Sanction decisions adopted by the ASF Council in October 2023

Bucharest, 16 November 2023 - The Council of the Financial Supervisory Authority adopted, in October 2023, several decisions to sanction certain entities/persons operating in the non-banking financial market for violating certain provisions of the related legislation.

CAPITAL MARKET

S.S.I.F. Muntenia Global Invest S.A.

• Sanctioning with a fine of Lei 10,000 S.S.I.F. Muntenia Global Invest S.A.;
• Sanctioning with warning Mr Talpeanu Daniel Marin - ML/FT Compliance Officer;
• Establishing in the company a plan of measures to remedy the identified deficiencies/with the role of preventing or correcting situations potentially generating deficiencies and optimizing the activity.

The main situations identified concerned operational aspects (regarding the promptness of execution of client orders, the application of knowledge measures to some clients and the late reporting of an external transfer) and aspects regarding the internal procedural framework and the content of the mediation contract. 

S.S.I.F. Prime Transaction S.A.

• Sanctioning with a fine of Lei 59,400 S.S.I.F. Prime Transaction S.A.;
• Sanctioning Mr Ionel Uluria with a fine of Lei 1,400 - ML/FT Compliance Officer;
• Establishing in the company a plan of measures to remedy the identified deficiencies/with the role of preventing or correcting situations potentially generating deficiencies and optimizing the activity.

The main situations identified concerned operational aspects (the activity of trading on own account with exceeding the object of activity, the application of knowledge measures to some clients), respectively aspects related to the internal procedural framework. 

Electroargeș S.A.

The suspension, during the EGM of Electroargeș S.A., convened for 23/24.10.2023, of the exercise of voting rights related to a number of 16,000,000 ELGS shares, registered with the Central Depository in the account of the company Investment Constantin S.R.L., which were the subject matter of file no.238/1259/2020, in which Pitești Court of Appeal pronounced the Civil decision no. 448/A-C.

Prebet S.A. Aiud

Issuing a decision to sanction with a fine in the amount of Lei 15,000 the company Anodin Opportunity S.R.L, shareholder of Prebet S.A. Aiud, for non-compliance with the requirements imposed by the provisions of art.71 and art.74 of law no.24/2017 on the obligation to notify, within the deadline, of exceeding the position of 10% of the voting rights on Prebet S.A. Aiud.

Transilvania Investments Alliance S.A.

• Sanctioning with warning Transilvania Investments Alliance S.A.;
• Sanctioning with a fine of Lei 5,000 Mr Paul George Prodan, Mr Radu Momanu, Mr Patrițiu Abrudan;
• Sanctioning Mr Marius Petre Nicoară with a fine of Lei 4,600;
• Sanctioning Mr Radu Claudiu Roșca with a fine of Lei 5,700;
• Sanctioning Mr Theo Dorian Buftea with a fine of Lei 5,300;
• Sanctioning with warning Mr Tony-Cristian Răduţă-Gib;
• Reminder to Mr Marius Adrian Moldovan;
• Establishing a plan of measures to remedy the identified deficiencies in the company.

The main situations identified concerned issues related to the internal procedural framework, namely issues regarding the diligence in the company’s activity.

INSURANCE MARKET

Allianz - Țiriac Asigurări S.A. was sanctioned with a fine of Lei 172,600 for the following acts:

• failure to comply with the provisions of art.7 (3) of law no. 129/2019 on preventing and combating money laundering and terrorist financing, as well as for amending and supplementing certain normative acts, with subsequent amendments and supplements, in conjunction with the provisions of art.35 (1) of ASF Regulation no.13/2019 on the establishment of measures to prevent and combat money laundering and terrorist financing through the financial sectors supervised by the Financial Supervisory Authority, with subsequent amendments and completions, in the sense that, during the controlled period, the company did not report to O.N.P.C.S.B. external transactions related to compensation for non-life insurance;
• failure to comply with the provisions of art.23 (1) and (2) of law no.129/2019 in the sense that the company did not specify in the job descriptions of the designated person and the compliance officer the nature and limits of the responsibilities entrusted by the management of the company in terms of ML/FT, and for the period 31/12/2021 - 13/02/2022 the company has not appointed a person to serve as ML/FT compliance officer at management level;
• failure to comply with the provisions of art.23 (5) of law no.129/2019, in conjunction with the provisions of art.12 (4) of ASF Regulation no.13/2019, in the sense that the company did not introduce in the employment contract of the ML/FT designated person, as well as in the mandate of the compliance officer, the clause according to which both persons have the right to address directly, in their own name, in order to signal to the state authorities violations of any nature of the legislation on preventing and combating money laundering and terrorist financing;
• failure to comply with the provisions of art.24 (1) (e) of law no.129/2019, in the sense that the company did not include in the ML/FT procedures the provisions regarding the periodic evaluation of employees;
• failure to comply with the provisions of art.24 (3) and art.60 (3) of law no. 129/2019, in conjunction with the provisions of art.4 (1), art.47 (3) and (7) of ASF Regulation no.13/2019, in the sense that the company has updated late, before the legal deadline, the procedure on preventing and combating money laundering and terrorist financing;
• failure to comply with the provisions of art.24 (4) of law no.129/2019, in conjunction with the provisions of art.11 (5) of ASF Regulation no.13/2019, in the form in force during the controlled period, in the sense that the company has not carried out annual checks to show whether the persons with responsibilities in applying the AML/CFT measures are adequately prepared and know their duties;
• failure to comply with the provisions of art.24 (6) of law no.129/2019, in conjunction with the provisions of art.10 (2) of ASF Regulation no.13/2019 in the sense that the company did not ensure that the designated person carried out a training program in the field of preventing and combating money laundering and terrorist financing.

Allianz - Țiriac Asigurări S.A. was sanctioned with a fine of Lei 14,600 for failure to comply with the provisions of art.3 (1) of ASF Rule no.4/2018 on the management of operational risks generated by IT systems used by entities authorized/approved/registered, regulated and/or supervised by the Financial Supervisory Authority, as amended and supplemented, in the sense that the company did not identify certain applications as important information systems.