Bank Hit with £1m Fine

Royal Bank of Scotland International has been hit by a £1m penalty for anti-money laundering and counter financing of terrorism breaches.

The Financial Services Authority issued a £1,440,481 fine, which was reduced to £1,008,337 for breaching the Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism Code 2015.

The FSA found that RBSI was unable to demonstrate that its up to date Customer Risk Assessment process was brought into use in a timely manner following the introduction of the Code in

This resulted in 2,239 non-personal customers, on-boarded between 2015 and 2018 (and not rated high risk), having inadequate documented assessments.

The breaches were identified during an investigation conducted by the FSA between June and July 2021 in relation to elements of RBSI’s deposit taking business.

It did note that RBSI has engaged ‘promptly and positively with the Authority throughout this matter in a timely and constructive manner’.

An RBS International spokesperson said: ‘Compliance with financial services regulations is of the utmost importance to RBSI. While we are in the process of finalising our review of the affected customers, we have already updated and improved our controls and procedures to ensure this cannot happen again.’

Issuing key learning points for the industry, the FSA said ‘Compliance with the Code and its subsequent iterations is a legal requirement; the Authority is committed to taking appropriate and proportionate action to address contraventions of the Code.

‘The money laundering/terrorist financing risks posed by certain business relationships demonstrates the increased importance of on-boarding processes (including appropriate documentation and evidencing of risk assessments, sign off, conducting effective ‘Enhanced Customer Due Diligence’ and enhanced ongoing monitoring).

‘The absence, or ineffectiveness, of these controls will affect a relevant person’s ability to conduct effective and appropriate monitoring, including scrutiny of transactions, which in turn may result in unusual or suspicious activity not being identified in the appropriate circumstances.’

You can find the full report here.