The UK Financial Conduct Authority has banned payment services firm Sendsii Ltd from conducting regulated activities.

On Wednesday, the FCA confirmed it had slapped the London-based company with a First Supervisory Notice. These are typically issued to protect consumers in the event of serious issues affecting financial systems that have been identified by the FCA.

This notice means that Sendsii Ltd is no longer allowed to perform regulated activities such as payment remittance. In order to perform such an activity, the company would need to request and obtain the written permission of the FCA.

As a result of this decision, the FCA said Sendsii Ltd would be legally required to return any customer funds it currently holds. The FCA actually took these actions in January but is now only announcing the news publicly.

The FCA is now recommending that anyone currently dealing with the troubled financial firm should instead handle all their payments with a firm that has its authorisation.

The financial regulatory body has also advised customers who haven’t had their funds returned by Sendsii Ltd to get in touch via its Supervision Hub.

The FCA’s decision to take action against Sendsii Ltd comes after HM Revenue and Customs revoked the firm’s Money Laundering Regulations (MLR) registration last October.

Because of this HMRC decision, the FCA has concluded that Sendsii Ltd no longer complies with the Payment Services Regulations 2017 and therefore isn’t fit to operate as a registered financial services firm.

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