Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether her Department has made an assessment of the (a) potential risk of the use of e-payment platforms for money laundering and (b) likelihood that those platforms are used to launder criminal money originating from Russia.

This government is committed to supporting safe innovation within our financial technology sectors. The UK’s 2020 National Risk Assessment for money laundering and terrorist financing judged that payment and e-money services were at medium risk of money laundering. Reflecting this risk, payment service providers and electric money institutions offering e-payment platforms in the UK are required to be authorised by the FCA, and supervised to ensure they meet the anti-money laundering requirements set out in the Money Laundering Regulations. The government is continuing to monitor this risk, and intends to publish an updated National Risk Assessment next year.