Category: Regulatory Fines

FCA fines Starling Bank £29m for failings in their financial crime systems and controls

Money Laundering, Regulatory Fines
The FCA has fined Starling Bank Limited £28,959,426 for financial crime failings related to its financial sanctions screening. It also repeatedly breached a requirement not to open accounts for high-risk customers. Starling grew quickly, from approximately 43,000 customers in 2017 to 3.6 million in 2023. However, measures to tackle financial crime did not keep pace with its growth. When the FCA reviewed financial crime controls at challenger banks in 2021, it identified serious concerns with the anti-money laundering and sanctions framework in place at Starling. The bank agreed to a requirement restricting it from opening new accounts for high-risk customers…

Mirabaud & Cie SA seriously violated financial market law

Money Laundering, Regulatory Fines
The Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority FINMA has found that Mirabaud & Cie SA breached its anti-money laundering obligations and seriously violated financial market law. FINMA determined this in enforcement proceedings. The bank failed to review and document sufficiently the economic background of client relationships and transactions. The bank may not accept any new clients with increased money-laundering risks until compliance with the law has been restored. Furthermore, FINMA has confiscated CHF 12.7 million of unlawfully generated profits and opened three proceedings against individuals.In June 2023, FINMA concluded enforcement proceedings against Mirabaud & Cie SA that were opened in June…

Danske’s France settlement ends final probe over suspected money laundering

Money Laundering, Regulatory Fines
COPENHAGEN (Reuters) -Danske Bank has reached a settlement with French authorities to end the final in a series of probes in multiple countries over suspected money laundering at its former branch in Estonia, the Danish bank said on Wednesday. Danske agreed to pay 6.33 million euros ($7.0 million) to settle an investigation in France, a fraction of the more than $2 billion it agreed to pay to end probes in the United States last year. The bank became the subject of several investigations after an internal probe in September 2018 uncovered about 200 billion euros of payments made through its…

FCA takes first enforcement action against firm enabling cryptoasset trading

Regulatory Fines
CB Payments Limited (CBPL) has been fined £3,503,546 by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) for repeatedly breaching a requirement that prevented the firm from offering services to high-risk customers. CBPL is part of the Coinbase Group, which operates a prominent cryptoasset trading platform that is accessible globally. CBPL does not undertake cryptoasset transactions for customers but it acts as a gateway for customers to trade cryptoassets via other entities within the Coinbase Group. CBPL is not currently registered to undertake cryptoasset activities in the UK. The firm entered into a voluntary requirement (the VREQ) in October 2020, which followed significant…

The Monetary Authority takes disciplinary action against DBS Bank (Hong Kong) Limited for contraventions of the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorist Financing Ordinance

Regulatory Fines
The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) announced today (5 July) that it had completed an investigation and disciplinary proceedings for DBS Bank (Hong Kong) Limited (DBSHK) under the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorist Financing Ordinance (Chapter 615 of the Laws of Hong Kong) (AMLO) (Note 1). The Monetary Authority (MA) has imposed a pecuniary penalty of HK$10,000,000 against DBSHK for contraventions of the AMLO.The disciplinary action (Note 2) follows an investigation by the HKMA on DBSHK’s systems and controls for compliance with the AMLO. The control deficiencies identified in the investigation relate to DBSHK’s failure to continuously monitor business relationships and…

AUSTRAC and SkyCity agree to proposed $67 million penalty

Money Laundering, Regulatory Fines
SkyCity Adelaide Pty Ltd (SkyCity) and AUSTRAC have filed joint submissions with the Federal Court of Australia, proposing a $67 million penalty over the casino’s contravention of the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Act 2006 (AML/CTF Act). A court hearing has been set down for 7 June 2024, at which Justice Lee will consider the parties’ proposed settlement. While AUSTRAC and SkyCity agree that a $67 million penalty is appropriate in all the circumstances, it is a matter for the court to determine the appropriate penalty. In reaching this agreement, SkyCity has admitted that it operated in contravention of the…

German regulator fines Commerzbank over anti-money laundering non-compliance

Money Laundering, Prosecutions, Regulatory Fines
German financial watchdog BaFin has ordered Commerzbank (CBKG.DE) to pay a fine of 1.45 million euros ($1.55 million) for breaching its anti-money laundering duties, the regulator said on Monday. “Commerzbank AG and the former comdirect Bank AG, of which Commerzbank AG is the universal successor, had breached their supervisory duties,” said the regulator in a statement. According to BaFin, the bank did not update customer data on time and did not provide proper security measures, which resulted in inadequate due diligence in three cases, thus violating its anti-money laundering obligations. Commerzbank said on Monday it has reworked due diligence and…

Settlement Agreement between the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control and EFG International AG

Regulatory Fines, Sanctions
The U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) today announced a settlement with EFG International AG, a Switzerland-based global private banking group. EFG has agreed to pay $3,740,442 to settle its potential civil liability for processing 873 securities transactions in apparent violation of the Cuban Asset Control Regulations, the Kingpin Act, and +Order 14024. The settlement amount reflects OFAC’s determination that EFG’s apparent violations were voluntarily self-disclosed and were non-egregious. Article Credit: https://ofac.treasury.gov/recent-actions/20240314_33

Bank fined £1m by Isle of Man regulator

Regulatory Fines
Royal Bank of Scotland International has been fined £1m by the Isle of Man’s financial regulator for breaching its anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism code.The firm was fined by the island’s Financial Services Authority (FSA) for failing to adequately carry out customer risk assessments in line with the code between 2015 and 2018.It followed an inspection reviewing elements of the bank’s Isle of Man non-personal customer book between June and July 2021.A spokesman for the bank said it had “already updated and improved our controls and procedures to ensure this cannot happen again”.A total of 2,239 non-personal…

£6m fine for online operator Gamesys

Regulatory Fines
A gambling business will pay a £6 million penalty after a Commission investigation revealed social responsibility and Anti-Money Laundering (AML) failings. Gamesys Operations Limited – which operates 12 websites including ballycasino.co.uk, doublebubblebingo.com and jackpotjoy.com – will also have to undergo a third-party audit to ensure it is effectively implementing its anti-money laundering and safer gambling policies, procedures and controls. The failures were revealed during a Commission compliance assessment in May 2022. Social responsibility failures included: not always identifying customers at risk of experiencing harms associated with gambling by:placing inappropriate reliance on checks which indicate whether a customer had a historical…

Clyde & Co fined £500k after admitting due diligence failure

Law Firms, Regulatory Fines
Top-50 firm Clyde & Co has been fined half a million pounds after admitting failing to carry out due diligence on a corporate client for more than four years. The firm’s former partner Edward Henry Mills-Webb was also fined £11,900 by the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal after admitting that he ‘materially contributed’ to the failure to check more than a dozen transactions as required by anti-money laundering regulations. There was no evidence that the client or its principals were involved in money laundering or financial crime. It is the second sanction levied on Clyde & Co in the past seven years.…

HSBC fined £57.4m for customer deposit protection failings

Regulatory Fines
HSBC has been fined £57.4m by the Bank of England for “serious failings” over its measures to protect customer deposits.The bank failed to accurately identify deposits eligible for Britain’s Financial Services Compensation Scheme, the Bank’s Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) said.Under the scheme, customer deposits are protected up to the value of £85,000. HSBC said it was pleased to have resolved the “historic matter”. The fine is the second highest to date imposed by the regulator, reflecting the seriousness of the failings, the PRA said.The regulator said the problems occurred between 2015 and 2022.Under depositor protection rules, banks must have systems…

U.S. Company Pays Hundreds of Millions After Alleged Bribery in Asia

Bribery, Corruption, Regulatory Fines
American chemical manufacturer Albemarle Corporation has agreed to pay more than $218 million to settle allegations of bribing officials at state oil refineries in three Asian countries, the U.S. Justice Department announced Friday. The North Carolina company admitted to using “third-party sales agents” and foreign employees to bribe officials to win contracts with state refineries in India, Indonesia and Vietnam, the department said. The department said Albemarle received nearly $100 million in profits from the corrupt scheme. Under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act in the United States, it is illegal to bribe any foreign official in exchange for obtaining or…

Estonia’s FSA fines LHV bank €900K for AML/CFT failings

Money Laundering, Regulatory Fines
ESTONIA’s Financial Supervision Authority (FSA) has fined LHV Pank €900,000 for AML/CFT shortcomings, the watchdog announced today (Tuesday). The FSA said that LHV fell short in the fields of establishing business relations and their monitoring, as well as its obligation to store data. The watchdog has also issued an order, obligating the Estonian bank to improve its AML/CFT risk control systems. Kilvar Kessler, head of the authority, suggested that it was LHV’s rapid growth coupled with a high-risk environment that led to deficiencies and violations at the bank. “Rapidly developing payments intermediaries could experience a situation where their risk management…

Gambling business Star Racing Limited fined £594,000

Money Laundering, Regulatory Fines
Gambling operator Star Racing Limited will pay a £594,000 penalty for anti-money laundering and social responsibility failures. The operator – trading as Star Sports – will also receive an official warning and have conditions added to its licence. Anti-money laundering failures included having ineffective policies, procedures and controls in place at the time of the compliance assessment; allowing customers to deposit large amounts before obtaining source of funds information and failing to analyse source of funds information when it was obtained. Social responsibility failures included not demonstrating an understanding of the impact and effectiveness of customer interactions in terms of…

FCA fines Bastion Capital limited £2.5m for serious financial control failings

Regulatory Fines
The FCA has fined Bastion Capital London Limited (in liquidation) £2,452,700 for serious financial crime control failings in relation to cum-ex trading. They failed to manage the risk of being used to facilitate fraudulent trading and money laundering. Between January 2014 and September 2015 Bastion executed trading to the value of approximately £49bn in Danish equities and £22.5bn in Belgian equities on behalf of Solo Group clients. The purported trades were carried out in a way that was highly suggestive of financial crime. The trading appears to have been carried out to allow the arranging of withholding tax reclaims in…

HMRC issues £3.2 million in Money Laundering penalties

Money Laundering, Regulatory Fines
Hundreds of businesses fined a total of £3.2 million for breaching anti-money laundering rules have been named by HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC). The 240 supervised businesses named today were fined between 1 July and 31 December 2022 by HMRC for breaching Money Laundering Regulations aimed at preventing criminals from exploiting illicit cash. Certain types of business are required to register with HMRC which is a supervisory body for Money Laundering Regulations. Xpress Money Services Ltd, based in London, was hit with a large fine of £1.4 million for failing to carry out risk assessments, not having appropriate anti-money laundering…

SEC Charges Danske Bank with Fraud for Misleading Investors about Its AML Compliance Failures in Estonia

Fraud, Money Laundering, Prosecutions, Regulatory Fines
The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced fraud charges against Danske Bank, a multinational financial services corporation headquartered in Denmark, for misleading investors about its anti-money laundering (AML) compliance program in its Estonian branch and failing to disclose the risks posed by the program’s significant deficiencies. Danske Bank agreed to pay $413 million to settle the SEC’s charges. According to the SEC’s complaint, when Danske Bank acquired its Estonian branch in 2007, it knew or should have known that a substantial portion of the branch’s customers were engaging in transactions that had a high risk of involving money laundering; that…

Santander Fined £108M for AML Failings

Money Laundering, Prosecutions, Regulatory Fines
BRITAIN’S Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) today announced it has fined Santander almost £108M for AML failures in its business banking division. The FCA ruled the UK division of the Spanish bank had failed to manage its anti-money laundering systems properly – affecting the way it dealt with 560,000 business customers. Between 2012 and 2017 the bank’s systems were not able to verify properly information provided by customers about their businesses. “Santander’s poor management of their anti-money laundering systems and their inadequate attempts to address the problems created a prolonged and severe risk of money laundering and financial crime,” said Mark…

Biggest Bribery Fines of 2022

Bribery, Corruption, Prosecutions, Regulatory Fines
Key bribery fines & settlements in 2022 Glencore – $1bn settlementFirstEnergy – $180m settlementTenaris – $78m settlementStericycle – $84m settlementK.T. Corporation – $6.3m settlementKPMG – £3.4m fineBoulting Group – £500k fineTritec and Electron – £70k fine each Whilst companies face multi-million settlement penalties, the consequences for individuals can include jail time. Biggest bribery fines in 2022 in detail The SFO’s investigation revealed that Glencore paid over $28m (£22.2m) in bribes through its employees and agents in exchange for preferential access to oil, including larger cargoes, more valuable oil grades, and preferred delivery dates. The firm gave the go-ahead for these…

FCA Fines Gatehouse Bank £1.5m for Poor Anti Money Laundering Checks

Money Laundering, Regulatory Fines
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has fined Gatehouse Bank Plc £1,584,100 for significant weakness in its financial crime systems and controls. Between June 2014 and July 2017 Gatehouse failed to conduct sufficient checks on its customers based in countries with a higher risk of money laundering and terrorist financing. Gatehouse also failed to undertake the correct checks when some of the customers were classed as Politically Exposed Persons (PEPs). In one instance, Gatehouse Bank set up an account for a company based in Kuwait to aggregate customer funds. Gatehouse Bank did not require the company to collect information about customers’…

Danske Bank Estimates Money Laundering Fines at €2.08b

Money Laundering, Prosecutions, Regulatory Fines
Danske Bank predicts in its third-quarter report that the United States and Danish governments could fine the bank €2.08 billion for money laundering in Estonia. Danske Bank estimates in its third-quarter review that the solution agreed upon with the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Danish National Special Crime Unit (NSK) is expected to cost €2.08 billion. The bank previously estimated the potential fine at €200 million. However, Danske Bank said that negotiations with the authorities are still ongoing and it remains uncertain whether a deal could be reached soon. The bank anticipates…

Airbus confirms bribery settlement talks over Kazakhstan, Libya

Bribery, Regulatory Fines
Airbus confirmed on Friday it is negotiating a new bribery settlement with French authorities over past dealings in Libya and Kazakhstan on top of record fines agreed in 2020. The disclosure in accounting notes published on Friday came after prosecutors said earlier this week they were in talks with Airbus to settle unspecified matters similar to the earlier case, involving widespread bribes paid over several years. In notes with quarterly results, Airbus repeated it was co-operating fully with French authorities on investigations related to Kazakhstan and Libya. In Friday’s update, it added these two probes had evolved into talks over…

Wined and Fined: OFSI Imposes Financial Penalty on UK Company for Publicising Sanctioned Crimean Winery

Regulatory Fines, Sanctions
The UK Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation (OFSI) announced on 27 September that it imposed a £30,000 penalty on UK company Hong Kong International Wine and Spirits Competition Ltd (HK Wine & Spirits) for breaching UK financial sanctions regulations.[1] This is the second monetary penalty OFSI imposed this year, following a £15,000 fine against Tracerco Limited in June. HK Wine & Spirits received three payments and 78 wine bottles from Massandra, a Crimean winery, for entry into its 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020 competitions. Massandra is a designated entity subject to EU Regulation 269/2014 (the “Regulation”), which was introduced in…

Betfred’s Owner Faces £2.87-Million UKGC Fine Due to Anti-Money Laundering and Social Responsibility Failings

Money Laundering, Regulatory Fines
The UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) announced that Petfre (Gibraltar) Limited is set to pay a monetary penalty worth £2.87 million as a result of violations of some anti-money laundering and social responsibility rules. The gambling company, which operates betfred.com and oddsking.com betting platforms is also set to receive an official warning for failures in its business. As a result of a review that the country’s gambling regulator carried out in the company’s operations, it was found there were several breaches of anti-money laundering and social responsibility regulations in the period from October 2019 and December 2020. The Gambling Commission revealed…

Oracle to Pay SEC $23 Million Over Foreign Bribery Allegations

Bribery, Regulatory Fines
Oracle Corp. has agreed to pay $23 million to resolve allegations that it used slush funds to bribe foreign officials in return for business, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission said Tuesday. The regulator claims Oracle subsidiaries in Turkey, the United Arab Emirates and India created the slush funds between 2016 and 2019. In addition to bribery, the Turkey and U.A.E. subsidiaries also used the slush funds to send foreign officials to tech conferences, and in some cases, have their families accompany them to conferences or take side trips to California, according to the agency’s order. Without admitting or denying…

Danske Bank fined €1.82m for AML failures by the Central Bank of Ireland

Money Laundering, Regulatory Fines
On 13 September 2022, the Central Bank of Ireland (the Central Bank) reprimanded and fined Danske Bank A/S, trading in Ireland as Danske Bank, €1,820,000 pursuant to its Administrative Sanctions Procedure for three breaches of the Criminal Justice (Money Laundering & Terrorist Financing) Act 2010, as amended (the CJA). The three CJA breaches stem from the failure by Danske Bank A/S (Danske) to ensure that its automated transaction monitoring system monitored the transactions of certain categories of customers of its Irish branch1, for a period of almost nine years, between 2010 and 2019. The root cause of this failure was…

Wise hit with AML Fine in Dubai

Regulation, Regulatory Fines
London-listed fintech firm Wise has been slapped with $360,000 (£307,801) fine by Abu Dhabi regulators today after a series of failures in its anti-money laundering controls. The Financial Services Regulatory Authority (FSRA) of Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM) announced today it had fined the money-transfer firm after finding it did not “establish and maintain adequate AML systems and controls” to ensure full compliance with its AML obligations. In its charge sheet against Wise, the regulator said that it had failed to track and verify the source of funds on customers it had identified as high risk, as well as failing…

Tencent Dives on Report of Record Fine for Money Laundering

Money Laundering, Regulatory Fines
Tencent Holdings Ltd. extended losses to close more than 10% lower after the Wall Street Journal reported it faces a record fine for violating Chinese anti-money laundering regulations. The People’s Bank of China found Tencent’s WeChat Pay had allowed the transfer of funds for illicit purposes such as gambling, the newspaper reported, citing unidentified people familiar with the matter. WeChat Pay was also judged non-compliant with other rules that required Tencent to identify users and merchants transacting on the platform, the Journal said. A probe into potential money-laundering would open a new front in Beijing’s sweeping crackdown on the internet…

Lack of System Tuning, Unsustainable Alert Backkigs Leads to $140 million USAA AML Penalty

Money Laundering, Regulatory Fines
Over the years, more and more attention has been drawn to banks and anti-money laundering failings, with news headlines hitting the mainstream, over the last decade hitting historic figures in the billions of dollars – just against one institution. Banks often include in their responses that such issues were “historic,” with the caveat they have since moved on and corrected the identified deficiencies, but from time to time, the failings have been found to be more recent – case in point, USAA Federal Savings Bank (USAA FSB). The U.S. Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) and the Office of the…

US Regulators Slap National Bank of Pakistan With $55m Fine

Money Laundering, Regulatory Fines, Terrorism
The National Bank of Pakistan has agreed to pay $55m in fines imposed on its New York branch by three US regulators. According to Reuters, the Federal Reserve Board, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and the New York State Department of Financial Services recently announced the NBP will be fined the amount due to non-compliance and anti-money laundering violations. The National Bank of Pakistan’s shares dropped by 7.2% following the announcement. However, the bank said there were no findings of improper transactions or wilful misconduct and that it has substantially enhanced its compliance programme. The NBP is one…

FCA Fined U.K. Financial Organisations £568m in 2021

FCA, Regulatory Fines
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has fined financial organisations in the UK for a total of £568m in 2021. This total is made up by fines against major banks and action against individuals for insider dealing, non-financial misconduct and carrying-out activities without authorisation. Experts believe the emergence of new forms of financial crime during the pandemic explain the high quantity of financial penalties. Encompass Corporation leading regulation expert Dr Henry Balani says: “The pandemic has provided criminals with the opportunity to defraud, launder and perpetrate other forms of financial crime with more efficiency than ever before. “Lockdown, and the resulting…

Top UK Law Firm Fined Record Sum for Breaching Money Laundering Rules

Money Laundering, Regulatory Fines
Mishcon de Reya, one of the UK’s most prestigious law firms, has been fined a record amount for committing “serious breaches” of money-laundering rules. The London-based firm has agreed to pay a fine of £232,500, plus a further £50,000 towards the costs of the investigation, which was carried out by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA). In its decision, published on Wednesday, the regulator said Mishcon de Reya’s conduct had “potential to cause significant harm by facilitating transactions that gave rise to a risk of facilitating money laundering”. The SRA investigation concerned work the firm carried out for two unnamed individual…

FCA Fines HSBC £64m for Failings in its AML Processes

FCA, Money Laundering, Regulatory Fines
Banking giant HSBC has been fined £63.9 million by the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) for failings in its anti-money laundering (AML) processes. The FCA claims HSBC’s transaction monitoring systems showed “serious weaknesses” over a period of eight years from March 2010 to March 2018. The regulator says HSBC did not dispute its findings and agreed to settle “at the earliest possible opportunity”. As a result, the bank’s total fine was discounted by 30% from £91,352,600 down to £63,946,800. In particular, the FCA says HSBC failed to “consider whether the scenarios used to identify indicators of money laundering or terrorist…

FCA Fines Sunrise Brokers LLP £642,400 for Serious Financial Crime Control Failings

FCA, Money Laundering, Regulatory Fines
Sunrise Brokers LLP has been fined over £600,000 for deficient anti money laundering systems and controls. This is the second case brought by the FCA in relation to cum-ex trading, dividend arbitrage and withholding tax (WHT) reclaim schemes. The first FCA case relating to cum-ex trading concluded in May 2021. The FCA found that Sunrise had deficient systems and controls to identify and mitigate the risk of facilitating fraudulent trading and money laundering in relation to business introduced by the Solo Group, between 17 February 2015 and 4 November 2015. On review it was found that the Solo trading throughout…

Gambling Commission Orders Greentube to Pay £685,000 for AML and Safer Gambling Failings

Money Laundering, Regulatory Fines
The GB Gambling Commission has ordered Novomatic subsidiary Greentube Alderney to pay £685,000 (€805,448/$912,304) over social responsibility and money laundering failings. A review of the business’ activities, launched in December 2020, uncovered failings in the anti-money laundering (AML) policies and safer gambling protocols across Greentube’s Admiralcasino.co.uk and Bellfruitcasino.com sites. This amounted to breaches of licence condition 12.1.1, 12.1.2, 15.2.1 of the Licence Conditions and Codes of Practice (LCCP), and provision 3.4.1 of the Social Responsibility Code. The condition 12.1.1 breaches related to Greentube Alderney’s AML processes, with the review finding deficiencies in its record keeping and evaluation of the assessments…

PrivatBank Latvia hit with yet another fine for anti-money laundering failures

Money Laundering, Regulatory Fines
Latvia’s banking regulator, the Financial and Capital Market Commission (FKTK) said November 23 it was hitting AS PrivatBank with a fine of more than three quarters of a million euros “for breaches of regulatory requirements in the field of anti-money laundering and combating terrorism and proliferation financing (AML/CTPF)”, plus various other measures.The sanctions come following inspections carried out in 2020 as a result of which FKTK “has concluded that AS “PrivatBank” needs to strengthen internal governance, improve its internal control system, implement and improve risk management culture corresponding to the nature of Bank’s activities and ensure full-scale internal audit functioning.”…

L.A. Casino Fined $500,000 for Looking the Other Way When a Gambler Brought Duffle Bags Stuffed With $100m

Money Laundering, Regulatory Fines
Federal prosecutors say the unnamed whale — described only as a Chinese national — made over 100 visits to the Bicycle Hotel & Casino over eight months in 2016 Officials at the Bicycle Hotel & Casino in Bell Gardens, Calif., admitted they filed financial reports for a high roller’s huge cash transactions in the name of the gambler’s assistant, which was against the law. These wagers were too rich for the Department of Justice’s blood. A Los Angeles County casino was hit with a hefty fine for failing to properly alert financial regulators and the Internal Revenue Service when a…

HKMA Takes Disciplinary Actions Against 4 Banks

Money Laundering, Regulatory Fines
HKMA Takes Disciplinary Actions Against 4 Banks for Contraventions of the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorist Financing Ordinance The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) announced today (19 November) that it had completed investigations and disciplinary proceedings for four banks under the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorist Financing Ordinance (Chapter 615 of the Laws of Hong Kong) (AMLO) (Note 1). The Monetary Authority (MA) has imposed pecuniary penalties of a total of HK$44,200,000 against China Construction Bank (Asia) Corporation Limited (CCBA), CTBC Bank Co., Ltd., Hong Kong Branch (CTBCHK), Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (Asia) Limited (ICBCA) and UBS AG, Hong Kong…

NatWest Pleads Guilty to Money Laundering Failings

Money Laundering, Regulatory Fines
Britain’s NatWest bank has pleaded guilty to failing to prevent the laundering of nearly £400m. Natwest gave guilty pleas in a London court to three offences of failing to “adequately monitor and therefore prevent money laundering” by one of its customers between 2012 and 2016. The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) first brought the case to public attention in March, accusing the bank of paying round £365m into the customer’s accounts – of which around £264m was in cash. “The facts of the case are complex, the likely sentence is a very large fine,” a lawyer for the Financial Conduct Authority…