Safened (www.safened.com) is the trading name of SafeNed-Fourthline Limited, a company licensed by the FCA as an Authorised Payment Institution with reference number 705849 since May 2018. SafeNed-Fourthline Opco Holding B.V. in Amsterdam controls the company, says UK Companies House. A director of SafeNed-Forthline is Payvision founder Rudolf Booker. SafeNed Deposits B.V. in Amsterdam is also connected to Safened. All companies are registered at Tesselschadestraat 12 in 1054 Amsterdam. The Payvision spin-off Cetler B.V. is also located there. We want to learn more about this Amsterdam FinTech hub.
The FCA-regulated payment business
FCA-regulated Safened-Fourthline Limited (formerly Safened Limited) operated the two brands and ventures:
- Safened (www.safened.com), an SEC-regulated broker and European payment institution, and
- fourthline (www.fourthline.com), an online compliance services provider.
Rudolf Booker, Christianus Johannes Paulus van Straeten, and Christopher Paul Gunning are the registered active directors. The latter is also a director of SafeNed Deposits B.V. in Amsterdam with the registered address Tesselschadestraat 12, where Safened-Forthline Opco Holding B.V. is located, the parent of the FCA-regulated UK entity. Payvision spin-off Cetler B.V. and several other payments and FinTech companies are also registered at this address.
The regulated Dutch business
There is the Amsterdam-registered entity SafeNet-Fourthline B.V. (KvK 58905413), registered at Tesselschadestraat 12. Rudolf Booker served in various capacities from May 2019 to April 2021. The company has a license from the Dutch AFM (here) and is registered as a payment institution with the De Nederlandsche Bank (DNL) together with Stichting SafeNed Payments B.V. The latter is an escrow party related to SafeNed-Fourthline B.V. and in that matter supervised by De Nederlandsche Bank.
We assume that Safenet-Fourthline Opco Holding B.V., located at Tesselschadestraat 12 in Amsterdam, controls the Safened-Fourthline entities in the United Kingdom and the Netherlands.
The SEC-registered US broker
Safened Us, Inc., a subsidiary of SafeNed Depotis B.V., is a broker-dealer regulated by the U.S. Security and Exchange Commission(SEC) and incorporated in Delaware. Safenet US, Inc. is a registered member with the Securities Investor Protection Corporation (SIPC) and the U.S. FINRA with the No 308433.
New York-based Hans-Peter Gruenig leads Safened US as Director and CEO (LinkedIn).
Preliminary conclusion
It is clear that the two ventures Safened and fourthline, are controlled by the same ultimate beneficial owners (UBO), cooperate very closely, and list the same entities as operators or licensees on their websites. Below is the list of related entities connected with the Amsterdam hub at Tesselschadestraat 12.
| Cetler B.V. | Netherlands | Rudolf Booker Gijs Op De Weegh Cheng Liem Li |
| Safened-Fourthline Limited | United Kingdom | Rudolf Booker Christopher Paul Gunning, Christianus Johannes Paulus van Straeten |
| SafeNed-Fourthline B.V. | Netherlands | Christopher Paul Gunning, Christianus Johannes Paulus van Straeten |
| SafeNed-Fourthline Opco Holding B.V. | Netherlands | Christopher Paul Gunning, Christianus Johannes Paulus van Straeten |
| SafeNed Deposits B.V. | Netherlands | Christopher Paul Gunning, Christianus Johannes Paulus van Straeten |
| SafeNed US INC | United States | Hans-Peter Gruenig |
Request 4 Information
As reported by FinTelegram (report here), ING has sold large parts of the high-risk business of Payvision to Cetler B.V. for a symbolic price. This transferred business includes Payvision‘s porn and gambling merchants. Currently, Cetler has no website or API platform that we know of through which these high-risk merchants could be processed. Whether these merchants and their payments are processed through Safened, fourthline, or one of the other companies registered at the Amsterdam hub, we do not know. However, we would like to learn more. If you have any information, please share it with us.
