Standard Charted Bank receives £102.2 Million Fine
The Financial Conduct Authority revealed on April 9th 2019 that they’ve fined the Standard Charted Bank £102,163,200 for breaches related to anti-money laundering. This has been the second time in five months that the regulatory board has placed a fine onto a bank as back in December of 2018, the FCA fined the Sonali Bank Chief Executive Officer with a £76,400 for knowing of a breach and not maintain his obligation to provide useful anti-money laundering tools.
The FCA reported that the Standard Charted Bank had significant shortcomings with its internal assessments. Three examples of their faults include opening a UAE account without any evidence of where the funds came from. SCB has also failed regulation by providing insufficient reports regarding customers who export commercial products and military products around the world.
Finally, the bank hasn’t had due diligence to their customers. They’ve blocked transactions from other banks. The Enforcement & Market Oversight Director at the FCA, Mark Steward, commented on the regulator’s decision to impose fines on the Standard Charted Bank, saying:
“Standard Chartered’s oversight of its financial crime controls was narrow, slow and reactive. These breaches are especially severe because they occurred against a backdrop of heightened awareness within the broader, global community, as well as within the bank, and after receiving specific attention from the FCA, US agencies and other global bodies about these risks.
Standard Chartered is working to improve its AML controls to ensure all issues are adequately addressed on a global basis. The FCA has taken into account Standard Chartered’s remediation work and its cooperation in assisting the FCA investigation, without which today’s financial penalty would have been even higher.
The FCA has worked closely and extensively with a number of UK and overseas agencies including the US Department of Justice, New York County District Attorney, US Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve, New York State Department of Financial Services and US Office of Foreign Assets Control. I would also like to acknowledge the assistance of the UAE Central Bank whose commitment has demonstrated the fight against money laundering is a truly global one, as it needs to be,” he concluded.
Tom Arran
