UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) recently fined Commerzbank AG (London Branch) £37,805,400 ($47 million) for insufficient anti-money laundering (AML) measures between October 2012 and September 2017. Despite the weak AML controls being flagged by the FCA in 2012, 2015 and 2017, Commerzbank London failed to fix them.
The FCA requires all firms operating in the UK to install effective risk-based AML controls. However, Commerzbank failed to conduct timely periodic due diligence on its clients, install AML procedures for customer due diligence, and correct the loopholes in its automated money-laundering risk monitoring tool. These failures contributed to the breach of Principle 3 of the FCA’s Principles for Businesses.
Since the investigation, Commerzbank London has made efforts to become compliant. It has now retrospectively identified suspicious transactions during 2012-17. It has also temporarily stopped taking on new high-risk customers.