Temporary suspension of the provision of services by CYBERservices Europe S.A.

In accordance with Article 38(6) of the Law of 10 November 2009 on payment services (hereafter the “Law”), the CSSF published on 25 July 2019 its decision to temporarily suspend the provision of payment services by the payment institution CYBERservices Europe S.A., a prudential measure which is currently still in place. Considering the numerous information requests received by the CSSF since the abovementioned suspension, the CSSF points out, in reference to Articles 31(3) and 38(6) of the Law, that:

• The decision of the temporary suspension of 25 July 2019 was, and remains, based on the non-compliance by the said payment institution, with the provisions laid down in Article 14 of the Law concerning the safeguarding requirements of funds of payment service users. In this regard, CYBERservices Europe S.A. has not safeguarded the “funds which have been received from the payment service users or through another payment service provider for the execution of payment transactions […]” so that the total of these funds was not “deposited in a separate account in a credit institution […] or […] covered by an insurance policy” as required by Article 14 of the Law. Although the CSSF had, pursuant to its legal powers, ordered CYBERservices Europe S.A., prior to the decision of the temporary suspension, to take the necessary measures to deposit the amount corresponding to the total amount of funds received from the payments services users on a separate account opened with a credit institution in order to safeguard these funds, CYBERservices Europe S.A. did not remediate the situation. As a consequence, the CSSF had to take the decision to temporarily suspend the provision of payment services by CYBERservices Europe S.A. (cf. the press release published on the CSSF’s website on 25 July 2019). The CSSF, acting in the public interest, made use of its legal powers to enable the institution to comply with its legal requirements and, for this purpose, also ordered the institution to proceed with the replacement of all the members of its administrative body.
• The decision of the temporary suspension remains effective at the date of the present press release and will remain effective as long as CYBERservices Europe S.A. has not taken, in the interest of the payment services users and in accordance with the injunction previously issued by the CSSF, the necessary measures to deposit the amount corresponding to the total amount of funds received from the payments services users on a separate account opened with a credit institution in order to safeguard these funds in accordance with the applicable legal requirements. Any potential decision to lift the said prudential measure will be published on the CSSF’s website. The decision of the temporary suspension implies that CYBERservices Europe S.A. can currently not provide any payment services as listed in the annex of the Law in Luxembourg, as well as on the territory of any Member State of the European Union where CYBERservices Europe S.A. provides payment services by way of freedom to provide services.
• The CSSF draws the public’s attention to the fact that CYBERservices S.A. (Switzerland) and Paymill GmbH (Germany) are neither incorporated nor authorised as payment institutions in Luxembourg and that consequently the activities of these companies do not fall under the scope of the CSSF’s competences. CYBERservices Europe S.A. is a Luxembourg based payment institution, subject to the CSSF’s prudential supervision in Luxembourg, held by its Swiss based mother company, CYBERservices S.A., Paymill GmbH is a sister company of CYBERservices Europe S.A. incorporated in Germany.
• According to the information provided to the CSSF, some companies of the CYBERservices S.A. group have invited the customers to contact the CSSF in view of “freeing / unlocking their funds”. The CSSF highlights that it does not possess such a power towards individual creditors of CYBERservices Europe S.A. and cannot proceed with any such reimbursement. The CSSF however invites any person having a debt claim towards CYBERservices Europe S.A. related to the execution of payment operations processed on the payment platform “Klik&Pay” to inform the CSSF as to the amount of this debt claim in writing using the following address receivablesCYBSEU@cssf.lu, and to provide evidence of this debt claim and a split between the amount owed in relation to the execution of payment transactions on this platform as well as in relation to any reserves and / or guarantees held by CYBERservices Europe S.A.
• The CSSF also draws the public’s attention on the fact that a payment institution is, unlike a credit institution, not subject to any guarantee system with regards to the amounts collected from the public.