Payments company Wise faced a fine of $360,000 from Abu Dhabi authorities for its local subsidiary in August. Abu Dhabi’s Financial Services Regulatory Authority (FSRA) said it fined the firm after finding it “did not establish and maintain adequate AML (anti-money-laundering) systems and controls to ensure full compliance with its AML obligations”.

The fine follows a June investigation by the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) into the fintech for failure to pay tax bills to the tune of £720,000 ($830,000), resulting in a $500,000 fine.

Wise CEO Kristo Käärmann was included in a published list by the British tax authorities (HMRC) of individuals and businesses who had defaulted on their taxes.

“This is about influencing behaviour by encouraging defaulters to engage with HMRC,” a spokesperson told CNBC.

Formerly known as TransferWise, the company rebranded in February 2021 in an attempt move beyond its original remit of cross-border transfers and evolve into a more general fintech providing a diverse range of services.

The rebrand occurred ahead of a July 2021 listing, where the company was initially valued at $11bn.

The Abu Dhabi regulator said Wise “has taken substantial steps to remediate the issues and deficiencies, including by conducting a gap analysis of its policies, systems and controls against the Regulator’s AML and Federal AML requirements”.

According to Reuters, the FSRA also said its review had not found instances of actual money laundering as a result of Wise’s AML systems and control failures.

Wise did not dispute the findings and said it would “continue to invest in maintaining and improving [its] AML processes to the highest standards in partnership with regulators around the world”.