Walletto’s announces it’s new status as a Public Interest Entity – London Business News | Londonlovesbusiness.com

Walletto is excited to announce that it has become a Public Interest Entity (PIE) from the 1st of July 2024. Following a recent legislative change, this status was granted to entities that play an important role in the financial sector due to the scale of their operations.

The Director of Walletto, Roman Baranov says, “With the recent legislative change, Walletto is now classified as a Public Interest Entity. Not every financial organization attains this status, hence, it marks an important milestone for us. While this introduces increased supervision requirements, it underscores our significant impact on the financial services sector in Lithuania. This is a result of 7 years of dedication and hard work. Over the years, we have been actively developing and expanding our client base. We now confidently secure the 7th place among EMIs in Lithuania by payments turnover. While the new legislation implies increased supervision, we view this as an opportunity to reaffirm our commitment to maintaining public trust and ensuring the highest standards of financial integrity. The new status of a Public Interest Entity showcases Walletto’s significance within the financial community.”

Based on the financial data for FY2022 and FY2023, Walletto exceeded the criteria set, and as a result, was granted a Public Interest Entity status. According to the publicly available data published by the Bank of Lithuania, as of 31 March  2024, Walletto ranks 7th among the electronic money institutions in Lithuania based on client payment turnover.

Edgar Danulevic, CFO of Walletto explains: “Although it is a fresh topic for the sector, currently we expect the financial audit process to be impacted the most by recent legislative changes, as the PIE status would typically imply lower materiality, more rigorous risk assessment by the auditors which would then lead to increased audit scope, and, as a result, more time spent on the engagements by external financial auditors. It should be stressed, that more strict independence, risk assessment, and quality control requirements for auditors of PIE audit engagements justify increased audit costs, however, this will also limit the selection of audit companies that are willing to undertake such projects. We look forward to navigating and adapting to the changes in the regulatory environment as the industry progresses through transformation.”

Among other considerations, it is important to note that PIE EMIs operating in Lithuania would not be required to prepare financial statements under the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), thus, reporting framework choice will remain at the discretion of the company. One more important thing to note is that PIE EMIs were exempt from the requirement to establish an audit committee, as compared to other financial sectors.