The FCA revealed this Friday that it has fined Santander UK Plc , one of the biggest banks in the UK, with £108 Million after finding out major anti money laundering breaches. The British overseer noted that the UK branch of Santander did not correctly manage its anti money laundering systems for five yeast, a period spading between 31 December 2012 to 18 October 2017. As a result of Santander’s actions, whether intentional or not, around 560 000 business customers were affected one way or another.
The FCA detailed that the AML policies did not verify the details on certain businesses, leading to major payment gaps. Moreover, the bank failed to monitor the money inflow, and so some businesses got more money than they should have, while others got less than they ought to. There were even a couple of banking accounts that Santander did not deal with appropriately.
FCA’s Executive Director of Enforcement and Market Oversight, Mark Steward, commented on the issue, saying that the bank’s AML management operations were inadequate and did not address the risks of AML practices. Steward added that the FCA will continue to commit its resources to curb financial crimes.
The agency will be on top of for firms not abiding by anti money laundering regulations. On top of that, the UK watchdog has its hands full with crypto scams and other investment related frauds.
