UK Financial Watchdog Fines GTBank N4.16bn In Fresh Anti-Money Laundering Scandal
Guaranty Trust Bank’s subsidiary in UK has been fined £7.6 million pounds ($9.3 million) by British’s financial watchdog for failures in its anti-money laundering systems and controls.
The fine is related to offences committed between 2014 to 2019.
“The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has fined Guaranty Trust Bank (UK) Limited (GT Bank) £7,671,800 for serious weaknesses in its anti-money laundering (AML) systems and controls between October 2014 and July 2019,” FCA said in a statement on its website on Tuesday.
The FCA said between 2014 to 2019, GT Bank failed to undertake adequate customer risk assessments, often not assessing or documenting the money laundering risks posed by its customers.
It also accused the bank of failure to monitor customer transactions and business relationships to the required standard.
The FCA said, “These weaknesses were repeatedly highlighted to GT Bank by internal and external sources, including the FCA, but despite this, GT Bank failed to take appropriate action to fix them.
“GT Bank’s conduct is particularly egregious as this is not the first time that the bank has faced enforcement action in relation to its AML controls, with the FCA fining GT Bank £525,000 in August 2013 for serious and systemic failings.”
The Financial watchdog said it has a policy which compels financial institutions to have in place effective AML controls to mitigate the risk of individuals and organisations using financial institutions to circumvent restrictions designed to prevent them benefitting from assets obtained by illegal means.
But GTBank has not disputed the findings and agreed to settle, the FCA claimed.
This implies that GTBank “has qualified for a 30 per cent discount. Without this discount, the financial penalty would have been £10,959,700.”
This translates to N4.16bn at the Central Bank of Nigeria exchange rate of N548.39 per British Pounds.
