FCA FINES STANDARD CHARTERED BANK £102.2 MILLION

The FCA has fined Standard Chartered Bank £102,163,200 for anti-money laundering failings during 2009 – 2014, under Money Laundering Regulations 2007.

This is the second largest financial penalty for AML controls failings ever imposed by the FCA, the largest AML fine issued by the FCA was £163,076,224 issued to Deutsche Bank in 2017. The original penalty to Standard Chartered would have been £145,947,500 however they qualified for a discount owing to its agreement of key facts and matters with the FCA.

The FCA found serious and sustained shortcomings in the bank’s AML controls relating to customer due diligence and ongoing monitoring under the Money Laundering Regulations 2007. The focus of the failings was in relation to the bank’s branches in the UAE and in is correspondent banking relationships and exposed Standard Chartered to the risk of breaching sanctions and increased the risk of the bank receiving or laundering the proceeds of crime.

One of their most shocking failings was opening an account for a customer who arrived in the UAE and deposited the equivalent of £500,000 in cash with little evidence that the source of funds had been investigated.

In addition, the bank is being fined a reported $1.1bn for violating US sanctions against Burma (Myanmar), Cuba, Iran, Sudan and Syria. US authorities said a former banker at Standard Chartered Dubai branch pleaded guilty in New York to conspiracy to violate sanctions.

Standard Chartered has undertaken to improve its compliance procedures.

Bill Winters, the bank’s Chief Executive, said: “The circumstances that led to today’s resolutions are completely unacceptable and not representative of the Standard Chartered I am proud to lead today.”