UK Fines Santander £108-M For Failing To Stop Money Laundering

Santander has been fined £107.7m over "serious and persistent gaps" in its anti-money laundering controls which opened the door to "financial crime," BBC News reported.

Photo Insert: A UK Santander branch

The financial watchdog said the bank "failed to properly oversee and manage" systems aimed at verifying information provided by business customers. Santander also failed to properly monitor the money customers had going through their accounts.

The bank said it was "very sorry" for the failings and had taken action.

Mark Steward, executive director of enforcement and market oversight at the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), said: "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.

The failings affected the oversight of accounts held by more than 560,000 business customers between 31 December 2012 and 18 October 2017 and led to more than £298 million passing through the bank before it closed accounts.

The FCA said that in one case, a new customer opened an account as a small translations business with expected monthly deposits of £5,000. Within six months, it was receiving millions in deposits, and swiftly transferring the money to separate accounts.

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