,000 by the Bank of Lithuania – where it held an Electronic Money Institution licence – for failing to comply with the requirements for the prevention of money laundering and terrorist financing, as well as information security and business continuity risk management.
In September 2024 Solaris announced that it was to discontinue major parts of its EMI business, comprising Contis Group and its subsidiaries, including Contis Financial Services, which is regulated by the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority.
As a result of this, CFS commenced the orderly wind-down of its operations, including the successful transfer of its Engage business to Suits Me, announced in November 2024.
The wind-down was scheduled to be completed by April 2025; however, a long-running and unresolved dispute with a third-party financial institution in respect of the release of certain customer safeguarded funds has, the company says, made this unachievable.
Therefore it has now appointed Joshua Dwyer and Robert Spence from Interpath Advisory as joint special administrators.
It says the decision was made to provide the opportunity for the administrators to seek to secure the release of the safeguarded funds, facilitate the distribution of safeguarded funds to customers, and complete the orderly wind-down of CFS’s operations.
CFS has immediately ceased trading. Customers are therefore advised that all customer accounts, including prepaid debit cards, have been frozen and customers are no longer able to make payments or receive receipts.
Accounts will remain frozen whilst Interpath assesses the situation and identifies the best way to return funds to customers.
Customers are encouraged to set up alternative banking arrangements with another provider as soon as possible, but are not required to submit claims in the administration at this stage.