To be specific, the FCA has fined the UK subsidiary of Nigeria's Guaranty Trust Bank GBP 7.6 million for failures in its anti-money laundering systems and controls. Financial Conduct Authority representatives cited by Reuters revealed that they found serious weaknesses in systems designed to prevent money laundering between October 2014 and July 2019.
The same officials highlighted that GT Bank failed to undertake adequate customer risk assessments during the period in question and that it also failed to assess or document the money laundering risks posed by its customers. To make matters worse, the FCA says Guaranty Trust was aware of these vulnerabilities because it was periodically informed of them by internal and external sources. Still, as the bank was unable to take appropriate action to fix these issues, the FCA decided to issue a fine.
In turn, Guaranty Trust representatives emphasised that the bank takes its anti-money-laundering controls seriously and that the FCA never actually found any instances of suspected money laundering. They also wanted to reach out to their stakeholders and the general public in order to inform them that they have taken all the necessary steps to resolve the issues pinpointed by the FCA. Guaranty Bank has not disputed the fine and will benefit from a 30% discount as a result. The original sum would have amounted to GBP 11 million.
The FCA’s predecessor, the Financial Services Authority (FSA) fined Guaranty Trust GBP 525,000 in August 2013 for systemic failings that were also related to anti-money laundering controls. According to fca.co.uk, the review of GT Bank raised significant concerns and after further investigation, the FCA found that GT Bank failed to establish effective AML policies and procedures when they established their UK operations.
Some of the most noteworthy failures included assessing or documenting potential money-laundering risks posed by high-risk customers, reviewing the activity of high-risk customers’ accounts and checking that the information they held on the customers was up to date, as well as screening prospective customers against sanction lists or databases of PEPs.
The bank also failed to establish the purpose and intended nature of prospective customers’ accounts or the sources of high-risk customers’ wealth or funds, and to obtain or document senior management approval to establish a business relationship with PEPs.
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